How will implementing an on-chain Trust Agreement for properties disrupt the user experience of buying property?
Open Source Trust Agreement for a Better Property Market On-Chain
“Real world assets possess the unique ability to combine the benefits of digital assets - such as flexibility, speed, and certainty - with the tangible qualities of physical land, which is inherently rich with history, beauty, and uniqueness.”
— Fede Pomi, CEO of Fabrica
Dear Namefiers,
After reading through the entire transcript of the Twitter Space session with Fede, Daniel, Sam, Victor, Land and Sound, Kingsingh.eth, Iheartdomain, and Hedgehog.eth on land tokenization, I feel incredibly excited. It's evident that the future holds immense possibilities for upcoming generations who won't have to grapple with the manual and time-consuming processes traditionally associated with purchasing real-world assets like land and domains.
Through the conversations, it becomes evident that the tool orchestrating the tokenization of land from the real world (governed by the government) to the on-chain ledger (governed by the community) is a legal trust agreement developed and operated by Fabrica. This agreement facilitates the sharing of records and mirrors signatures between physical county assessors, owners, data providers, and the digital trust agreement.
Compelling questions arise regarding the fate of the trust agreement in the event of Fabrica ceasing operations.
Additionally, what course of action would be taken if disputes arise in the physical world, involving natural disasters over properties, which are owned by the current owner recorded in the decentralized ledger?
Can we both off-ramp and on-ramp properties?
Furthermore, how can the trust agreement be open-sourced to benefit the horizontal housing market and drive network effects, thus fostering mass adoption in the future?
These questions are relevant not only to middle-layer entities pioneering the tokenization of real-world assets but also to various other assets such as national currencies, treasury bills, and, in the case of Namefi, domains. Ultimately, the resolution of such matters may lead to legal intervention, possibly involving the supreme court of the nation-state, particularly in instances involving ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), the ultimate arbiter in domain-related disputes.
Certainly, aside from the questions posed, one should also envision the probabilistic future of tokenized lands. These lands can be traded on decentralized marketplaces with a remarkable 120,000 times velocity improvement compared to traditional physical assets (30 seconds versus 6 weeks in transaction speed). Additionally, there is the potential for more efficient peer-to-peer utilization of physical properties through fractionalization. Moreover, the interoperable and composable nature of NFTs allows them to seamlessly integrate into decentralized finance protocols for lending, borrowing, and perpetual trading when collateralized. Below is just a mind map of how every component is pieced together through the design of Fabrica.
I can't help but envy the future generations whose lives will be significantly optimized by the superior ledger we have today, known as blockchain.
Dig into the conversation to learn more!
Best,
Sunny
Namefi Ops
The following is a Namefi RWA Twitter Space with Fede Pomi and Daniel Rollingher, the cofounders of Fabrica, the leading land tokenization project. The session was hosted by Victor, CEO of Namefi and Sunny, Ops of Namefi.
Introduction: Fede Pomi and Daniel Rollingher’s Background
Victor Zhou
Hi everyone, thank you for joining Namefi. Our first RWA session stems from an idea that arose during ETHDenver when Fede and I met. We realized our shared goal of advancing real-world assets (RWAs) by bringing them onto the blockchain. Thus, we began advocating for this coalition, which includes Namefi, Fabrica, and several other projects.
Today's session serves as the kickoff for our joint effort, and we're honored to have Fabrica founder Fede and Daniel joining us, along with Sam, our mutual investor and a close friend to both of us. The session will last for 1 hour, during which we'll pose a few questions to our guests and open the floor to anyone interested.
This is an informal event, so feel free to raise your hand to join us on stage. We'll open the microphone after a few initial questions to get things started. Now, I'll hand it over to Sunny, my co-host, to provide our distinguished guests with a proper introduction.
Sunny Chen
Thank you, Victor, and hello, everyone. Good morning. Today, we're thrilled to welcome Fabrica and Sam. Let me provide a brief introduction to Fabrica and its members.
Firstly, much like Namefi, which is focused on tokenizing domains, Fabrica's mission is to tokenize land, making it programmable and facilitating real estate operations on decentralized ledger networks. Fede serves as the CEO of Fabrica. He's a serial entrepreneur who transitioned to founding Fabrica in 2019 after several successful ventures in both Web1 and Web2 domains. With a background in software engineering, Fede embarked on his startup journey in Italy, creating a European network of websites under the domain name "tonight.eu" during the early days of Web2.
