Not a revolution in property investment

28 September, 2019 / katgallow / 1 Comment

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Following my last post about fractionalised land title on blockchain, I’ve been thinking through a number of additional unanswered questions about the proposal. Based on responses and discussions on Twitter, it seems clear that there is no use case for blockchain in this context even though it is possible to roll it out.

Assuming it is rolled out – and it was an announcement by a South Australian government minister that kicked this off – there are myriad issues, I think, with the scheme. This post works through the nature of what is being sold. Is it land? Or something else?

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Fractionalised land title a furphy?

25 September, 201925 September, 2019 / katgallow / 2 Comments

Image result for bricks The South Australian government has announced the launch of a new system of property investment to be rolled out in Adelaide’s two new residential towers. The system involves ‘fractionalising’ the property into ‘bricklets’ and establishing a market for the bricklets via blockchain technology. According to the press release bricklet owners will have their interest recorded on the blockchain for ‘credibility and trust in the audit trail’. Their interest will also be automatically added to the title.

For readers who know anything about land title, or anything about blockchain, this scheme raises a lot of questions. In this post I try to understand how this proposal would work. Continue reading →

Blockchain: is it the next big thing

10 September, 2016 / katgallow / 4 Comments

Old school ledger

I will start by answering the question in the title: I don’t know.

This post is directed principally at lawyers and legal academics, arguing that whatever the trajectory of Blockchain technology, it is sufficiently significant that we must attempt to understand it at some level at least to think critically about its potential implications.

Some lawyers, principally in Big Law firms with a large banking and finance client base, are deeply engaged in Blockchain including to suggest that it will open new fields of practice. Other lawyers understand but dismiss its potential. In my experience however, the majority is unaware of its existence or cannot really say what it is. This latter position is fair enough, because in my view it’s not easy to find a simple explanation that lacks breathless proclamations of a new world order.

I’m a newcomer, having bitten the bullet after I observed ‘chatter’ about Blockchain had reached a tipping point. In my social media feeds, in recent months it has moved from random mentions (innovators) to dedicated early-adopter status even reaching mainstream media… This must surely mean that it’s time for lawyers to become conversant in the technology and its possibilities (and limitations). This post is a low-tech overview of some of the issues, from a lawyer’s perspective.

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