In this video, I’m going to introduce you to the future of real estate, but not the future of real estate.
This is the future of NFTs in real estate. As you may know, blockchain and cryptocurrencies are expanding at a breakneck pace and are here to stay.
In this video, I will explain how you can use blockchain technology and crypto assets.
Transcript:
Chip Ridge 00:00
We did do a Bitcoin transaction last month. And it was a great sort of use case proof of how easy and how that technology could really be leveraged for payment opportunity. The buyer and a seller come to the closing table and literally scanning a QR code across the table and payment being done in 10 seconds with 70 cents as the cost. You know, that was really powerful.
Chris Bounds 00:22
Chip Ridge, owns Millennium Title. He’s a regional full-service, escrow, and title insurance provider. He also formed encrypted estates to focus on blockchain for Title and Escrow. How are you Chip?
00:38
I’m doing great. Dialing in here remotely down in Florida for spring break. Thanks for having me.
Chris Bounds 00:44
Thanks for coming on. So a lot of questions from all the other guests. It revolves around your niche. And that’s actual transactions being done on-chain, specifically deeds and what role title is going to play as this market grows out? What are your thoughts there?
Chip Ridge 01:08
You know, it’s very interesting. It’s one of those. It’s funny, you talk to so many different people. And we’ve been working on this about a little bit over a year and a half with encrypted estates and sort of just surveying the landscape. Trying to understand where the intersection is going to be between the technology capabilities and what our role is as a title and agent insurer and transactional manager for that into it.
And it’s really taken us down a bunch of different paths, Chris, and to be very candid with you. We’re coming back to trying to really pioneer the deed on-chain. We feel very strongly that there’s a lot of compelling use cases, but the most important thing that we can focus on right now is getting people to actually adopt the utilization. Actually providing people with that opportunity to put their deeds on the blockchain. That’s a big focus point of ours.
Chris Bounds 02:05
Are there any deeds on chain right now?
Chip Ridge 02:08
I’m not aware of any of that at this point. There wouldn’t be any legal utility to doing that full disclosure. You still have to record with the clerk’s office. There are some municipalities that have looked at some pilot programs to put deed on-chain. Cook County was one of the first outside in the Chicago land area. And they did a pilot program with Blockchain as the baseline for indexing.
And it had some really positive results and feedback. The challenge is getting vast adoption across the line. So I think somebody had talked earlier on today’s show about doing sort of digital twins and I think that’s where we’re gonna start. We’re gonna have a very still traditional model, but we’re going to start to see people that will put their deed on chain.
Chris Bounds 03:01
Yeah, that’s what I would imagine. I mean, it’s essentially what we have now. We have digital twins in that physical at the county clerk. A digital representation that you can pull online. But can we do that where it’s on-chain and then you get the physical at the county clerk? And then eventually, when you’re self offer it’s completely digital because it seems like that makes things so much easier. But if that same 10 years that’s where we’re at. What role do you see title insurance playing in that?
Chip Ridge 03:34
Well, we’re still going to be. I would suggest because there’s a lot of angst in the industry. I think there’s a lot of people that are really concerned about, you know, what ultimately happens? What if you know deeds do go on-chain? What if smart contracts come prevalent? Will that really minimize the value proposition of title insurance? And so forth, because if you think about it logically, if I put my deed on the blockchain, it’s immutable. I can do sort of discovery, you know, the public discovery of everything.
Chris Bounds 04:05
Encrypted the states, what is encrypted the states? What are you focusing on there? What’s the objective? How are you adding value to folks that are looking to do transactions that involve it, whether it is a cryptocurrency or on chain or NFT’s?
Chip Ridge 04:22
Yeah. We’re looking at it. So we actually started sort of trying to do like the full cycle. And to be honest with you, I think that was just too big of a landscape to look at. So we’re distilling it down and we really have a couple of paths. One on the when you want to on the payment rail system, we think there’s a lot of opportunities through escrow. So using either Bitcoin, which we did do a Bitcoin transaction last month.
And it was a great sort of use case proof of how easy and how that technology could really be leveraged for payment opportunities. So people who want to transact in Bitcoin using that buyer and a seller coming to the closing table and literally scanning a crypto a QR code across the table and payment being done in 10 seconds with 70 cents as the cost. I mean, that was really powerful to me as a, you know, doing this 20 years of dealing with wires, cashier’s checks, and other payments.
Chris Bounds 05:20
Do both buyer and seller use?
Chip Ridge 05:23
Yes. Yeah. So they agreed. Just so the audience knows that everything was still negotiated in a dollar-denominated contract. There’s a lot of sort of back and forth on what would if the crypto moves this way and this way. You know, in terms of the valuation in this case.
Chris Bounds 05:44
How did that final moment occur? I mean, well, at the final moment was it almost like you’re trading currency? Like, for a foreign currency where you’re sending, you want to make sure that you’re getting a thousand euros versus you’re sending 1500 bucks.
Chip Ridge 06:05
Yeah. Exactly. So what you do, Chris is you’ll just go in your wallet. And in this case, I think it was like 70, something 1000. It was an investment property in Kentucky. And that was what was due to the seller from the buyer directly. And he just plugged in the dollar denomination into his wallet and converted the Bitcoin and sent the Bitcoin to the seller for that amount.
Chris Bounds 06:27
Okay. It was direct on that run escrow.
Chip Ridge 06:31
Exactly. We do provide that service. We’ve got a partner, where we can actually do the conversion for Fiat. But this case, was really powerful as both buyer and seller wanted to exchange a Bitcoin. So they didn’t have to leave. They didn’t have to go into Fiat, there wasn’t friction there. And so we’ll still file all the documents with the clerk’s office. And it still will be reported in a USD denominated transaction for taxing purposes.
Chris Bounds 06:57
Correct. That’s interesting.
Chip Ridge 07:00
Yeah. Well, that was really cool.
Chris Bounds 07:02
Well, look forward to following your board, especially what encrypted the states and what you’re doing over there because there’s a ton of work to be done. It’ll be interesting to see how that evolves. Like, as you mentioned, there’s a lot but we can’t necessarily do everything yet. But those kinds of transactions are very interesting to follow and see how folks adapt and react to them.
Chip Ridge 07:26
No. People like yourself doing this type of work of just spreading the information. That’s what I just tell everybody, it’s about engagement. And hopefully, it’s about people thought leaders really putting together opportunities for people to use the technology in a responsible way. And we see a lot. We’re seeing that pickup tokenization is a great example of that. And that’s something that I think over the next year, it’s going to be normal for people to look at that as an option which is really exciting.
Chris Bounds 07:59
Love it. Love it. Thank you very much, Chip.
Chip Ridge 08:01
Yeah. Thanks so much, Chris. Take care.