Later, he served as an innovation manager at Vodafone, Europe's largest telecom provider. . After leaving Vodafone, Fede co-founded phone.id, a B2B startup simplifying user authentication processes for companies, based on phone numbers. This extensive experience makes Fede a formidable entrepreneur in the Web3 space, and it will be fascinating to hear how his perspective has evolved over the history of the web.
Now, let me introduce Daniel, the general counsel of Fabrica. Daniel has been integral to Fabrica's journey since its inception. His expertise lies in crafting the trust instruments Fabrica employs to hold titles and in advocating for regulatory initiatives crucial for integrating real estate assets onto the blockchain. Unlike Fede, Daniel brings deep experience in real estate to Fabrica, having worked as a legal advisor for the East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative in the United States. He also founded Home Slice in 2017, a real estate startup aimed at industry innovation.
Today offers a fantastic opportunity to delve into the story of how Fede and Daniel came together and chose land tokenization in the realm of Web3.
Last but certainly not least, our special guest, Sam, serves as the investor for both Namefi and Fabrica. Sam is the co-founder and general partner of Bloaccelerate VC, whose portfolio also includes NFTfi and EigenLayer. Today, Sam will join us in our space as a special speaker to share his perspective on real-world asset tokenization from an investor's point of view. It'll be fascinating to hear why Sam is investing in real-world asset tokenization.
I'll now hand over to Victor, who will be directing questions to Fede and Daniel, with Sam contributing his insights along the way into real-world asset tokenization.
Victor Zhou
Thank you, Sunny, for the introduction. It's very helpful to lay the foundation and context for our teammates or friends on the call who may have been following the domain space and the tokenization of domains, to also understand where Fabrica comes from.
I also want to extend a warm greeting to Chase, who's a good friend of mine. Additionally, I see Michael Cyger listening in, a very well-respected figure in the space and the founder of DNAcademy. If you have the time and it's available to you, we'd love to invite you on stage as well.
But let me now turn over to Fede and Daniel. I'm sure everyone is eager to hear the story of how you started Fabrica. It's no easy feat. We chose domains because they were easier to tokenize.
However, land is vast, with a huge market, rich history, and numerous jurisdictions.
So, how did you embark on the journey of tokenizing land and real estate? Fede, Daniel, whoever wants to speak.
Introducing Fabrica Land
Fede Pomi
Thank you, Victor. I'll take it from here. So, the story behind Fabrica begins when I moved to the US. I'm Italian, and I relocated to the US around 2015. After some time, I decided to purchase a house here in the US. I went through the process of finding a house and understanding how the real estate transaction would unfold with a real estate agent. After selecting a property, I went through the process.
Aside from the emotional stress of making a significant personal investment, what surprised me was how real estate transactions are conducted in the US. I expected a more modern process, especially in the Bay Area of San Francisco, with sophisticated workflows and applications. However, the reality was quite different. While you could browse houses on beautiful websites (a sort of Web2 approach), the actual transaction process was very old-school. It involved notaries, fingerprints, deeds, county records, and title agencies, and it was quite expensive. This contrast between the traditional methods and the innovation I was seeing in the startup world was striking.
It became evident that this asset class, despite being the largest in the world, was still being transacted using antiquated tools.
Naturally, I began to think that eventually, this asset class would transition onto the blockchain.
And that's how Fabrica began. We started by exploring how to bring real estate assets onto the blockchain, beginning with small plots of land. Along the way, we discovered a thriving market of land traders in the US, which became our entry point into the market. While addressing the need for easier, faster, and simpler transactions, we delved into researching legal instruments and regulatory approaches necessary to make this transition possible.
That's the story behind Fabrica. Daniel, you joined us early in this journey, and I'm curious to hear your perspective on the story.
Daniel Rollingher
Happy to jump in. I think when I first got introduced to Fabrica, I was very deeply interested in the world of property tech, and in particular in the ways that we access and utilize real estate from.
Little bit more modern perspective. And the first time that I heard what Fabrica was looking to build and what they wanted me to come on to work on was kind of a mind blowing moment for me. The idea that real estate could be, or a foundational piece of real estate could be natively digital, and the sort of unlock that you get from there opens up a world of possibilities. I mean, everyone's used to, on good market days, opening up Zillow and looking at local property. But the idea of being able to put a checkout button on that page was something that really kind of shook my understanding of what was possible. And we've been working on this for a long time now, but I don't think that fundamental vision has changed much. It really is.
