Using Cryptocurrency Smart Contracts to Sell Shares of My House
It’s very obvious what the author wants to accomplish, but I would ask how smart contracts make this “super doable”?<p>&gt;I could sell shares of my house such that they confer only ownership of the economic value of the house at time of exit (sale, my death, etc.) or the shares could be re-sold to someone else if the housing market here gets hotter, etc. but I maintain ownership of the right to occupy the house.<p>So assuming you create the asset backed tokens via smart contract...when you sell the house and pocket 100% of the proceeds (nothing personal, just hoping for the best and planning for the worst), how am I to enforce my asset backed token in court?  What’s the jurisdiction? Where the house is or where I am (the injured is)?  It would be very inconvenient for me to have to bring suit in your jurisdiction not mine.  What if I sell the token and you don’t pay out the buyer am I joint and severally liable to the buyer?<p>Assuming there is standing and personal jurisdiction, how does the court know what type of ownership the token creates or created if any at all?  You claim it’s an economic interest, but how is the court to decide the ownership&#x2F;rights over say: fee simple, fee simple defesable, with condition subsequent, joint tenancy, tenancy in common?<p>Also, maybe the token is not enforceable because it violates the statute of frauds (real estate contracts must be in writing... is a smart contract&#x2F;code&#x2F;token a writing that’s satisfies the statute of frauds?), or does the smart contract violate the law of perpetuity?<p>It’s definately “super doable” to create a token on Ethereum via smart contract (I’ve made multiple tokens myself), but I think it’s anything but clear a asset back token can be created to represent ownership in real estate claiming it’s a simple economic interest without addressing a quagmire of legal issues and enforceability.  Even then it’s all theory until it gets tested in the courts and precedent is set.