Real estate investment firm taps Bison Trails to explore use cases of Provenance blockchain

Blockchain technology is said to provide more efficiency and transparency around real estate investment management.

Alternative investment firm Colchis Capital has partnered with infrastructure provider Bison Trails to explore the potential utility of Provenance blockchain in enhancing real estate management services, demonstrating yet another promising use case for distributed ledger technology.

Through the partnership, Bison Trails will provide the San Francisco-based Colchis Capital with node infrastructure that can be used to enhance its business operations, the companies announced on Tuesday. As a key infrastructure provider to Provenance blockchain, Bison Trails will also aid Colchis Capital in utilizing the technology to bring more efficiency and transparency to real estate investment management.

The investment manager is developing its own technology stack to provide interoperability with Provenance. The technologies will work together to provide investors with real-time reporting on cash flows and yields without the associated costs of generating large data streams. The partnership also paves the way for Colchis to begin exploring asset tokenization in the future.

Bison Trails has provided infrastructure support to Provenance blockchain since July. Provenance, which is an open-source ecosystem for developing financial services and DeFi apps, utilizes Bison Trails’ infrastructure to strengthen its network and provide support to crypto holders running validator nodes.

Bison Trails was acquired by Coinbase for an undisclosed amount in January 2021.

Blockchain technology has been touted as a potential solution to many of the challenges impacting the real estate industry — challenges related to trust, transparency, contract processes and cost. The technology is being put forward as a way to democratize real estate ownership in an industry that has become increasingly restrictive to the general population.

Real estate tokenization has been talked about for years but has yet to emerge as a prominent use case for blockchain technology. That could change over the next five years as small fragments of the global real estate market begin tapping into blockchain solutions. London-based consultancy Moore Global recently provided a conservative forecast of how real estate tokenization could hit $1.4 trillion in the next few years.