How do we make real estate transactable in a way that fits with how we transact on basically everything else in.
Solving Pain Points for First Batch of Customers: Land Flippers
Sam O. Yilmaz
Daniel, I'm keen to delve deeper into the profile of your heavy users, especially given the increasing allure of trading land on-chain. These users are often engaged in activities such as flipping land, purchasing large parcels, subdividing them into smaller lots, and then selling them for a profit. It's fascinating to note the emergence of a significant ‘cottage industry’ of land flippers.
Could you elaborate on the pain points they face and how their user experience differs with and without Fabrica's platform?
Fede Pomi
Yeah, of course. Thank you, Sam. We collaborate with land flippers, which are essentially companies that purchase plots of land below market price and then resell them without making any changes.
In many cases, they don't even physically visit the properties before reselling them at a significant profit. It's quite fascinating to observe their operations. Their primary method of acquiring properties involves sending out thousands of postcards to property owners, offering to purchase their properties at a lower price.
Considering there are over 100 million plots of land in the US alone, they have ample opportunity to do so. Out of the thousands of postcards sent, some property owners agree to sell because they've held onto the property for a long time, pay property taxes, and don't actively use it. The land flippers then market the properties online by sending drone pilots to capture videos, creating marketing materials, and publishing listings on various marketplaces and mailing lists.
For instance, if they buy a property for $20,000, they typically resell it for three times the price within six months, yielding a substantial profit margin. Some individuals are even able to flip up to 100 properties per year.
However, this business model faces two significant challenges.
Firstly, the process of acquiring and selling properties is cumbersome and time-consuming. It involves weeks of research, drafting legal documents specific to the property's location, and navigating payment procedures through escrow. These factors not only slow down the business but also create friction for both buyers and sellers, leading to potential customers walking away.
Secondly, land flippers face capital constraints since they invest in properties but don't have immediate access to funds until the properties are sold. This limits their ability to expand their portfolio and grow their business.
To address these challenges, we enable features that streamline the buying and selling process, such as implementing a "buy now" button for online land sales. Additionally, we offer solutions that allow land flippers to use their properties as collateral to secure loans, enabling them to leverage their inventory and accelerate their operations.
These functionalities are crucial in maintaining strong relationships with our clients in the land flipping industry.
Sam O. Yilmaz
That's fantastic. It's incredibly valuable to facilitate the acceleration of money within the land flipping industry, enabling transactions to occur much more smoothly. Instead of relying on traditional title insurance and escrow companies, the use of smart contracts streamlines the entire process.
Investor’s Thesis to Land Tokenization: a Superior Ledger = Digitalisation + Tokenisation + Automation can be disrupt user experience in property trading
Victor Zhou
Absolutely. It's interesting, Sam, because you invested in Fabrica several years ago, correct? Now, we've witnessed the launch of Fabrica, where NFTs can be traded online. Subsequently, we've seen our friend Sean Murray utilize the land for lending purposes.
However, before all of this, what was your initial investment thesis when you decided to invest in Fabrica? And now that Fabrica has launched, what aspects have met your expectations, and what surprises have you encountered? Would you be willing to share some insights, Sam?
Sam O. Yilmaz
Yeah, sure. So in our Web3 space, we love our three-letter acronyms. First, the ICOs, now RWAs.
I'll put an asterisk on that because there's more to say.
When we first invested in RWAs as a concept, the term wasn't even very popular at the time.
My main point was that we simply have superior ledgers to keep track of assets and conduct transactions.
In the future, while the masses may move slowly, new ledgers will outperform old ledgers in transactional capabilities.
So I thought, would I rather go to an NFT marketplace, see the credentials of the land, find a checkbox that's verified, taxes are paid, and gain ownership and control of a trust that owns the land that I can easily transfer to my name if I ever wanted to?
Now that it's onboarded, I'll be able to move it around, borrow against it easily, complete the on-chain process in under ten minutes, and transact much faster. Would I rather do that? Or have to maybe even show up at the county or some title company closing and work with old-school lenders that are slow? If I ever wanted to borrow against it? My answer was clearly that I would, and probably everyone would prefer the first option.
So it became this discourse around how we can ensure that the fidelity of ownership will remain. Will the intermediary entities that we end up having to use because the old ledgers themselves aren't upgraded, will they hold water? The trusts, the LLCs that will come to own the land?
