Are Cryptocurrencies The Future Of Real-Estate Investment?
The cryptocurrency industry and the advancement of blockchain technology have proven to be real game-changers for multiple sectors. And this includes the real estate industry. These digital assets are becoming widely accepted, and many believe they could bolster financial transactions even more in the real estate industry. However, that's not all.
The crypto market stands to be a viable alternative to traditional financing. It is a system that allows stakeholders to explore options such as liquidity in investment, transaction Privacy, evading tax payments, and more in real estate. And these are just a few of the many pros of cryp-tocurrencies in real estate. This article gives a detailed overview of crypto in real estate, including the upsides and downsides of the model. Interested in knowing more? Read on and stay glued to your screen.
What Are Cryptocurrencies?
Cryptocurrencies have been established multiple times as digital currencies used to facilitate transactions. These digital assets are decent-ralized assets that do not require the backing of a centralized authority. With cryptocurrencies and blockchain offerings, users can explore autonomous organizations, DeFi, and more perks attached to these systems. Blockchain technology has numerous functionalities that give it an edge over the centralized financial system. These include smart contract functionalities, anonymity, DeFi, cryptography, and more. These offerings could effectively optimize the purchase of real estate using cryptocurrencies.
Crypto vs. Real estate: The Value Proposition
Decentralized finance is a game changer in the real estate industry, mainly due to its primary value proposition: the zero need for a centralized governance system. However, that's not all there is to this newly evolving model. There are several innovative ways to explore real estate in cryptocurrencies, some of which will be discussed below.
Purchase of Properties
One innovative way to use cryptocurrencies in real estate is by purchasing properties with digital assets. This could prove beneficial in many ways, including enabling secure, fast, and borderless transactions. It could also allow small-time investors to invest in a fraction of properties through real-estate tokenization. For one, cryptocurrencies create an avenue for trustless and transparent means of transactions, which co-uld bolster trust in purchasing properties. The system would aid in regulating illicit transactions, theft, and unethical means of purchasing properties since it works on a decentralized and transparent ground.
Secondly, real-estate tokenization could be another innovative way of optimizing crypto and real estate. It is a means of fractionalizing pro-perties and giving small investors a chance at owning a part of properties. The real estate industry is highly lucrative. It also mostly requires a large amount of capital; to a certain extent, only the wealthy can participate in such investment. With cryptocurrencies, real estate token-ization will allow numerous investors to purchase a single property and make fractions of whatever profits come with the acquisition.
The absence of an intermediary is also an advantage to buyers and sellers as it eliminates the need for unnecessary bureaucracies and taxes while giving sellers direct access to the buyers. With the smart contract functionalities, transactions can be performed directly by parties in-volved with computerized records to certify that these transactions were made.
Improved Liquidity in Investment
The ease with which users can perform real estate transactions with crypto also benefits properties' degree of liquidity. Cryptocurrency liqui-dity is relatively high, and these digital assets can be easily converted and traded within minutes. Real estate & properties can be sold easily and swiftly with cryptocurrencies without prolonged third-party processes. All this can be achieved while minimizing unnecessary charges simultaneously, including brokerage, legal costs, tax, and other additional fees.
Privacy And Security
Buying real estate with cryptocurrencies helps optimize privacy in the purchase of properties. This can be enabled through privacy-focused cryptocurrencies and tokens that keep transaction information secured. Privacy tokens are a crucial part of the cryptocurrency community, and this is because they aid in keeping users' data private. Although many might argue that these tokens are enablers of illicit transactions, their ability to help users stay anonymous is a feature that many find helpful. It could prove even more useful with crypto in real estate.
Crypto vs Real Estate: The Cons
As much as crypto real estate investments come with pros, we must recognize some downsides to the system. One of the most common cons to this system is the volatility of cryptocurrencies which makes crypto price actions unpredictable.
The risks attached stand as a barrier to promoting cryptocurrency investments in the real estate industry.The crypto market is currently down over 50% from its all-time high in 2021, and this price decline might continue for a while more. However, there are two-edged swords to this factor. Volatility could also be beneficial in a bull market with some positive price actions.
Another major negative to having crypto in real estate is that not all privacy tokens are legal tenders in the outside world. Many countries have pegged these tokens as enablers of illicit transactions, and they don't entirely fall within the safety zone. Specific cryptocurrencies in the past ,like Tornado cash, have been linked to illegal activities, hacking, and criminal acts. Such is still the standard narrative for most privacy tokens. And this narrative is unlikely to go away anytime soon.
Lastly, crypto regulations could also put a damper on this system. Several countries are yet to put a peg on how crypto regulations should work. Some have weighed the options of banning crypto transactions, some have even declared it legally unacceptable and some are finding all means to put a cap on their transactions. For a system with this many regulation issues, uncertainty might remain the major watchword, even in the coming years.
Final Thoughts
It is arguable that the advantages of using cryptocurrencies in real estate far outweigh the downsides. Blockchain technology is a goldmine waiting to be tapped into, and the real estate industry could benefit significantly from this technology. But before then, start-ups, regulators, and investors have much to do in building systems and initiatives to make this a more straightforward and reliable process.
