NEW YORK CITY—“In a nutshell, Blockchain is just today's database 2.0,” said Deloitte Consulting real estate practice manager Kevin Shtofman. “Think of it as a general ledger that has transaction histories, purchases, sales of assets, finance, data that sits up there on a chain of blocks.”
Each block of information has a unique 32-character, alphanumeric code. Each user has a private 32-character alphanumeric password. Today, it would take a couple of days to hack an eight-letter password. But to hack a blockchain would take 700 million years, according to Shtofman.
People inputting on a blockchain have real-time, simultaneous access. Without the private password to get onto the chain, no one can add information to a transaction. It is a completely decentralized system, yet its transparency of public history ensures accountability and trustworthiness, reducing risk of fraud and abuse.
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Betsy Kim
Betsy Kim was the bureau chief, East Coast, and New York City reporter for Real Estate Forum and GlobeSt.com. As a lawyer and journalist, Betsy has worked as the director of editorial and content for LexisNexis Lawyers.com, a TV/multi-media journalist for NBC and CBS affiliated TV stations in the Midwest, and an associate producer at Court TV.
