Case Study: National Association of REALTORS® speeds member engagement searches and improves member services with Hyperledger Fabric

How the National Association of REALTORS Improved Member Services with Hyperledger Fabric

The National Association of Realtors, America’s largest trade association representing about 1.3 million members across roughly 1,200 local and 54 state associations, faced a data-sharing challenge: member engagement information (volunteerism, committee service, professional development) was siloed across independent associations even though billing data was centralized. Getting hundreds of independent organizations to relinquish control of their engagement data to a single database was impractical, so NAR sought an open, permissioned solution to share verified member histories without forcing a single owner.

NAR implemented a permissioned blockchain solution using Hyperledger Fabric to create the REALTOR® Association Blockchain (BlockR), backed by a governance document and a pilot built by six associations (with data from four more). The Hyperledger-based pilot cut searches for member engagement from hours of emails and calls to seconds, and within a week of the pilot presentation 51 associations asked to join. The result is faster onboarding and preserved institutional knowledge across associations, with Hyperledger enabling secure, auditable sharing and the potential to expand BlockR into a broader “one-stop” member record.

National Association of Realtors

Mark Lesswing

CTO