Saudi Arabia has not tokenized a property. It has struck at the heart of a system that Europe has protected for two centuries.
In Riyadh, a minister approves a resolution and, without further processing, a real property title is divided into digital units directly linked—literally “linked”—to the state registry. It is negotiated, transferred, settled. Operational. Real. Without asking anyone’s permission.
In Europe, at the same time, a legal committee debates whether a notary can accept a smart contract without destabilizing the legal edifice built since 1862. That is the difference. And it hurts.
Because this is not about technology. We all have technology. This is about who controls the institutional architecture that gives life to real law.
In Saudi Arabia there is a single decision center. In Europe there is no union: there are twenty-seven corporate ecosystems – registries, notaries and professional bodies – that make a living from property functioning the same as it did two centuries ago.
MiCA is an impeccable regulatory work. It puts us ahead in the digital management of the token. But as soon as the token tries to touch the title, the wall appears: delegated public faith, numerus clausus, mandatory presence, tariffs that no one discusses and a registry that continues to operate as in the 19th century, but with better connectivity (wifi).
Spain is no exception. It is the clearest case. Here the Property Registry has immense functional autonomy, and the notary remains the obligatory guardian of the contract. No one—neither politicians nor regulators—dares to suggest that perhaps a state ledger could fulfill part of these functions without charging 1,200 euros per mortgage.
Italy maintains a Catasto that no digital plan has managed to move. France preserves a notarial monopoly worthy of Napoleon. Germany maintains territorial notaries by district as if they were fiefdoms. Portugal and Italy close professional access with impenetrable numerus clausus. Mexico and Brazil maintain cartórios whose local power exceeds that of many regulators.
Everyone digitizes processes. No one gives up power.
Argentina moved quickly: RG 1069, RG 1081. Tokenization of real estate, trusts, funds, machinery and invoices. But in the end, the notary is still there, the trustee is still there, the Securities Fund is still there and the traditional title is still the one that rules.
Institutions do not disappear. They reconfigure. And while they reconfigure, they block.
Saudi Arabia does not have that problem. You don’t need to negotiate with anyone.
In 2026 it will publish the technical standards and, if desired, today’s “linked to official records” will become a model where the state ledger is the main operational reference of real law.
Europe in 2026 will continue to debate whether a hash can be incorporated into a notarial grant without collapsing the system. The blockade is not produced by a single professional body. It is produced by a complete institutional architecture – notarization, registration, cadastre, tariffs, territorial powers and mortgage principles – designed so that ownership does not change abruptly.
This is not a technology race. It is an institutional execution in real time.
Humiliation is not in what we don’t know how to do. It lies in what we cannot do without permission from structures created to perpetuate themselves.
Of course, the notary is not the cause, it is one more gear. The system as a whole is built to preserve stability, not to absorb structural innovation.
Europe does not function by isolated unions. It works for institutional architectures that fit together:
– notary – property registry – cadastre – professional associations – tariffs – territorial powers – consolidated jurisprudence – ministries with inherited functions – European common minimum directives – historical civil legislation – numerus clausus of real rights – delegated public faith – mortgage principles of the 19th century
And that is the truth that no one wants to admit: in the next decade, digital property will be full where institutions do not block…, and it will continue to be a decorative reflection where institutions protect themselves under the excuse of protecting the citizen.
Welcome to the real world. Here the best programmer does not win. The winner is whoever has the institutional capacity to use technology where it matters: in the title.
Saudi Arabia already has it. Europe continues to ask for its turn to speak.
The final test? The Big Four have been billing blockchain consulting services to the same notaries and registries for ten years, which then slow down adoption in the “legal viability” phase.
They charge for the report. We pay for the inertia.
It is deliberate institutional design. Europe does not block because it does not know how to move forward; It blocks because it was designed not to move quickly.
by Antonio Tejeda Encinas President of Comité Euro Americano de Derecho Digital — CEA Digital Law
