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The mission of making blockchain real estate transactions an industry-wide commonality and reducing deal times continues in the offices of ShelterZoom, where Monday it announced the launch of its new Mithra Contract, the “world’s first tokenized, industry-agnostic digital contract platform,” according to a press release.
Although the software isn’t dedicated specifically to the real estate space, the multitude of stakeholders, paperwork and sharing of sensitive financial information makes the industry an ideal target for online deal reform.
Mithra holds each stakeholder to a deal electronically accountable by issuing secure tokens to each respective party’s part of the contract.
According to the ShelterZoom’s chief architect, Dmitry Goroshevsky, this makes the process a step above “smart” and Ricardian contracts, saying that, “doing so enables on- and off-chain transferring, trading, auctioning, tracking and execution of legal contracts. None of this was possible before.”
Smart contracts are not the same as Ricardian contracts, named after their initial developer, David Ricardo.
Although both types are digitally created and secured in the blockchain, Ricardian contracts are both human- and machine-readable, digitally signed and securely record the specific terms and agreements between the two parties. The contract exists in text form and code, and it is actually legally binding.
A smart contract is not actually a contract, the protocol merely executes the terms of a contract according to instructions. Then it’s recorded on the blockchain that the deal has been done. It becomes viewable by all parties and part of the public ledger. But humans can’t read them.
Now in beta, Mithra Contract will also feature a live deal negotiation feature that manages to keep copies of the collaboration on secure tokens.
The ultimate intent of the new product is to get blockchain-backed deals closer to market adoption by offering a vehicle on which to execute deals.
“It is the first time that any individual or organization can make deals, create contracts and close transactions on immutable, auditable and transportable tokens — all secured in their digital wallet,” said ShelterZoom Co-Founders Chao Cheng-Shorland and Allen Alishahi.
“We’re excited to have created a platform that will help move blockchain toward adoption with a product that creates real value in people’s daily lives.”
Over the next three months, more than a hundred beta testers and ShelterZoom affiliates will work with Mithra, the majority of them being real estate companies and related service providers.
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