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Real estate, particularly with regards to ownership and property title. Ownership of a property is a difficult concept to prove, and there is an enormous indus

Real estate, particularly with regards to ownership and property title. Ownership of a property is a difficult concept to prove, and there is an enormous industry of title insurance which exists to dig through the records and insure a purchase against unknown claims against the property. A public ledger would make property title/ownership simple and knowable. Overall I think blockchain technology is incredibly over-hyped, but does have some suitable applications, particularly where public records are involved.

travisjungroth 8y ago
I've heard this argument, and I don't see how it works. It relies on trusting the information put onto a blockchain.
- eouw0o83hf 8y ago
  It most definitely does require a base trust - however that's not an argument against the solution, just a challenge to implementation. We implicitly trust a tremendous amount of digitized information because we trust its sources - for instance, digital banking works because we trust banks to only log verified transactions to our account. Sourcing that information is absolutely very difficult, but it doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done.
  - travisjungroth 8y ago
    Requiring trust is absolutely an argument against the solution. Once you're willing to trust someone, you may as well use a database and a contract.
defen 8y ago
> A public ledger would make property title/ownership simple and knowable. Only if all the property records are already in the ledger, right? If I buy a house via blockchain, someone can still come along and say their great-aunt should have inherited it 80 years ago, before blockchain records existed. So you still need title companies.
- eouw0o83hf 8y ago
  For sure - and digitizing that data would take a very long time so it wouldn't be a drop-in replacement for title. It wouldn't be easy, but it is a good use for the tool.
peteretep 8y ago
Why is this better than the government keeping records, and having court remediation and error correction, rather than “oh my computer got hacked and now my house belongs to someone else”? Company ownership information seems like much the same thing, and is a solved problem in all countries (that want to have solved it).
- eouw0o83hf 8y ago
  If the government's records were up-to-date and perfect, the title industry wouldn't really exist. Having publicly-accessible digital records would make the concept of property ownership simple and deterministic to figure out. And "my computer got hacked" is kind of a blanket argument against using technology in general - by that same argument you should probably never use digital banking/investment or anything online to manage your life, and nothing should ever be digitized.
  - peteretep 8y ago
    > If the government's records were up-to-date and perfect, the title industry wouldn't really exist Why would a blockchain magically fix this? > "my computer got hacked" is kind of a blanket argument against using technology in general Many (most?) financial actions you can take with a computer can be rolled back if shown to be fraudulent, because the asset isn't stored on the computer itself. This is specifically not true of crypto assets.

travisjungroth 8y ago

I've heard this argument, and I don't see how it works. It relies on trusting the information put onto a blockchain.

eouw0o83hf 8y ago
It most definitely does require a base trust - however that's not an argument against the solution, just a challenge to implementation. We implicitly trust a tremendous amount of digitized information because we trust its sources - for instance, digital banking works because we trust banks to only log verified transactions to our account. Sourcing that information is absolutely very difficult, but it doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be done.
- travisjungroth 8y ago
  Requiring trust is absolutely an argument against the solution. Once you're willing to trust someone, you may as well use a database and a contract.

defen 8y ago

> A public ledger would make property title/ownership simple and knowable. Only if all the property records are already in the ledger, right? If I buy a house via blockchain, someone can still come along and say their great-aunt should have inherited it 80 years ago, before blockchain records existed. So you still need title companies.

eouw0o83hf 8y ago
For sure - and digitizing that data would take a very long time so it wouldn't be a drop-in replacement for title. It wouldn't be easy, but it is a good use for the tool.

peteretep 8y ago

Why is this better than the government keeping records, and having court remediation and error correction, rather than “oh my computer got hacked and now my house belongs to someone else”? Company ownership information seems like much the same thing, and is a solved problem in all countries (that want to have solved it).

eouw0o83hf 8y ago
If the government's records were up-to-date and perfect, the title industry wouldn't really exist. Having publicly-accessible digital records would make the concept of property ownership simple and deterministic to figure out. And "my computer got hacked" is kind of a blanket argument against using technology in general - by that same argument you should probably never use digital banking/investment or anything online to manage your life, and nothing should ever be digitized.
- peteretep 8y ago
  > If the government's records were up-to-date and perfect, the title industry wouldn't really exist Why would a blockchain magically fix this? > "my computer got hacked" is kind of a blanket argument against using technology in general Many (most?) financial actions you can take with a computer can be rolled back if shown to be fraudulent, because the asset isn't stored on the computer itself. This is specifically not true of crypto assets.