Gryphonboy
For millennia, property has underpinned human civilisation: land titles, gold, share certificates, car keys, deeds, and more. These instruments, whether physical or legal, have served as the backbone of commerce and society. Today, as digital transformation sweeps finance and technology, a provocative thesis emerges—a world where all property, not just money, will be secured, transferred, and governed by cryptography, specifically blockchain technology. This concept imagines a world in which ownership and access move from paper (legal contracts) to programmable, immutable ledgers.
But what does it truly mean when “all property becomes cryptography”? Is this a Cypherpunk fantasy or a plausible evolution in how we define and enforce ownership? This essay explores the technological, legal, economic, and philosophical ramifications of a fully onchain approach to property; its drivers, its current state, and the profound questions it raises for our society.
The journey to a cryptographic future began with Bitcoin, launched in 2009 by the shadowy Satoshi Nakamoto. Bitcoin is more than just an asset; it is a globally accessible, politically neutral, mathematically verifiable ledger of ownership. There is no judgement or argument about who owns how much BTC: the blockchain makes the answer accessible to all—resolving property claims with the unyielding precision of mathematics. As Balaji Srinivasan writes:
“No matter what political faction you’re in, everyone agrees on the raw fact of who owns what amount of BTC.”1
Today, trillions in value are already “onchain,” and Bitcoin’s recognition as digital gold is spreading both in financial markets and legal frameworks2.
From stablecoins to tokenised stocks, onchain assets have proliferated. Stablecoins such as USDC and USDT act as digital dollars, enjoying legal clarity in several jurisdictions. This regulatory acceptance is crucial, clearing the path for a range of other assets—including equities, bonds, commodities, and real estate—to move onto blockchains.
Tokenised asset growth: The value of tokenised real-world assets (RWAs) on public blockchains surged to nearly $18 billion by early 2025, up 80% from the year before3.
Forecasts: Some industry analysts predict tokenisation of RWAs could reach $0.6 trillion by 2025 and $18.9 trillion by 2033 if current trends continue. This marks a 53% compound annual growth rate, with major banks and asset managers moving real products onchain4.
These assets are divisible, programmable, and tradable peer-to-peer—laying the groundwork for a new global financial architecture.
It’s not just digital property. The march toward onchain extends to the physical world; homes, cars, planes, any asset with an access point. Innovations in smart locks now allow digital signatures, such as NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens), to unlock doors or activate systems. Instead of a metal key or a plastic card, access is controlled through digital proof of ownership, enforceable globally so long as there is an internet connection5.
Real-World Example:
Web3 smart lock systems like “We-Lock” leverage NFT ownership as a digital key. Holders of the right NFT in their blockchain wallet can access coworking offices, hotel rooms, or event spaces, providing tamper-proof, programmable, and instantly revocable access control5.
But onchain authority doesn’t stop at the front door. Imagine a car that won’t start unless your wallet contains its unique control token, or a drone deployable only by its cryptographically recognised owner. Industrial machinery, robots, and even aircraft can be embedded with such onchain controls—a shift from physical to digital operational keys6. The ramifications:
Enhanced security: Thieves can’t steal what they can’t mathematically unlock.
Remote programmability: Rights and controls can be transferred anywhere, instantly, without reliance on physical presence.
Beyond basic physical access, the vision stretches further into capital equipment—cranes, delivery drones, humanoid robots. These are no longer just assets to be owned but platforms to be programmed, remotely controlled, and managed onchain. As automation and the Internet of Things (IoT) expand, a centralised or paper-based registry simply cannot keep up. Here, cryptographic, decentralised registries become not just efficient but indispensable6.
Not everything can or should be onchain. Personal consumables eg. groceries and clothing are unlikely to warrant blockchain-based titles of ownership. Yet these exceptions form a negligible portion of global value; most assets of lasting value such as homes, vehicles, machines and financial instruments are fair game for tokenisation6.
Despite their promise, traditional computer systems, including those underpinning governments and banks, are frequently compromised by hackers. Centralised databases make attractive targets; a single breach can expose millions of records8. In contrast, public blockchains distribute data across thousands of nodes. Once a transaction or record is validated, it becomes almost impossible to alter or erase without consensus.
Immutability: Records on the blockchain cannot be changed retroactively, ensuring tamper-resistance.
Cryptographic Protection: Transactions are secured by mathematically robust cryptography, linking each event to the next, forming an auditable chain8.
No central point of failure: Hacking one node doesn’t compromise the system.
A well-designed blockchain has never been successfully hacked at a protocol level—making it arguably the most secure property registry in history9.
Smart contracts, pieces of code that execute when certain criteria are met, enable rich, programmable logic onchain. Ownership, lending, inheritance, auctioning, and even collective investment can be encoded directly on the ledger, minimising the need for legal intermediaries and streamlining transactions (with all execution transparent, auditable, and irreversible)9.
Imagine an apartment that automatically switches ownership to a new user upon receipt of payment onchain.
Or, a car that stops working until taxes or insurance are paid, thanks to a smart contract check.
This convergence of legal and technical systems points toward a world in which “law is enforced by code.”
Computation comes at a price. Blockchain consensus mechanisms, particularly Proof-of-Work (PoW) as used by Bitcoin, require enormous energy inputs. In 2025, Bitcoin’s network consumed 173 TWh annually, more than Pakistan, and equivalent to powering 16.2 million US households10.
Per transaction: The average Bitcoin transaction consumed about 1,335kWh (the same as 45 days’ power for an average US household)10. (As a side note, this is why I don't believe in the long term future of bitcoin without a significant update to its consensus mechanism.)
Ethereum’s move to Proof-of-Stake: Showed >99.9% reduction in energy per transaction (from 84,000Wh to just 35Wh), highlighting how technology choices can mitigate environmental impact10.
Still, as the scale of tokenised assets and onchain IoT expands, the demands on networks and semiconductors will increase. Energy, bandwidth, and computing resources become geopolitical questions.
Blockchains are transparent by design: to verify transactions, ledgers are public. But when homes, cars, or everyday objects are tracked onchain, the risk of surveillance grows. Who gets to see, monitor, and audit these records? Owners need robust cryptographic privacy tools to ensure autonomy. The challenge: balancing transparency for security with privacy for individuals8.
Is cryptographic property inevitable or desirable?
While the trajectory seems clear for financial assets and capital equipment, does a purely digital system exclude those without access or technical knowledge?
Regulatory uncertainty: Laws lag behind innovation, and sharply differing jurisdictional approaches may present challenges for global interoperability.
The transformation envisioned by the thesis that “all property becomes cryptography” is underway. Bitcoin and public blockchains proved the model; real-world assets are rapidly leaping onchain; programmable access to physical spaces is now a Web3 reality. At stake is nothing less than the way we define, secure, and transfer ownership in the digital age. Security, transparency, and programmability are within reach, but so too are unprecedented challenges related to social equity, environmental sustainability, and technological sovereignty.
A future where all valuable property sits on an open, cryptographically secured ledger isn’t science fiction; it’s increasingly today’s reality. But achieving its full promise will require careful navigation of legal, technical, and ethical shoals. For every locked door unlocked by a digital signature, a new debate begins about freedom, privacy, and the foundations of property itself.
Support dialog
