Closing a mortgage can be a lot of work. Many documents have to be turned in at the bank like employers statement, payslips, Identification, valuation report of the real estate, purchase agreement etc. Thanks to blockchain this process could become simpler.
A partnership of more than twenty companies, the Dutch government and educational institutions are working together to make more use of the blockchain technology. A blockchain is described as a network of computers, the chain, which all have copies of the blocks. They control it together, so the blockchain is decentralized with no database. Every block in the chain contains encrypted data, and every block in the chain is based on the encrypted block before. So the data is protected this way. Adjustments in the chain, for example transactions, can only be made if the majority of the computers approve it, like the process with the Bitcoin. This makes it fraud resistant and it can’t be shut down. This is why banks are highly interested in this technology for the financial sector, to protect them against cyber-attacks.
The partnership is testing whether it is possible for people to close a mortgage using blockchain. Instead of delivering all the documents a bank requires normally, the information can be delivered to a bank that uses blockchain from that same blockchain. Instead of proving your income to a bank, you can scan a QR code and determine in an app which information you want to share with your bank. The blockchain delivers the income that is officially registered and confirms that it corresponds with the income registered by tax authorities. So now people don’t have to dig up and send documents and can’t manipulate them anymore.
Bottom-line is that with the use of blockchain, people you don’t know can be trusted and information can be verified with the speed of light. Sounds to me like technology is again making life easier.
– ‘Online gegevens uitwisselen wordt sneller en veiliger’, Eigen huis magazine okt. 2017
