Thread by @samdebord

What:
A distributed, public, universal property information network.

Why:
Up to 25% of properties have errors in their chains of title. These “public” records can actually be difficult to access in a consistent, timely manner.
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Additional data from non-gov orgs could provide context to public records. In a universal property information network, consumers and professionals would be able to view multi-producer historical information about real property to make more educated, data-driven decisions.
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How:
Historical public records data needs to be aggregated and new data needs to be collected going forward (not rocket science). These records are collected at the county/city/township level depending on which body is the parcel granting/deed recording org in each geography.
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The network would allow data producers to record on a public registry (a ledger of activity). Any data consumer could own a node on the network with an unchanging history of property records as they’re recorded against the ledger.
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Other organizations could record additional property information on the ledger. There are a few different ways this could happen, depending on the organizations’ desired control of their IP.
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The Protective Data Provider Model

If data producers wanted to register that they have property “facts” available but control access to those facts, they could simply record a URI (a link) in the ledger, pointing to the location of the property information.
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This URI pointer would be linked to the property’s unique ID. @resostandards’ Universal Property Identifier (UPI) would be a logical choice.
reso.org/reso-unique-id…
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So the simplest implementation would be a ledger full of UPIs for properties with URIs for information linked to them. Data providers would control access to information on their own platforms.

This is the concept of the RESO UPI Registry.
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The Altruistic Data Provider Model

It’s clear that there’s a common good in the network. And it’s possible that organizations would see the benefits of sharing their property information without restriction to the network to improve its utility.
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In this altruistic model, URI pointers would lead to information with no access restrictions. This leads to a philosophical question as to whether all contributors to such a model must be altruist producers. But it's not necessarily restricted in that regard.
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In addition/as opposed to URIs, it’s possible that actual property information and documents might be recorded on the ledger itself, through some sort of object-oriented storage structure that allows for complex content to be contributed directly into the network.
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Whether it’s pointers or documents, there could be sales, leases, permits, title, liens, appraisals, renovations, home warranties, etc. There’s no limit to what kind of information might be recorded against the ledger. This could add massive transparency for #proptech.
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What about the government?

Clearly, most local governments are not going to be moving quickly toward recording on a #crypto #blockchain #distributedledger process. (See how many Tweets I waited before using the buzzwords?)
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The success of this model isn't dependent upon government participation. In fact, its production becomes a check on (or for) government agencies.

A repository with vast historical information allows citizens and gov employees to ensure that new recordings are correct.
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We’ve seen a condo documented as Unit 4, #4, Number 4, and even the fat-fingered # 40. Without a historical record of this parcel, a user of a government website might simply trust the most recent recording because it’s the government’s source of truth.
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Yet a quick historical check on a ledger would make it clear that the most recent recording of “# 40” is incorrect. It's so simple it's mystifying why it doesn't exist yet.
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Why does it have to be #blockchain?

It doesn't. This all works on a traditional system, and with a centralized authority.

*If you trust that authority to be correct all the time.
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*If you trust that authority to not change the historical records in its system while you’re not looking.

*If you trust that authority to be available at all times for an update or record retrieval.
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*If you don’t feel like your own, immutable copy of the records on your node don’t provide extra credibility to the property network.
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Big Ideas are Difficult Until they Aren’t

Is it unreasonable to believe that some organization (that isn’t handcuffed to retaining its moat around proprietarily-sourced real estate information) would contribute to building this kind of globally valuable initiative?
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It’s not rocket science. It’s a relatively small scale operation compared to anything that Big Tech is working on today. Clearly, though, it’s very large scale for any single organization to take on.
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A public, immutable, distributed information network about real estate, unified by property identifiers that deduplicate and align property information for consumers and professionals: why not?
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P.S.: Worth noting, data producer input could be permissioned via a gatekeeper. Full decentralization is not a requirement.

For blockchain noobs, there's no need for the environmental disaster a la Bitcoin mining here. It's just a network that distributes information to nodes.