Overstock.com Blockchain Subsidiary Medici Land Governance Signs Agreement with World Bank to Enhance Access to Secure Land R...
August 01 2018 - 3:59PM
Overstock.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:OSTK) has announced that its
blockchain-meets-property rights subsidiary, Medici Land
Governance, has signed an agreement with the World Bank to support
the design, implementation, and evaluation of pilot programs that
will create systems to ensure secure land tenure.
Recent advances in technology, including increased mobile
internet penetration and distributed ledger technology, can secure
property rights at scale in ways unimaginable even a decade ago. To
unleash this potential, Medici Land Governance will collaborate
with the World Bank to conduct national-level pilots that will
address both regulatory and technological innovation. The World
Bank will also oversee careful evaluation of the pilots to assess
their social and economic impacts. The lack of secure,
well-documented land property rights is a key obstacle to
development around the world. Without documentation, communities
have little protection against speculative land grabs, and land
markets that could drive structural transformation cannot emerge.
Additionally, in many regions, women are unable to easily gain
rightful ownership over land to access credit for entrepreneurial
activity, limiting their financial empowerment and social mobility.
Finally, poor documentation means that governments lack the
information needed to tax land and plan urban expansion and
provides an environment where fraud and corruption have room to
proliferate. Such corruption undermines trust in national
institutions that are the bedrock of social and economic
development.
“I have long viewed land and property governance as an
application of blockchain technology that has far-reaching
implications. From the positive social change it can foster, to its
potential to empower individuals financially, to the promise it
holds for the economic development of entire nations, blockchain
can help the developing world secure the property rights
infrastructure needed to overcome many of its challenges,” said
Patrick M. Byrne, founder and Chairman of Medici Land Governance,
and founder and CEO of its parent company, Overstock.com. “I have
long been aware of and had tremendous respect for the research
conducted by the World Bank, and, in particular, their awareness of
the pivotal role of women in development. Partnering with the World
Bank’s research group will permit us to combine the Bank’s global
reach, ability to build local capacity, and experience in policy
change with the technical expertise that is needed to ensure
emerging technologies are used in ways that are socially
beneficial, particularly for women.”
“Joining forces with Medici Land Governance allows the Bank to
provide our client countries access to cutting edge technology,
work with the countries on adapting the technology to their
context, and then document the impact of the updated process,” said
Klaus Deininger, Lead Economist at the World Bank. “We are excited
about the opportunities this collaboration offers us to generate
transformative innovations and make the case for greater public and
private investment in an area that is key for development.”
The project will focus on increasing security of rights to
individual and communal land and reducing the cost of securing
tenure, especially for disadvantaged groups. These changes will
create a foundation for efficient land transactions and improve
access to land information. Data from the project will be used to
enhance decision-making by both public and private sector entities.
Medici Land Governance (MLG) was founded in 2018 and is the 14th
portfolio company incubated by Overstock’s blockchain technology
accelerator Medici Ventures. MLG’s mission is to help individuals
around the world connect with the global economy by using
blockchain and other technologies to help record rightful ownership
of property. Medici Ventures’ mission is to build a blockchain tech
stack for civilization: land, money, capital markets, supply
chains, and voting. About Overstock.com
Overstock.com, Inc. Common Shares (NASDAQ:OSTK) / Series A
Preferred (Medici Ventures’ tZERO platform: OSTKP) / Series B
Preferred (OTCQX:OSTBP) is an online retailer based in Salt Lake
City, Utah that sells a broad range of products at low prices,
including furniture, décor, rugs, bedding, and home improvement. In
addition to home goods, Overstock.com offers a variety of products
including jewelry, electronics, apparel, and more, as well as a
marketplace providing customers access to hundreds of thousands of
products from third-party sellers. Additional stores include Pet
Adoptions and Worldstock.com dedicated to selling artisan-crafted
products from around the world. Forbes ranked Overstock in its list
of the Top 100 Most Trustworthy Companies in 2014. Overstock
regularly posts information about the company and other related
matters under Investor Relations on its website,
http://www.overstock.com.
About Medici Ventures
Launched in 2014, Medici Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary
of Overstock.com, Inc., created to leverage blockchain technology
to solve real-world problems with transparent, efficient and secure
solutions. Medici Ventures has a growing portfolio of
groundbreaking blockchain-focused investments, including tZERO,
Peernova, Bitt, SettleMint, Factom, and IdentityMind, Spera and
Symbiont. The company’s majority-owned financial technology
company, tZERO, executed the world’s first blockchain-based stock
offering in December 2016.
O, Overstock.com, O.com, Club O, Main Street
Revolution, and Worldstock are registered trademarks of
Overstock.com, Inc. O.biz and Space Shift are also
trademarks of Overstock.com, Inc. Other service marks, trademarks
and trade names which may be referred to herein are the
property of their respective owners.
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and
Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Such
forward-looking statements include all statements other than
statements of historical fact. Additional information regarding
factors that could materially affect results and the accuracy of
the forward-looking statements contained herein may be found in the
Company's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, which was
filed with the SEC on May 8, 2018, and any subsequent filings with
the SEC.
SOURCE: Overstock.com, Inc.
Media Contact:pr@overstock.com
Investor Contact:ir@overstock.com
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