Opportunities

• How can an NFT legally confer property ownership online when legal transfer of a home generally involves slower processes such as the title transfer?

• How can a buyer purchasing a property on the blockchain guarantee the usual due diligence in order to protect themselves?

As such, fundamental questions exist, namely:

In short, a tokenized real estate NFT is currently little more than a gimmick.

As with buying property with any cryptocurrency, the old-fashioned deeds and recording process is the same. As such, buying an NFT of a property isn’t likely to mean much in the real world unless all the standard-issue paperwork, such as title transfers, is handled alongside the digital sale.

Answers to these questions will emerge with time and regulatory clarity over the next decade or so. Meanwhile, a number of players are carving out a niche for themselves in certain areas such as:

• Tokenization - Minting NFTs that represent secure ownership of a property

• NFT Wallets and Custody - Owner-managed applications that allow owners to safely store NFTs that they have purchased and custodial services to provide safe custody of digital assets to guard against loss or theft.

• Allocation of Capital - Crowdfunding solutions that utilize blockchain technologies to solicit and track participation and contribution.

• OTC Markets - Marketplaces for the sale of real estate NFTs specifically, or all NFTs more broadly.

• Real Estate Sales - NFTs and smart contracts to power parts of the sales process such as escrow, title and closing.

• Defi / Yield - Platforms to enable the collateralization of tokenized real estate assets so that owners can access liquidly in ways outside a traditional mortgage.

• Oracles - Data providers of real-world data such as real estate asset prices. Data is provided to smart contracts so that they can operate using the provided information.

• Governance - Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) that create structures for participation and voting as well as the management and allocation of common funds.

• Asset Management - Property Management Systems that utilize blockchain technologies to track upkeep, repair and operational activities in a shareable and transparent fashion.

• Insurance - Services to insure assets.

• Sharing/Rentals - Decentralized sharing and rental platforms bringing together hosts and guests to funds for “tokenized nights”.

In addition to the above activities and players, a number of property development and/or investment groups have announced projects to allocate capital in the acquisition of a real estate portfolio or development of land, all of which they will govern on the blockchain.

Plano sees an opportunity to contribute to this ecosystem by bridging a number of niches that are either 1) currently underserved or that 2) can be used to create a network effect that propels growth in the Plano ecosystem.