When looking to explain the potential impact of blockchain and smart contracts, I find real estate provides many of the most tangible examples.
Cre.tech summarises a few of those examples in its interesting article below, but it could go further. With Honduras exploring putting its national land registry on a blockchain, the potential for smart contracts to govern not just payment flows, but also the asset transfer itself, is real.
For example, in the current trend of real estate crowdfunding, a series of smart contracts could be deployed to maintain records of the amount, time and conditions of investments, and source of funds. “Upon the achievement of certain investment goals, smart contracts could be used to automatically convey those funds to a seller, to be held in escrow,” says Hinkes. “At that point, a side chain could be used to notify the investors, and communicate their respective percentage holdings.”