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The world’s first successful real estate purchase on the Ethereum blockchain network has been announced by Propy.
The decentralised title registry facilitated the remote purchase of an apartment in Kiev by TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington.
The apartment was bought for $60,000 and was settled via smart contracts using the Ethereum PRO cryptocurrency. The purchase not only marked the first time a real asset transfer has been completed using blockchain, but was also the inaugural cryptocurrency transaction in the Ukraine.
Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Propy:
“I’m thrilled to see Propy leading the charge in putting real estate on the blockchain—bringing transparency, efficiency, and security to an industry traditionally fraught with red tape and bureaucracy.
“Ukrainian real estate is very affordable, and the Ukrainian market will soon be growing dynamically. This purchase is an important signal to foreign investors—especially Chinese, who face strict capital controls of $50,000 per person—that they can safely and easily invest in this market and, soon, other countries.”
Automating real estate
Propy has had a good few months, first raising 415 million in a pre-sale and crowdsale of PRO tokens and secondly, entering into a partnership with the Ukrainian government. The government in Kiev has agreed to pilot the blockchain title registry.
The company sees the purchase of the apartment as an important step towards its goal of automating real estate purchases in the global real estate market.
Karayaneva continued:
“This is only the beginning. With this transaction, we’ve broken first ground in putting the $217 trillion real estate market on the blockchain. We’re starting with Ukraine, but over the coming year we plan to facilitate real estate transactions with the use of PRO tokens in California, Vermont, and Dubai.”
