The most fundamental of human rights is the right to hold property. There are many who would argue this but the reality is to be free we need to be able to control our lives. To choose how we wish to live and not be beholden to others we need to ensure that we follow a path that we can choose to control by ourselves. That is, on our own terms. To do this and to live our lives freely we need to be able to control our property and ensure the security and integrity of those rights.
Freedom is the core of what bitcoin and the Blockchain is about. My team and I have been working for several years now on solutions to the issue of property. Bitcoin can solve the problem with the state of the financial system, property and risk transfer.
One primary concern is we see it is the volume of information people can find out about ourselves. Our lives are not private, and they are becoming less and less private over time. This lack of privacy is not about protecting criminal acts but rather empowering the individual to live the life they want to live.
We have been working on redeemable contracts. Our solution is the creation of a form of tradable, secure property rights that have been abstracted from the individual and the use.
An example would be a property title for a house. Because you live in a house does not mean people need to know that you own it. In time, our solution will allow you to separate the ownership and occupation and use of any property. In this example, we divide the ownership of the house into shares that are tradable but that link over the Blockchain to redeemable contracts that are encrypted and stored in a distributed manner across the Internet.
This is a solution that on one hand can match the requirements of government tax authorities and AML/KYC provisions. More, there are always requirements to have the rights to property able to be transferred in cases of bankruptcy and loss. All of this can be delivered in a system that balances the rights of the individual with the technology and works within the existing legal frameworks.
The solution will include a secure voting system and a revenue distribution system. This will allow a homeowner to pay rent on their home at market rates. The rent will be distributed to the property under the shares. Where the homeowner owns 100% of the house, the money will be pseudonymously returned to them.
If they need to raise capital, as an owner of shares in their property, they can sell these on a tradable market. The purchaser of those shares will then retain dividend rights under the lease terms. Like all good systems of equity, the rights to add and remote shares and investors can also be defined in advance.
In this manner, the homeowner can separate the property rights from the residential rights and reside in a property that they own while not publicly releasing the fact that they own the property. Further, a property owner can reduce the risk of owning a property by sharing the ownership. They could, for instance, exchange 30% of the shares in their home for shares in other real properties. In the event that they originally owned 100% of their home, the rental income from the other properties could be structured to pay for their rent repayments without interest while at the same time allowing them to diversify and reduce the risk of what is arguably the largest investment they will have in their life.
This system will be able to be scaled and will be distributed. It will allow people in repressive countries to move funds and save capital and invest for their future and that of their children. Most importantly those of us who live frugally and don’t want people knowing what we have can invest and save without being ostracised and without having to worry about the property we own being taken from us.
In any transfer, a record will be kept. This record will include depredation by governments in those countries that do not respect property rights or the rights of the individual.
Our work is far from over, and most of you don’t know anything of what we’ve done. In the coming months, we will be publishing papers documenting the research we have been conducting. Going forward, it is important that we create the world where people can live their lives as they choose as long as they don’t impact on the rights of others.
This involves ensuring that we have the right to save and control our futures without fearing depredation. The right to a future without loss caused by the theft of others. The right to live obscurely and silently if we so choose. The right to invest and make a better world and not be held by many in society in contempt for doing just that.
The results of this research is what Bitcoin and the Blockchain are about. A free system to transfer and maintain property.
