In most countries when you are buying land, you have to go through a long process of registering the land, to ensure clarity of ownership rights. In reality there are differing levels of land registry sophistication – in some countries the land registries are more or less complete, however, in many countries the registries are incomplete or non-existent. This means there is a high degree of risk if the land you wish to purchase is unregistered, which can create ownership challenges in the future.
The Colombian government worked with Ripple to put land titles on blockchain technology (specifically XRP Ledger). It was a part of the plan where the government planned to rectify the land distribution efforts that have led to decades of conflicts. The project was completed in collaboration between blockchain development company Peersyst Technology and Ripple. The solution permanently stored and authenticated titles on the XRP Ledger.
How will blockchain help?
Blockchain has multiple use cases, and building land deeds on it is one of them. The South American nation has some of the world’s highest levels of land ownership concentration.
Colombian civil war is worth mentioning as it was the longest war fought over unequal land distribution with leftist guerilla groups taking up arms against the state.
Peersyst mentioned on Twitter, “Excited to share that we just put into production the first version of the national land registry together with Agencia Tierras and the support of Ripple, to register the first adjudication resolution in Colombia on XRPL.”
Many people in Colombia do not have land papers to certify their ownership.
Antony Welfare, a senior advisor at Ripple labs, said, “With the public blockchain, once the transaction is recorded, it can never be deleted. That’s the most important part. If the government system is blown up, the owner of the land will still be in a blockchain because it is held around the world in different nodes.”
Blockchain Notarization
Blockchain Notarization consists of generating a sequence of cryptographic tests and registering them or linking them to some asset on the blockchain. This allows the chain to have a fast tool to carry out from traceability of information or assets, documents, certificates or any object that is imagined to proof of ownership and history of this data. Anything can be registered.
For example, NFTs require this type of evidence with an IPFS Hash registered and tied to a token in order to have proof of ownership and history. The Notarization process is the same, but records the information in accounts and keys, instead of tokens.
Cases which can be used with this is the tokenization or registration of rights or bonds, any certificate, property, document, ETF’s, right to a participation etc – Anything which allows the registering of these actions without having to send it from wallet to wallet, as they are not assets that are usually transferred P2P on a recurring basis, rather assigned and verified, then reassigned and verified, and so on.
Blockchain Notarization allows you to build the cryptographic proofs in a modular way with the resources of the XRPL network, and give you a web-based browser, classifier and filter to access it, as well as auto-generate certificates that are much easier to understand.
Time Magazine – THE BEST INVENTIONS OF 2022
“In a 2016 peace agreement ending Colombia’s long-running conflict, the government promised to formalize property titles that could prevent ownership disputes and help farmers get loans and invest in land. This year, the Colombian government’s National Land Agency launched a national land registry on the blockchain, a decentralized digital ledger of transactions that supports transparency and security. Developed with software developer Peersyst and blockchain company Ripple Labs, the registry recorded its first property in July, just a few weeks before a new administration took over the national government. While the project appears to have stalled, it remains a unique example of blockchain’s potential value in the public realm.”