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Mobile-payment solution provider Bank Shot has added support for digital-check acceptance in the real-estate market. The new feature will enable consumers to initiate an earnest-money or rent payment via a digital check. In addition, real-estate brokers, title companies, and property managers can use Bank Shot to pay realtor commissions.
Bank Shot is positioning its digital-check feature as an alternative to wire transfers and payments initiated through the automated clearing house. All funds moved through the app are protected with Bank Shot’s Check 21 standards and two-factor authentication methods, the company says. Further, Bank Shot says its “stoplight” technology ensures that no transactions take place until the accountholder decides to move forward with the deposit. All funds can be sent and received within 24 hours.
“At Bank Shot, we want our mobile-payments app to be user-friendly for all customers, including those who do not have paper checks,” chief executive Emily Traxler says in a prepared statement. “Compliance is still our top priority, so we’ve built a solution that does not process as an ACH, but as a traditional check that is deposited in the bank or via remote deposit. We want to make sure the home buying experience with us is simple and gives everyone peace of mind.”
Bank Shot is a partner of Rule 1 Ventures, an Atlanta-based venture-capital firm.
In related news, international property developer Prometheus International announced Monday its Royal Blockhouse project. The project will allow consumers to pay rent and eventually purchase one of 24 properties in the program using cryptocurrency in Europe and the United Kingdom. Prometheus is issuing 8,760 non-fungible tokens (NFT), each of which will represent access for a single day of the calendar year to any of the 24 villas in one of the 27 countries in the European Union, including the United Kingdom.
Each villa in the project will be fully operational on the blockchain, Prometheus says, from smart-home features to licensing, entitlements, rent, fees, access, and payment records.
“The Royal Blockhouse combines two aspects of the blockchain revolution: ownership through non-fungible tokens, but also infrastructure design, something that is happening for the first time in the world of luxury real estate,” Prometheus chief executive and founder Priyesh Patel says in a prepared statement.
Prometheus’s goal is to have all 24 villas purchased using NFTs. An NFT is a financial security consisting of digital data stored in a blockchain. Ownership of an NFT is recorded in the blockchain and can be transferred by the owner, allowing the token to be sold and traded.
Each of the more than 8,000 NFTs to be issued by Prometheus will have dynamic on-chain images and metadata that will change based on the weight of its owner’s NFT tokens and will be available for purchase on the day of minting, starting at €20,000 ($20,132 U.S. dollars) each.
Once the villas are constructed, The Royal Blockhouse project will be managed by a consortium of independent legal counsel members on behalf of all NFT owners until all homes are transferred to owners.
