New Title Deed Blockchain Solution Happens

Ubitquity LLC launched its prototype platform for the title insurance industry and county clerks within the United States using the blockchain for recordings.

The platform uses Colu's implementation of Colored Coins to manage digital assets on the Bitcoin blockchain. According to IBTimes, CEO Nathan Wosnack of Ubitquity said that using the blockchain will dramatically reduce risks in every step of documentation. 

"As part of due diligence, title companies have to research properties in order to ensure the chain of title is clear", said Wosnack

He claims that banks will also benefit from a reduced title search time, increased confidence in the deeds history, and process transparency over the blockchain and that lenders will have the ability to publish and track their deeds of trusts (liens) to a particular property directly.

 "Fraudulent conveyance costs the industry approximately $1bn (£700m) a year in the US alone. Much of that comes from financial institutions issuing loans or mortgages to bad actors who are perceived to be the rightful owner to the land. Shared immutable ledgers allow for greater collaboration between industry players and a potential reduction in fraud."..."Due diligence is in some cases a very-time consuming and arduous process. It can be done quicker and easier with a shared public ledger platform like Ubitquity; particularly for smaller title companies and financial institutions. Title companies can issue a 'certificate of clear title' on the blockchain by signing a title record with their own private key".

Good Idea Vs. Bad Idea

This is indeed a fantastic idea, but banks plan to build their own private-altchain-blockchain that has no trust other than themselves using the same governance that currently doesn't work to govern their network so although they may see benefit, but they may not like it.

Between what the banks are building and what Ubitquity has put together, you basically have and most powerful public ledger on the planet verses something else that hasn't been built yet but might work once the banks have it delivered by the 3rd party they outsourced it to. This is assuming that this is something banks would be interested in competing with in the first place. This may well be something they simply wish to use. 

Which is the better approach can only be speculated, but using simple math certainly points to the more probable and secure solution being that of Ubitquity's solution since it uses the actual blockchain that has underpinned bitcoin for over half a decade.

Ubitquity is currently working with a number of organizations and plan to invite banks and other companies to check it out soon as well. We may get a feel for the banks temperature sooner than later.

Regardless of how this pans out, it's a winning idea. The offering is one of many new applications currently being built on top of the blockchain.

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Story by dinbits
image by dinbits staff

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