I received some great answers from Fede and Daniel on that, and I believe their work should probably be open-sourced and made available to the whole real-world asset community.
The Key Protocol: Trust Agreement and how to Open Source it?
Victor Zhou
You touched on interesting points regarding Fede and Daniel's approach, suggesting that it should be open-sourced.
We'll revisit that question later. For now, I'd like to address a question that I believe everyone would be very interested in. In fact, just before this call, KingSingh.eth, who's a friend and VIP customer of Namefi, asked how people can verify ownership of the land that is tokenized on Fabrica. Interestingly, this was the same question Chase, a good friend of mine, was also asking just before this call.
Coincidentally, I had shared a post on my profile about a problem someone encountered with fraudulent domain listings. KingSingh, You're on the call, right? Let me share what you posted just now. Someone is attempting to list your domain even though they don't own it, trying to fraudulently post it on Afternic. So fraudulent activities in land and domain transactions have been a longstanding problem.
Fede and Daniel, could you explain to us how land tokenization works in terms of engaging landowners and consumers, and what legal framework is involved? Specifically, how can I verify that I own the land based on the NFT?
Fede Pomi
Yeah, let me answer that first. You can visit our website on the marketplace. The domain name is app Fabrica land, and you can view all the properties listed on the marketplace.
When you click on a property, you'll find information such as a description, pictures, and the property's location. There's also a box in the bottom right corner labeled "legal." While it may not seem very appealing, if you look there, you'll find a link to what we call the "proof of title." This document is recorded at the county, the local jurisdiction of the property. Within this legal document, you'll find the smart contract address and the specific token ID. The proof of title document is signed in front of a notary and recorded at the county, with the stamp of approval from the county.
Now, let me explain the processes behind it so you understand what that document represents and why it's crucial when tokenizing a property.
When you bring a piece of land onto the blockchain, the process is straightforward. You can visit our website, enter the address of your property, and we'll gather all available information about it.
Then, we create a small legal instrument—a trust—that will hold the property's title. You, as the owner, sign a document transferring ownership of the property from yourself to that trust.
In essence, you're transferring ownership of the property to the trust, but simultaneously, the trust is assigned to you as the new NFT holder. An NFT is minted and given to you, granting you full control and rights to the trust holding the title.
At the end of the process, you'll have an NFT that gives you control over the trust holding the property.
Essentially, you still own and control the property, but through the trust recorded at the county.
The document you sign in front of a notary, which we send to the county and receive their stamp of approval, is what proves that your rights to the property were transferred to the trust and recorded at the county.
Furthermore, to provide additional information and context, you would need to verify if the person initially owned the property, which is the significant issue that title insurance addresses in the US. When we unwrap properties, we conduct operations to examine the title's history and verify that the individual transferring the property to the trust is the last person listed in the county's previous deed. Over time, we aim to increase certainty in this process.
If you want to investigate the ownership of a property or the NFT, you can visit our website, where you'll find links to the county and the documents needed to verify that the token represents ownership of the property.
Let me be clear—I believe we do a pretty good job, but it's probably not perfect yet, and we're continuously improving. One way to gauge our progress is through what we call the "confidence score."
For each property, we publish a confidence score, which represents a series of tests conducted on our servers, including automated tests that cross-check the information we have about the properties. The higher the number, the safer the property is considered. Over time, we'll implement more tests to increase confidence in buying these NFTs. Daniel, perhaps you'd like to add something, considering your real estate background and the work you've been doing with us for years.
Daniel Rollingher
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that's a really great introduction into how we make titles defensible. I'd like to add a couple of things.
First and foremost, we've been around the block for a while, and our goal is to be here for a long time to come. So we're very careful about how we bring properties onto the chain, and we have the tools and expertise to feel confident about that. One thing I wanted to address that Sam mentioned earlier about open-sourcing the trust – we are definitely planning to open-source the trust.
It's important to note that the trust itself is publicly available.
On any property listed on our platform, in what Fede considers an unsexy legal area (I would disagree), anyone interested can head to the legal section and view the operating agreement, which is the trust agreement.
It's a standardized form that is still upgradable, but templated.
We use the same trust agreement for every property loaded onto our platform, and we're even working with counsel abroad to explore using that same model in other jurisdictions. While it is going to be open-sourced in an official capacity, I consider it open-sourced in an unofficial way already.
