L. to. R.: Alex McGee, Chief Revenue Officer, head of Govt. Affairs and co-founder Balcony; Gregg Lester, Pres. and co-founder Balcony; John Hogan (Bergen County Clerk); Dan Silverman, CEO and co-founder Balcony; Luigi D’Onorio DeMeo, Chief Strategy Officer, Ava Labs, creator of Avalanche, the blockchain provider behind Balcony.
The Bergen County Clerk’s Office has inked a deal with blockchain-based land record management company, Balcony, to digitize 370,000 property deeds constituting roughly $240 billion in real estate value. This groundbreaking action is the largest blockchain deed tokenization project in the US. The county’s adoption of blockchain for deed tokenization is a forward-thinking first for a major US county and will set a new standard for other states, counties and cities.
When the project is complete, Bergen County will have a fully-digitized, searchable chain of title in all of its 70 municipalities. Balcony’s platform, powered by blockchain network Avalanche, will significantly accelerate deed processing, and will decrease fraud risk, clerical errors and the number of title disputes. It also will provide protection against hacking and ransomware attacks.
“This is a turning point for real estate and public record systems,” said Dan Silverman, CEO of Balcony. “By working with the Bergen County Clerk’s Office to bring all property records on-chain, we’re demonstrating how secure, distributed systems can replace outdated infrastructure and deliver real-world value for both governments and the public.”
The Bergen County partnership is a major step forward in Balcony’s push to update and modernize government real estate systems across the state of New Jersey. Currently, Balcony is partnering with other New Jersey cities and towns, including Orange, Camden, Morristown, Fort Lee and Cliffside Park. In Orange, Balcony discovered almost $1,000,000 in city revenue that would never have been recovered because of inadequate, outdated record keeping. The goal is to increase transparency, efficiency, and public trust in official records
“This initiative is about improving the lives of our residents,” noted John Hogan, County Clerk of Bergen County. “By digitizing property records, we are making the process simpler, faster, and more secure for homeowners, businesses, and future generations. Our plan is to use this forward-thinking approach to enhance transparency, reduce delays, and protect against hacks.”
