I’m a fan of Neil deGrasse Tyson. I regularly listen to his “StarTalk” podcast. In this week’s episode, helped along with some comedic relief from Marcia Belsky, Neil talks to Dr. Sandra Johnson about the science behind cryptocurrency and blockchain technology.
It’s a good episode, and I certainly learned a thing or two. My ears perked up a little, however, when the conversation turned to some of the possible legal applications. When Johnson got to listing potential future uses of blockchain technology, one of the things she mentioned was that it could replace title searches.
Could this staple service of law firms and title companies everywhere really be usurped by a series of automated entries on a digital ledger? I’m a bit skeptical. To explain why, I’ll start with what is probably a clumsily articulated, but mercifully brief, explanation of what a blockchain is.
Blockchain technology is not the same thing as cryptocurrency. Rather, a blockchain is what allows for cryptocurrency systems to work by maintaining a secure, decentralized record of transactions. Unlike traditional databases, a blockchain gathers sets of information together in groups known as “blocks.” When a block is filled to capacity with data, it is closed and linked to the previously filled block — hence, as more and more blocks are strung together, you form a “blockchain.” The blockchain is shared across a computer network, and each block in the chain receives an exact timestamp as it is attached to the chain. Because the blockchain is decentralized, no single person or group can artificially modify the data contained therein. The nature of a blockchain makes the timeline of stored data essentially irreversible.
On the face of that, if I’m more or less understanding what I just wrote, it seems that blockchain technology might indeed be of at least some use in the context of title to real property. After all, one of the functions of a title search is to make sure the…
