Living on the block

How equitable is tokenized equity

Bibliographic Data

ID5260479
AuthorsJordan Crandall (0000-0002-4167-6774, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, corresponding author)
Year2023
Volume10
Issue2
Publication date2023-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueBig Data & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2053-9517 • E-ISSN: 2053-9517
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/20539517231208455
OpenAlexW4388133283
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited41

Recently blockchain has become a tool for spatial coordination and appropriation. Globally, the tokenization of land and housing has led to new forms of datafication and increased financialization. In the case of land non-fungible tokens), security token offerings, and blockchain-based real estate investment trusts, blockchains act as exclusionary digital platforms, with new socio-technical assemblages emerging as complex predatory formations of speculation that are intentionally obfuscatory and difficult to regulate. With the security token offering, crowdfunding and venture capital are combined with cryptocurrency to create a "tokenized venture capital fund" tied to tangible assets, such as ownership rights in housing, real estate, or land. Distributed ledgers are proposed to be used as the digital technology underlying new forms of land/property documentation, ownership, and inhabitation - from conducting and recording land surveys and title creation to transference of land/property rights. This paper addresses the question: how equitable is tokenized equity - does it prioritize the right to the city for all or to all but a very few? This paper looks toward the means of contestation against extractive crypto-settlements, speculation, and housing financialization, critically comparing a range of proposed distributed ledger technology projects that claim to inject equity in the system, pose alternative housing economies, or leverage distributed ledgers for land rights and data sovereignty. I question the utility and limits of datafication and explore how engaging with digital technology - with or without distributed ledgers - can raise awareness and enact alternative forms of housing and land stewardship, from cooperativism to Community Land Trusts and to counter-hegemonic commoning practices

Appropriation · Business · Economics · Financialization · Land administration · Land registration · Land tenure · Political science · Property rights · Real estate · Speculation · FinTech, Crowdfunding, Digital Finance · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law · Sharing Economy and Platforms · Finance

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access