Brickblock’s Plan to Revolutionize Investing with Real-world Assets on the Blockchain

Bitcoin has brought about an era of phenomenal growth in cryptocurrencies and blockchain-related startups. However, transactions using blockchain technology are mostly concentrated in cyberspace, with a limited impact on the real economy. To address the missing link, Brickblock has created an investment platform that will bring together cryptocurrency investors and real-world assets.

Bringing Real-world Assets onto the Blockchain

Generally, the purchase of real estate is cumbersome and involves a lot of bureaucracy. The lack of technological innovation means that there are many extra costs and inefficiency in terms of the time it takes. But blockchain technology can help make these processes quicker and simplify buying real estate. With Brickblock, you will be able to invest in real estate, along with ETFs and coin funds, for a lower price, in an easier and more secure way that what is currently offered on the market.

How does the platform work? The Ethereum blockchain is used to link assets to owners and the income generated is sent as ether payments. For instance, this December will see Brickblock become the first platform to sell a tokenized apartment building over the blockchain. Investors will receive dividends to their Ethereum wallets. Ethereum is utilized to distribute tradeable tokens to investors, known as a Proof-of-Asset token which represents the ownership of say, a stake in a property, and can be traded on exchanges.

The Brickblock project is also protecting themselves from any risks to the blockchain protocol. For instance, the Ethereum blockchain could run into scaling issues in the next few years.  To mitigate these risk, Brickblock has partnered with Berlin-based startup nakamo.to that explores IOTA’s Tangle Network and makes the platform on of the first use cases on the Tangle network.

The team picked by the founders are made up of professionals, including 20 full-time staff, six developers, three advisors and have also brought on board property investor and developer Jeff Woodward as Chief Investment Officer, who has 25 years of experience in the field.  

“Joining a team that is revolutionizing the world of real estate and investing couldn’t be more exciting. For many, investing in real estate and the blockchain may seem too technical or out of reach, but through Brickblock, they are being simplified and opened up to a much wider audience,” Woodward said.

As well as real estate assets, Brickblock’s platform will also offer exchange traded funds and coin funds. The appropriate auditing procedures and verification will be carried out for actively managed coin funds to ensure trust and reduce the chance of fraud. The real estate platform already has an alpha version, which you can explore here and alpha releases for ETFs and Coinfunds will follow. The early stage version should inspire confidence from investors, as it shows the project is serious about its goals to bring the trading of assets onto the blockchain. To explore the real estate platform, you will need to have MetaMask installed, which allows your browser to interact with the Ethereum blockchain.

Investors can buy assets on Brickblock by transferring their cryptocurrency into a smart contract and receiving a Proof-of-Asset token under your name. Automation makes the process easier and cheaper, bringing in a larger audience, as there are no minimum amounts unlike traditional financial institutions. Furthermore, the platform is breaking down geographical and regulatory barriers to give the opportunity to invest for anyone in the world regardless of their income.

The Brickblock ICO Starts October 31

During their five-day token pre-sale, the Brickblock platform managed to secure funds of $1 million. To achieve their vision of real-world assets on the blockchain, a public initial coin offering (ICO) will being October 31, 2017. To receive exclusive offers during the first two days of the ICO, investors are encouraged to register for the whitelist here. After November 2, a tiered price structure will be put in place.

Brickblock tokens (BBT) will be offered to help the platform reach its $50 million funding goal.  Access tokens (ACT) will act as the ‘gas’ that powers the blockchain, where BBT holders will automatically receive ACT.

To find out more about the Brickblock project, read their whitepaper or check out their GitHub page.