An Industry First
The Blimp Homes app brings real estate sellers and seekers together with agents. And with Blimp, there’s something more. Together with the Home Network Foundation (homefoundation.io), Blimp Homes has introduced an industry first: a home search platform is designed to be decentralized, user-focused and transparent. It’s built on the HOME Protocol — on blockchain.
Real estate agents are being assigned cryptographic assets called HOME tokens when they sign up with the Home Network. Buyers and sellers will soon be earning HOME tokens on the Ethereum blockchain when working with others on the Blimp platform.
U.S. real estate is the starting point. The network has plans to expand to cover all of North America, and then go further.
Why They Come: Fair Play
In the traditional world of real estate, home buyers provide many personal and financial details to lenders, insurers, and real estate sites. They aren’t paid for that data, though the information generates value for the platforms they use.
Real estate agents, too, frequently upload information that the industry turns into tools. They, too, are rarely paid for the crucial information they produce. They typically pay to use the systems their own input helped to create.
Increasingly, people who contribute to information systems are coming to understanding the value of their data. They might wonder why the platforms they use don’t acknowledge the reality that working through an online platform isn’t a one-way street. Many platforms do acknowledge it to their shareholders; but they won’t change it. Traditionally, real estate companies position themselves as gatekeepers to transaction data and customers’ financial information.
Is there a fairer way? HOME tokens could present a way to give people more control over their own data, and help people stop giving away their information for free.
Everyone Can Be Invested
HOME tokens are cryptocurrencies. But they’re not the speculative coins people buy on Binance or Coinbase. They will exist only to reward activities among agents, buyers and sellers registered with the HOME Protocol. They will incentivize the meaningful actions of agents and clients.
Valuable activities include the generation of leads and referrals to the platform. So, for example, agents who bring on new clients will collect tokens that enable them to advertise their services. Other meaningful data comes through questions and answers, searches, sales, and closing work.
The new model could even incentivize buyers to save, and strengthen their credit profiles.
In short, with the HOME Protocol, clients receive cryptocurrency for data, and agents are rewarded for their knowledge.
Early adopters of this technology could become a force for change in how people handle and communicate around property transactions. Needs for third-party involvement could be lessened, while platform users’ ability to find information relevant to their sales is enhanced.
The HOME Protocol Backstory
RESAAS Services Inc., which identifies itself as the world’s largest real estate technology platform, is open to all agents from all brokerages. The RESAAS Platform offers an online marketplace where agents can share and gain referrals. It handles various extras, like sending online gift cards to clients. It also applies artificial intelligence to study and made predictions about real estate.
The Home Network Foundation turned to the RESAAS platform to create its HOME Protocol cryptocurrency. The companies’ strategic partnership began in 2020, and the companies made their token agreement official in June 2021. The 450,000+ RESAAS real estate agents in the United States may all start using the HOME tokens as soon as they’re available.
Blimp Homes, which is a RESAAS partner, worked on the incentivization model and the design for cryptocurrency wallets. And the Home Network Foundation will facilitate the cryptocurrency deposits.
Disclosure: Deeds.com neither invests in, nor receives compensation from, any of the companies discussed in this article. We present this news and commentary for informational purposes only, as a service to our readers.
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Supporting References
The HOME Protocol: Home Network Foundation Whitepaper v1.0 (PDF).
RESAAS Services Inc. Press Release via Cision / TSX Venture Exchange:RESAAS Partners with Home Network Foundation to Reward RESAAS Agents (Jun. 3, 2021).
Berkshire Hathaway Business Wire: Blimp Homes Launches as the First Application on the HOME Protocol (May 28, 2021).
Photo credit: Max Vakhtbovych, via Pexels.