Episode 299 – Natalia Karayaneva, CEO – Propy

The Real Estate Sessions

Episode Summary:

Guest: NATALIA KARAYANEVA

Episode Summary:

Meet our guest in this episode, Natalia Karayaneva, CEO of Propy and serial entrepreneur born and raised in Russia.

In this episode, I sit with Natalia as she explains key concepts about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, NFTs, and smart contracts, paving future trends and developments in the real estate processes.

Top Takeaways:

"I strongly believe in the experience of a real estate transaction to be as easy as buying a book online."

- [Natalia Karayaneva]

"Do not be afraid of novelty; embrace innovation."

- [Natalia Karayaneva]

Episode Highlights:

[00:23] Intro

[00:54] Meet today's guest, Natalia Karayaneva.

[03:12] About Natalia's background.

[08:30] Natalia's first exposure to Blockchain

[14:30] Discussing Cryptocurrency and Blockchain in Real Estate.

[27:12] NFTs in Real Estate.

[36:13] About the "Learn and Earn" App.

[38:15] Natalie's advice to new agents.

[39:04] Connect with Natalia.

[40:18] Outro

Episode Notes:

Growing up in Russia, Natalia struggled through the devastating communist collapse, with a shortage of resources and other hardships that pushed her into entrepreneurship. Even with this, she never expected to leave Russia. However, as a child, she knew she wanted to do something impactful and was fascinated by other cultures and technology.

At 19, Natalia moved to Bulgaria, got married, and started her first company creating applications for small businesses. She also worked on a significant social media project to improve real interaction between people and reduce the anonymity in social media platforms in the past. With a Computer Software degree in Russia, and a Master's degree in Sustainable Urban Development at Oxford, Natalia's passion lies in Blockchain, Real Estate, and Sustainability.

Describing how she picked interest in Blockchain, Natalia recommends "The Sovereign Individual" by James Dale Davidson. Following the crash in the value of the Russian Ruble after the collapse of communism, her family finances were severely affected, and she learned the need to have prodigals that are fair to a large number of people, independent of government activities. This initiated her motivation to start Propy even though, at the time, she knew nothing about Blockchain.

The name "Propy" came about as Natalia stumbled on the domain "Propy.com" while trying to find a suitable one for her business-related property. Natalia agrees that all the different aspects of Real Estate can be integrated into a compact digitized form as a smart contract in the future. So far, the Blockchain mechanism has never been hacked, so they are considered highly secure.

About Blockchain/ Cryptocurrency: Cryptocurrency is virtual money, independent of any government or corporation. Many people are getting more involved with it, especially in developing countries where they don't trust their government. Bitcoin is the first significant cryptocurrency launched 13 years ago; Listeners are encouraged to review the Bitcoin white paper. Ethereum is also a cryptocurrency, but it also has the capability of smart contracts, which will be adopted in Real Estate. It is important to note that becoming a bitcoin miner as a single user on a computer is now virtually impossible. The tasks are more complicated by far due to the high level of competition among existing miners. However, other Blockchain networks give coin rewards to people who already own a stake of coin and verify transactions; called Proof of Stake Prodigal.

While Natalia would not advise anyone to put all their savings in any cryptocurrency, she encourages people to start with a small amount of money and transact on Blockchain for learning purposes. Additionally, even with the volatility in bitcoin, Natalia believes that overall, the value of Bitcoin will go as high as $100,000, and Ethereum will also have an exceptionally significant increase in value; this is owed to a general increase in utility of these cryptocurrencies. It is important to note that Bitcoin, like most cryptocurrencies, has a limited amount of supply.

NFTs in Real Estate: Natalia explains that realtors can now take a crypto-certified agent course that defines the critical aspects of smart contracts, NFTs, cryptocurrency, and blockchain applications in Real Estate. NFT avatars and Cryptopunks have become a thing of status on social media, and just the skyrocketing demand for these limited pictures has pushed up the cost to millions of dollars.

A smart contract would include payments and proof of it, signatures on the purchase agreement, and, lastly, an automatic transfer of ownership after the first two conditions have been successfully confirmed.

NFT is a Non-Fungible Token that exists in a digital wallet that can instantly be transferred to another person's wallet. This is the same concept with Real Estate NFTs, where the ownership of a property in a wallet can be transferred to another wallet in minutes. The aim is to simplify buying and owning Real Estate properties by making the process less traditional and more digital.

About the "Learn and Earn App": This program allows agents to do traditional deals, deals with crypto payment, and NFT deals, even if they have not used these methods before. Every step would be recorded on the Propy Blockchain, and while doing these everyday transactions, agents get rewarded with tokens. There are also reward tokens for taking surveys, which helps incentivize people to make more use of the platform. For more information, listeners are encouraged to check the Propy website.

Natalie's advice to new agents: Do not be afraid of novelty; embrace innovation. Older agents can get a younger mentor in technology while they teach them how to do Real Estate. Cryptocurrencies and Blockchain NFTs are here to stay, so learn and embrace them.