Another reason we really value this trust instrument that we've been developing for several years now, which ties into something Sam mentioned, is velocity.
The trust instrument we've built is extremely flexible, rooted in concepts of private contract, allowing for the representation, control, and ownership of the trust via the NFT.
Being able to transact on that NFT instantly, permissionlessly, and have ownership of the trust updated accordingly is one of our superpowers, and we'd love to see that trust model used in other RWAs and further expanding use cases in real estate.
Land Tokenization means 100x Financialisation Velocity and Efficiency
Fede Pomi
Yeah, let me jump in quickly here. Before we hand the floor back to Victor, I want to recap a few key points, especially since we have some new listeners in the space. I'm Fede, the CEO and founder of Fabrica. We specialize in bringing real land onto the blockchain, transforming real properties into NFTs. With me is Daniel, also from Fabrica, who was speaking earlier. Essentially, what we do is take real properties and tokenize them into NFTs.
Here's how it works: we grant the title of the property to a trust and connect that trust to an NFT. If you possess the NFT, you have full control over the trust that owns the property. What can you do with that NFT? Well, you can instantly sell it on OpenSea. The moment a buyer purchases the NFT, they become the owner of the property. So transactions can be closed in as little as 30 seconds, compared to the weeks it might take through traditional processes.
But that's not all. You can also use the NFT as collateral. Bring it to platforms like NFTfi, Gondi or Arcade, or any other NFT lending platform, and use it as collateral to borrow against your land. The market will determine the amount of capital to provide and the terms. This means you could secure a loan on a plot of land in just 30 seconds, compared to the lengthy process offline, which could take forever if you even manage to find the capital.
Why is this significant? Well, when dealing with properties worth $50,000, $100,000, or even as low as $10,000, it's incredibly challenging to walk into traditional banks like Chase or Wells Fargo and request a loan against your plot of land. The offline processes are so lengthy and expensive that they're not feasible for these types of properties.
However, these properties represent a massive market – over 100 million plots of land in the US alone, with over 1 million transactions per year.
That was a lengthy recap, so Victor, please, over to you.
Victor Zhou
Absolutely, that's a wonderful recap. I think it thoroughly addressed how land tokenization works, especially with the innovative approach you've taken. We're honored to have our distinguished listener, Michael Cyger, here. I recall a conversation we had on Twitter where he asked about how domain names work within the ICANN space. There are certainly legal issues to consider, and I believe the approach you've taken with the trust agreement is truly innovative.
While trusts themselves have been utilized, your use of them as a trust agreement, which remains consistent across different holders before and after transfer, is particularly innovative. I'd love to delve deeper into this aspect, as I believe it holds significant potential for discussion.
In fact, one of the key discussions we've had pertains to our RWA NFT initiative potentially open-sourcing a variety of legal documents, smart contract standards, and other resources for collaborative use.
I see that our good friend, iHeartDomains, has raised their hand. I'll pass the floor over to you for your question. But before that, KingSingh.eth, you asked about how to verify domains or verify ownership of land. Did Fede and Daniel's answer address your question?
Step 1: On Ramping Physical Property Onchain
Audience 1: KingSingh.eth
Hey, thanks a lot, everyone. That was fantastic. It really helped explain how the whole trust works. As for my question, yeah, it was partially answered. I've submitted a plot of land there on Fabrica, and I'm just wondering what the next step you guys take is. Do you reach out to the assessor's office? If my property is already in a trust, how do you go about that? Yeah, that was kind of my question. Do you take it out of my trust, and then I have to update my trust, and how does that process work?
Fede Pomi
Yeah, I'll try to keep it short, and then we can take it offline. Basically, when you initiate the on-ramp process, we immediately kick off a series of requests to the county assessor and data providers to gather all the information about the property and start setting up the trust. We also ask you how the property is owned, and we verify that. Depending on the current owner, we have different documents to set up the trust accordingly. For example, you could own the Fabrica trust directly, enter your name, or the trust could be owned through an LLC, or even through another trust. It pretty much depends on your specific needs and preferences in terms of structure.
Our trust is a pretty thin structure, I would say, since its goal is just to hold titles in a digital way and it's not meant to be used for estate planning or other purposes where you might want to have a more structured approach around it. So think of it as a simple pointer to the county to connect the old-school title to an NFT.
