The National Association of REALTORS® produced a “REALTOR® of the future” video in 1990 and thought it would be an excellent time to discuss the “Vendor of the Future” in the blockchain space.

To vendors and service providers, adopting blockchains looks expensive and painful. Customer demand for these changes is not there and margins are already tight. Control of information is a low-priority user requirement and blockchain-based solutions made their initial introduction with mixed results. A deeper dive into blockchain-based business models provides information helpful during technology-driven decision-making.

My last post on Net-Zero discussed the benefits to data owners from blockchain revenue. Does the lack of conventional fees for handling customer data signal the end of the vendor and service provider market? Not quite.

Data owners may not be prepared to manage private data on the blockchain. How will they write Smart Contracts? How will errors be handled? Data owners are not programmers. Also, data integrity suffers because the uniform application of business rules is missing without centralized listing checking.

If you are a vendor or service provider, blockchains do not mean your current value proposition needs reinvention. Instead, you would leverage that knowledge and become a business logic publisher. Existing business logic is a proven commodity developed and improved over time to meet real business needs.

Adapting existing business logic to Smart Contracts takes work and you have to be sure that the toolsets are robust enough to support the business before starting. Databases are robust enough to support business today, but are blockchains in the same league? The distribution capabilities of blockchain are strong, but can Smart Contracts handle the logic? Smart Contracts are being tested today in the financial sector (DeFi) and their capabilities are promising.

Liability protection is part of every service provider’s value proposition. Publishing Smart Contracts could require an independent functionality audit and legal reviews to limit liability exposure. Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Type I and Type II certifications from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) provide an audit opinion issued by a certified public accountant. Audits are necessary if the blockchain is participating in asset transfer. A legal review ensures that written agreements cover service and reliability changes created by Smart Contracts.

MLS organizations could adopt standard sets of Smart Contracts and supply them to members who would use them to publish “MLS Standard” listings on the blockchain. A broker can apply Smart Contracts from several MLS organizations to the same listing. The MLS ensures that its Smart Contracts accurately reflect organizational policies.

Finally, blockchain-enabled service providers still need to support members and customers the way they do today. I have heard that there is nothing more frustrating than having a tech issue on a Saturday morning.