Bergen County has partnered with blockchain startup Balcony in a five-year agreement to
digitize and secure 370,000 property deeds, totaling roughly $240 billion in real estate value.
The project, which uses Avalanche’s blockchain infrastructure, is the largest deed tokenization initiative in U.S. history and aims to modernize public records across all 70 municipalities in New Jersey’s most populous county. County Clerk John Hogan, who served on Governor Murphy’s blockchain task force, said the system will allow residents to search property records from home, reduce fraud and improve accessibility.
The digitization process is expected to cut deed processing time by over 90% while protecting against ransomware attacks, which increasingly target state and local governments. Balcony’s platform offers an immutable chain of title, streamlining ownership transfers and enabling smarter public data use.
Balcony CEO Dan Silverman called it “a turning point” for real estate and government infrastructure, with similar partnerships underway in Camden, Orange, Morristown and Fort Lee. Balcony’s broader rollout will bring over 460,000 properties on-chain in New Jersey alone, as jurisdictions nationwide begin exploring blockchain to enhance transparency, efficiency and public trust.