Bundling Domains and Properties on Decentralised Ledger
Audience 1: KingSingh.eth
Very well. Thank you so much for explaining that. Just real quick, I'd love to hear what IHeartDomains has to say, but I got caught up in an auction on eBay. The auctions picked up, and there's a township being broken up and picking up these 40-acre plots in Lovelock, Nevada.
Their claim to fame is their prison there for housing OJ Simpson, as well as the bombing range practice. But anyway, long story short, I registered LovelockLand about ten years ago, and my whole thing was I wanted to sell the domain name, but with the domain name comes a 40-acre plot of land. I had it up for about five years, and nothing really materialized because of exactly what we're talking about: there is no trust.
What is the guarantee that someone buys the domain name and that the land gets transferred over alongside? But this actually solves that problem. So yeah, great to hear from you and look forward to more discussions.
Fede Pomi
You should tokenize both the domain name and the land and sell them as a bundle. That's a way to do it, really.
Victor Zhou
Yes, definitely. Talking about ownership, I think we're on the next level. We're exploring a new ledger that enables all those possibilities. You could tokenize both domain names and lands and bundle them together. You could also use something like ERC-6551, which is an NFT-based account where you use one of them to own the other. So there's a bunch of things now that we enable the tokenization, there's a huge potential in different ways.
I can go on and on, but if you are interested in hearing how that could work on the smart contract technical side, I drive the ERC authors meeting and then this Thursday we will have a conversation with the so-called ERC-404 and DN-404, two competing teams or two collaborating teams in this space to try to create proposals about how NFTs can be traded in a fungible way. But that's a whole different story. I can share information there that's more of an academic kind of thing. If you're interested, come over and join. That will be a Google Meet and YouTube streaming.
Fede Pomi
Yeah, exactly. From a marketing perspective, it's like, come for the domain name and stay for the land. That's how I would pitch the opportunity there.
Victor Zhou
Yeah, absolutely. IHeartDomains, our good friend, has waited long enough. Marcus, please go ahead. And after that, I'll also have a question about the off-ramp for you, Fede and Daniel. So, IHeart Domains, Marcus, go ahead.
Step 2: How long does it take for a property to be tokenized?
Audience 2: IHeartDomains
Yeah, hey, I've been tapping in and out, running errands, so you may have already answered this. But two things. As a landowner myself, I'm thinking about putting a piece of land on the platform. I'll probably actually do that when I get home. First, what blockchain is this on? And second, from start to finish, how long does the process take, like Kingsingh.eth was saying? I guess the first part of the process gets you up to the point where you have to start verifying with the counties and doing that. Does that process have to be complete before I can list my land, or is it immediately listable?
Fede Pomi
Okay. To both questions. Firstly, regarding the blockchain we use, we are currently on the Ethereum mainnet. In the future, we'll also be available on some Layer 2s, but for now, we are on the Ethereum mainnet. As for how long it takes to onboard the property, the short answer is between 6 hours and three weeks. It very much depends on where the property is located.
The good news is that, well, first, in some counties, we're super fast. It's like less than a day and you'll have your NFT. And the other good news is that even when it takes longer, from a user standpoint, it's very easy. Literally, you just need to type in your address and we'll take care of the rest. Then when the documents are ready to be signed, you'll receive a link.
You'll sign in front of a notary online from your computer, and in a matter of a few hours, you'll get your NFT airdrop. Actually, I noticed that we have a couple of landowners of Fabrica in the Twitter space. I see Land and Sound (@landandsound) and I see Nick from CougarDAO LLC (a blockchain real estate organization). So I don't know if you guys want to share your experience or how it was. I think Land and Sound's experience was especially interesting since he's new to the blockchain, and he basically joined the blockchain space thanks to us. We can take that as our credit in terms of he wanted to own land in a new way, and he decided to do it through Fabrica. I don't know if you're listening and you want to share your experience.
Victor Zhou
Certainly. And if you're willing to join us onstage, feel free to raise your hand. I've already sent invitations to Land and Sound, and I'm not sure about your other friend. But anyone who's interested can hop onstage; just raise your hand, and I'll invite you up. You can share your experience. Fede, I really like what you said about just typing in the address, and we take care of the rest. It's like a catchy marketing line that's really helpful. I love it.
Audience 1: KingSingh.eth
I just want to add real quick, the interface is beautiful and very intuitive, easy to use, and I love the way that the description of the land is auto AI generated and then you're able to go ahead and upload your own pictures. But the fact that they make it so simple for you that like you guys did with Namefi, you're trying to simplify the process. So I just want to throw that in there. So far, it's been a very enjoyable process.
