The County Auditors’ Association of Ohio (CAAO) has publicized that it will be forming a group which will be studying blockchain implementations in real estate. The announcement was made on Feb. 21 by SafeChain a blockchain startup based in Ohio, who will serve as the technical advisor for the project.
The association has claimed that it will start testing the use of blockchain technology to facilitate the transfer of real estate transactions and land deeds across multiple counties. It has also been reported that Tony Franco, member of the SafeChain team, will be in charge of reviewing the ongoing projects during the development of goals and the establishing of operating principles for the technology’s potential use.
The CAAO association is comprised of thirteen Ohio county auditors, that as public officials have the power of overseeing the financial books and records of all county officers and to administer the budgets of their respective counties.
Matt Nolan, CAAO chairman, stated in the press release the following:
“We have a committed group […] to enhance technology and improve government operations to the benefit of the taxpayer. CAAO has set an extremely high standard for getting involved in technology projects due to the need to recognize its members’ diverse needs; this makes the formation of this working group particularly noteworthy.”
CAAO members have not given any additional comments regarding the initiative.
But this isn’t Ohio’s first implementation of blockchain technology, as in November 2018 it became the first reported state to accept Bitcoin (BTC) for its tax payments.
A total of seven Ohio funds promised in December to invest a sum of $300 million into startups based on blockchain by 2021.
Last year, Ryan Smith, the speaker of Ohio House of Representatives, assembled a group comprising of legislators, industry and academic personalities to debate how they can further the development of the state to ultimately turn it into a blockchain hub.
There are also other startups working alongside SafeChain to develop blockchain-based solutions for real estate use, including the platform RealBlocks, which is backed by Morgan Creek Digital, a crypto manager worth millions of dollars.
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