Warehouse receipts / escrow / clear title for unique pieces of property

[Fellow Traveler]

I recently had some thoughts about OT, specifically how it could be adapted to backing in warehouse receipts (serial numbered items), and how cash and cheque instruments could both be used for trading those receipts.

From there, it caused me to have thoughts about how that system could be adapted for registering and transferring clear title of ownership to unique pieces of property, such as a car or a plot of land. 

This led me to thoughts regarding escrow, and how escrow and markets are the only instruments that guarantee a two-way transfer. (Escrow ONLY, if you're talking about title to a unique piece of property.)

When I have these thoughts, I type them up so I don't lose them.  In case anyone finds this stuff interesting:

https://github.com/FellowTraveler/Open-Transactions/wiki/Warehouse-Receipts

-FT

[Pelle Braendgaard]

This is an interesting area. Since reading Hernando de Soto's Mystery
of Capital some 12 years ago I've been fascinated by this for in
particular real estate.

http://www.amazon.com/Mystery-Capital-Capitalism-Triumphs-Everywhere/dp/0465016146

Several of the countries de Soto mentions especially Haiti already
have unofficial bearer property titles that according to him are worth
more locally than an official government land title (which can take
20+ years to register). The only problem being that you can't use them
for securing credit.

I and others have had the idea to have a separate non governmental
land registry which could be used for this. This is way more doable
now with google maps and gps enabled cell phones than it was 10 years
ago. Once some sort of title registry is up you could use all manners
of other techniques including both OpenTransactions and OpenTransact
to transfer ownership.

I could see this as an interesting project to do together with the
Ushahidi project with initial focus on one or two smaller areas in
Haiti and Africa.

http://www.ushahidi.com/

Why focus on the developing world? Well that is where the need is at the moment.

P

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[Steve Dekorte]

On 2011-01-29 Sat, at 01:14 PM, Pelle Braendgaard wrote:
> Several of the countries de Soto mentions especially Haiti already
> have unofficial bearer property titles that according to him are worth
> more locally than an official government land title (which can take
> 20+ years to register). The only problem being that you can't use them
> for securing credit.

Why are unofficial titles worth anything?
Will a government court uphold them?

Steve

[Fellow Traveler]

If the court does not uphold what can be plainly proven, then how long will the people continue to uphold that court?

-FT

[Steve Dekorte]

But what is proven? That someone has a piece of paper that contradicts a government record? Is the unofficial bearer property title basically a contract signed by the official government title holder that says a new owner has ownership?

Steve

[Pelle Braendgaard]

What matters in places like Haiti is that other residents in your
community respects it. So plainly this is for use in tight knit
communities with little traditional government protection.

P