Fede Pomi
Thank you. Andy, he's in the audience too. He's our front end designer, so kudos to him for that.
Forgetting Private Key, Real World Government Anchor, Human Consensus, and Property Off Ramping
Victor Zhou
A big shout out to Andy. I'm also very happy that Kingsingh, you are a customer of both of us, so you have experience with our services. We know that there's a lot of excitement and buzz about Meme coin and Meme NFT. They are all great and fun. However, we also believe that there's a long way we can go to make the world not just fun, but also useful. So I think Namefi and Fabrica land are working in that direction. Hedgehog, I see you've raised your hand. If it's a short question, feel free to go ahead. If not, I'd like to take an opportunity to discuss off-ramp and force off-ramp. Hedgehog, is your question a quick one or more detailed?
Audience 3: Hedgehog.eth
So what would happen if, let's say, I lose the seed phrase to my wallet and I no longer have access to the NFT? What would happen then?
Fede Pomi
Yeah, so it's a good question. Even if you lose possession of your private key, you were the last person who was basically appointed as trustee and beneficiary of a trust. This is the last transaction count. So even if you don't have control of that NFT anymore, legally, you still own the property.
We have designed a process that allows you to off-ramp the property. Basically, it's a long process designed to be slow to avoid double spending.
There are technicalities behind it to protect any potential NFT buyer and the property itself. We have a process in place to allow you to regain control of the property directly into your name.
This process is explicitly included in the trust instrument, and we will have a section of the trust agreement that explains how this process works, making it very clear for people to understand and challenge if necessary. We believe in sharing and opening our processes to the rest of the world so that we can improve them together for the benefit of everyone's security.
Victor Zhou
Totally, totally. In fact, I asked this question to Fede as well, and we often get asked similar questions about domain NFT ownership. Just like ICANN is the ultimate arbiter and governance for domain names, you can always go and take ICANN to court as a last resort to recover your ownership of a domain.
Land ownership, however, has a longer history than many countries and nation-states. These problems predate Fabrica Land and our industry as a whole. For example, if you're interested, look up English common law property rights. You can literally take possession of land, and if the land is unused, the court will deem it yours if you openly occupy it for long enough.
This concept, rooted in human consensus, has determined land ownership even in the absence of counties or countries. That's also what makes land ownership a lot more complicated. Our innovation in this space is going to be very interesting. I see Land and Sound, a distinguished customer of Fabrica Land, has raised their hand. I'd love to give you a chance to share what you have to say. Hi Land and Sound, thank you for joining us.
Onchain Fractionalisation of Property: Openup Imaginations for Future Property Utilisation in Real World
Audience 4: Land and Sound
Hi, thank you. Hi Fede. Hi everybody. I just wanted to pitch in because I heard you guys mention my name and talking about the timeline with on-ramping land. They were able to on-ramp land for me in Orange County, New York, and were extremely communicative the entire time. It took a little while because it's New York, and it's also, at the same time, on-ramped land in Siskiyou, California. That's basically their bread and butter. That was like old hat to them. And it happened very quickly. Actually, I got both drops, ironically, at the same time. Like you guys mentioned, this was my foray into blockchain.
I am learning more and more about it every day, but my main passion is land ownership. For the goals that I have with the land that I have, this is the way for me, and I'm all in at this point. So I'm just excited to be in the room with you all and I wanted to introduce myself.
Fede Pomi:
Awesome. Land and Sound, I'm glad to connect with someone who is very passionate about land ownership. I'm sure that the direction of NFTs and tokenizing real-world assets like land is going to help people like you who can have more flexibility and efficiency in dealing with land ownership.
Land and Sound, quick question for you: Have you considered co-ownership and rental of the tokenized land assets?
Audience 4: Land and Sound
That's exactly what I have in mind because I don't currently live in New York; I reside in California. Periodically, I've been listing my New York property for auction to try and garner more views, and while I would be interested in selling it, my primary focus lies in the future - fractionalizing the ownership and sharing it with artists in New York City. The property is situated about an hour north of New York City, close to the Hudson River. Once the bike and pedestrian path is completed, which is a project currently underway, I envision granting access to the land, facilitating gatherings, and possibly creating an artist token that grants rights for various uses such as workshops, recording arts, media production, and photography.
