On August 18, 2008, the domain “bitcoin.org” was registered, and in October of that same year the whitepapper was published: “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System”.

This incredible invention apparently emerged from the need to give a clear answer to the global economic crisis experienced in 2008, or looking at History, its successive cycles or economic crises worldwide.

The truth is that the idea and its execution led to the creation of a decentralized and distributed electronic payment system, that is, without the control of a central entity. Nakamoto suggested, with some sarcasm and with great certainty at the time, that people stop trusting banks or centralized entities that could print whatever money they wanted, to start trusting only mathematics and cryptography, and the fact that Bitcoin is a scarce and finite asset that will make it, I say, a very desirable store of value.

This will probably be, for me, the greatest invention and technological revolution that has happened in the last 100 years.

We live in times as wonderful as they are dysfunctional, so typical and characteristic of so many other disruptions that had an impact on the world similar to this one. I know that there is still a lot of uncertainty regarding its massive adoption and also in relation to the volatility of the price of Bitcoin and the entire cryptocurrency market, but the explanation seems to be simple.

In 1962, Evert Rogers, an American professor of sociology, developed a theory called “Dissemination of Innovations” to explain this phenomenon. He discovered that there are five types of people in society and that these people behave very differently when they have to adopt new behaviors, actions, or simply accept new ideas.

In recent weeks I have watched a myriad of articles about the “sale” of the first property in Portugal made through the payment of Bitcoin and about the excitement and novelty it generated in the market, in the press and in people in general. It was in fact a marketing move very well conducted by Zome, but I must say that the real challenge was legal or, in the first instance, finding two people willing to exchange value in the manner mentioned above.

But let's not confuse crypto with the technology that supports it. This requires the implementation of a data structure with transaction records that are digitally signed to guarantee their authenticity and that guarantees their immutability, distributed on a platform with several layers of shared and authenticated records. Each time there is a new transaction, the platform validates and adds a new “block” to the information chain, but if it is not recognized as valid it is not accepted. It's like a public record book.

Today I can say that there don't seem to be many doubts regarding its applicability in the real world and the added value it will bring to society and to the way in which we will exchange value, in whatever sector, in the future.

It is time for the market, the regulator and their decision makers to realize, once and for all, that technology is not, nor will it be any threat to those in the market, but rather a catalyst for it to become more transparent, more reliable, more efficient and with greater and faster liquidity.

There is no need to be afraid to write words that have always been taboo, or forbidden, for the market and for those who have always been there, because we must not forget that the next generation will have needs and a way of being, and of looking at life differently, and in order to provide a better service to customers, we must not stop creating technological habits or creating conditions for businesses to prosper.

It is normal that those who have control of the status quo will always try to maintain it in order to maintain power, market share, or to simply control (in this case hide) information. We all know that each real estate transaction is a complex, completely paper-based process where ordinary mortals never quite know what step to take, often without open and credible information to substantiate better and faster investment decisions.

For me, this pilgrim idea that technology is a target to be defeated is really something that doesn't make any kind of sense and I can say with a high degree of certainty that, no matter how much they try to counter it, this will indeed be a good unavoidability. It is enough to know the reality of the markets of the most developed countries.

In my next articles I will make a detailed analysis of how this technology, based on decentralization, collaboration and transparency, will change the way in which this market will operate and relate to each other in the not too distant future.

This is a more than necessary evolution considering that all players in this market, even if they distrust what I am writing, will be empowered by the advantages that digitalization, automation, artificial intelligence or web 3.0 will bring in an implicit, gradual and organic way.

What I want to show is that this change will never be binary or immediate, that it may take more or less time, but that it will happen in the short to medium term. Nobody has any doubts about that anymore.

There is a path of adoption to be taken by those who truly care about the experience and the service provided to the customer and, ultimately, to society, because in the end it is the clients who will impose their will by choosing the actors that best adapt, or who are most concerned with their new needs, desires or impositions.

And here lies the opportunity for mediation: to help potential clients to understand the possibilities that exist, to show their advantages and to help with a possible operation.

In Portugal, we still have a long way to reach the market penetration levels typical of more mature countries, where more than 85% of real estate transactions are carried out in the real estate brokerage sphere without any obligation to contract a service and it seems much more interesting to think of a medium-term promotion strategy that helps people who do not use the real estate brokerage service to convert and change their general opinion about the relevance of the service, than to try to prevent, in any way, the technology from make it an indispensable asset for the daily life of those who also want to mediate this type of business.

The focus must always be on providing the best and most transparent customer service, and whoever thinks so will have a clear competitive advantage compared to all others who only think of surviving.

We believe that technology supports the service and will in fact be the catalyst for the much desired transparency, a better customer experience, the automation and total digitalization of the market, the security and integrity of information and, finally, of a more reliable market. I affirm this with an open heart and without any conflict of interest that prevents me from doing so, after all, my true mission as Unlockit is and will always be to help mediation achieve levels of suitability and reliability that were never possible to provide in this market.

This is my mission, this is the mission of Unlockit that challenges the status quo and brings the possibility of evolving into a new way of living and working in the real estate market without replacing any of their current functions and only empowering anyone who wants to be empowered.

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