Solving the Housing Crisis with Blockchain and DeFi

The Housing Crisis and Blockchain Technology

The prices of houses are soaring all around the world, leaving homebuyers feeling the pinch. Although it has become increasingly difficult to purchase a home, the ability to raise funds to construct new homes has become easier due to decentralized finance (DeFi) and the Home Construction Collective. On Episode 14 of The Agenda podcast, hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond spoke with Home Construction Collective co-founders Isaac Lidsky and Erich Wasserman about the housing crisis and how crypto technology may offer a solution.

Unpacking the housing crisis

According to Lidsky and Wasserman, the housing crisis is not really a crisis of prices — it’s a crisis of supply. “We have systematically underproduced homes for decades,” Lidsky said. “Depending on what estimates you look at, we’re short between 4.5 million to 7 million homes today.” This issue is compounded by the fact that more and more homes are being built specifically to be rented out, rather than sold to prospective homeowners.

Using DeFi to Encourage Starter Home Construction

The lack of affordable housing has had a major impact on the net worth of younger generations. “Home ownership is typically the largest investment people make in their lifetimes,” said Wasserman. “It’s the key to financial stability. Homeowners have a staggering 40 times the net worth of renters.”

Lidsky added: “In their 40s, the baby boomers accounted for 21% of all wealth. In their 40s, Gen Xers, it had dropped to 2%. And for us millennials, we’re at 4.8%, with Mark Zuckerberg alone representing 2% of that 4.8%. These are the dismal numbers.”

Using Crypto.com Today to Incentivize Starter Home Construction

Home Construction Collective is focused on financing the construction of “starter homes,” or homes that first-time buyers can afford, which Lidsky reported are in incredibly short supply. “The more of them we can put on the market, the more affordable they’ll become,” he said.

Crypto and AI in Home Construction Collective

To meet this goal, Home Construction Collective fractionalizes the investment process, allowing people from around the world to invest in the construction of a new home and profit once it sells. Wasserman explained the project’s mission in this regard:

Lidsky and Wasserman also co-founded a protocol called Rigor, which utilizes blockchain technology to streamline the construction supply chain and payment process. Lidsky mentioned that by using Rigor, the cost of manufacturing the homes financed by Home Construction Collective is reduced:

To learn more about crypto and AI technology from Lidsky and Wasserman’s conversation with The Agenda, listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph’s Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And don’t forget to check out Cointelegraph’s other shows!