I aim to cultivate a cultural hub around the property with individuals who can actively utilize it. Despite having lived in New York at one time, I now only visit a couple of times a year. Nonetheless, I know people there whom I'd love to involve in the land's utilization. This approach offers a novel way to administer the property, and as I discuss it with others, it's evident that many individuals interested in venue management are contemplating similar uses of blockchain technology.
Fede Pomi
One thing worth highlighting from Aaron's (Land and Sound) recent contribution is the transition from technical and legal discussions to the tangible aspects of the land itself. While I, as a tech enthusiast, often focus on aspects like NFTs and ERC standards, engaging with customers like Aaron brings to light the real-world features and potential of these assets.
These are physical spaces that can be enjoyed, experienced, and developed in the real world.
Real world assets possess the unique ability to combine the benefits of digital assets - such as flexibility, speed, and certainty - with the tangible qualities of physical land, which is inherently rich with history, beauty, and uniqueness.
Delving Deeper into Trust Agreement Immortality: Digitalisation, Tokenization, Automation, Governance, and Ownership Continuity
Victor Zhou:
Absolutely, this has been a fantastic discussion. I've shared Land and Sound's post on your profile for everyone to check out. It's truly inspiring to hear his vision of bringing artists and writers outdoors to create recordings, leveraging Fabrica Land and digitized ownership. If you're interested, please feel free to check it out, follow, and engage.
Now, circling back to the topic, Fede and Daniel, what happens when people want to move the land out of the trust or out of the NFT? Additionally, in our space, we have Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy where people can petition to have a domain's ownership revoked if it's being misused.
How does this process work in the current trust agreement model of Fabrica? Could you take a few minutes to shed some light on this?
Fede Pomi:
Yes, certainly. These are two distinct scenarios.
Firstly, if someone who owns a plot of land as an NFT on Fabrica wishes to remove it from the platform for any reason, such as selling it to someone who prefers traditional ownership methods, the process is straightforward.
As the NFT holder, you simply burn your token through our provided interface. This action initiates the off-ramp process on our end. We then generate the necessary legal documents for you to sign, and once completed, we record these documents at the county level. Essentially, it mirrors the on-ramp process but in reverse, allowing you to redeem your token and regain title ownership.
This process is essential as it ensures users are not locked into the platform. While we encourage properties to remain on the protocol, we understand the importance of providing flexibility to owners. Thus, the ability to both on-ramp and off-ramp properties is crucial. We've worked diligently to streamline this process, ensuring it's efficient and user-friendly.
Now, to address your question regarding Fabrica's role in the event of unforeseen circumstances...
Actually, let me interject here. It's often interesting when investors inquire about our contingency plans in case of business failure. In reality, we're committed to the principle of failing fast, signifying our focus on adaptability and resilience.
Precisely. Our goal is to ensure Fabrica doesn't serve as a bottleneck, instilling confidence among users in the fidelity of their assets. So, in the context of ownership continuity, even if Fabrica were to cease operations, the trust structure ensures the perpetuity of asset ownership.
Fabrica doesn't directly manage or control the trust; rather, it facilitates the setup of a decentralized trust that the owner controls entirely. Consequently, even if Fabrica were to dissolve, the trust would persist, and users would retain ownership of their properties. This decentralized approach sets us apart, as we're not intermediaries between users and their assets but rather facilitators of a trust system designed for trustless land ownership.
Indeed, it's a vital aspect that often goes unnoticed. By decentralizing the trust structure and making our protocol interoperable, we empower users with full control over their assets. In the event of Fabrica's absence, users can access our documentation and smart contracts directly, ensuring continuity of operations.
Moreover, we've implemented safety measures, such as an emergency exit for off-ramping properties, to provide users with peace of mind even in hypothetical scenarios where Fabrica isn't operational.
Victor Zhou
That's excellent. Unfortunately, our time is up. It's been an enriching hour, and I'd like to extend my gratitude to Fede, Daniel, Sam, and Sunny for their contributions. For our audience, if you've enjoyed today's discussion, feel free to follow Namefi, myself, and our esteemed guests. We anticipate many more engaging conversations in the future. I've shared some relevant notes and posts for further exploration, and you're welcome to tweet or reply with any questions or suggestions. Remember, this is Namefi's space, and we're dedicated to serving you.
Thank you all for joining us, and we look forward to our future interactions.
Tokenize Land through Fabrica:
https://www.fabrica.land/