As residential coastal communities face increasing risks and damage from climate change, a growing set of individuals are choosing to retreat to further inland or other locations altogether. However, those with the least economic security - often the longest residents of the community - are also least able to leave, and may see further insecurity as property values drop when wealthier residents sell into a steadily weaker market. This climate injustice is playing out in places ranging from the New Jersey shoreline post-Sandy to the Louisiana coastline with rising seas.
ShoreBirds enables a community to mitigate individual risk exposure based on when they choose (or are forced) to sell their property, by creating a blockchain-mediated trust that is immune from political wrangling and responsive to market volatility. The community (while prices are still stable or rising) chooses specific terms for amount contributed as a percentage or currency amount of the sale, how long contributions are added vs. removed.
Then, using existing connections to existing real estate tracking systems, ShoreBirds tracks property sales in the community and automatically adds and records contributions to the trust, with the total history visible to anyone in the community to see, but to no one in the community to edit.
When prices begin to fall, the trust reduces contributions, and (at a preset point) begins to provide sellers with value from the trust to balance out their potential loss. When the trust hits a negligible value, ShoreBirds automatically files with the federal government for property relief to assist with retreat for any remaining families.
By relying on the immutability and low maintenance costs of smart contracts, ShoreBirds can operate for many years as necessary as markets are stable, or before a major weather event occurs, without incurring management costs. During this time, it continually builds value, and only starts disbursement once the market turns, and supports those hit hardest and least able to quickly respond while property values remain high.