Barclays, RBS Sign Up For R3 Blockchain Based Real Estate Trial

According to a Bloomberg report, Barclays and Royal Bank of Scotland, which are two major UK banks, have participated in a pilot project using blockchain to simplify real estate purchase after assessing the benefits of the technology.

The pilot project, which involved 40 partakers, used a software from Instant Property Network (IPN), a firm using enterprise level blockchain platform Corda developed by R3 consortium.

According to IPN employing blockchain in real estate sector across the globe could save $160 billion in costs, with banks now looking at the option after previously remaining doubtful about the technology’s benefit.

Dan Salmons, director for mortgage innovation at RBS, said “We are near the end of the hype cycle and have not found a great consumer solution for distributed ledger technology until now.”

Salmons further stated “Property is an industry that is ripe for this, where a complex difficult process for customers could be made cheaper and more transparent.’’

Salmons was pointing out the lack of interest from the banking industry, as shown by the date, to take up blockchain last year.

Barclays also spoke high of the disruptive technology’s ability to streamline real estate transactions for clients.

John Stecher, head of the group innovation office at the bank’s New York outpost, said “When a person wants to purchase a house, the process encompasses a whole host of different interactions with different businesses and governmental entities that can be uncomfortable and drawn out.”

In the final week of March, Elmaar, the real estate agent of United Arab Emirates, revealed its intention to introduce its own crypto token and even initiate an initial coin offering.

Blockchain is not new to real estate sector as several ventures of similar kind are being implemented across the world. Notably, Ohio legislators are presently studying a real estate title transfer project based on blockchain technology.