Government puts land titles on the blockchain

Description

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.”

Benefits & Outcomes

The goal of the project was to implement a solution of an ownership register to prove the viability and usability of blockchain technology for such a system in real life situations, for the Colombian Land registry

The system was based on unique identifications and immutable registrations on the blockchain of:

Owners:

Natural persons as citizens of a Country

Organizations/Companies registered in a Country

Notaries:

Citizens with the legal authority to act as a Notary in a Country

Immovable properties located in a Country

The list of supported categories of immovable properties includes, but is not limited to: pieces of land, houses, other types of buildings and apartments.

Links
Further Info

From Decrypt:

Many land owners in Colombia still don’t have papers to certify ownership over parcels they inhabit, Ripple Labs added. The project will start by certifying more than 100,000 land adjudications.

“With the public blockchain, once the transaction is recorded, it can never be deleted,” added Antony Welfare, a senior adviser at Ripple Labs. “That’s the most important part. If the government system is blown up, the owner of land will still be in a blockchain because it is held around the world in different nodes.”

Status

This project is live – Post the launch change in Government put the project hold

Submitted to the CBRC Register January 2024 – Researched for CBRC by Antony February 2024

The CBRC Score of 70 has been awarded: “The project is for the government Land registry where all parties need to see the one view of the ownership.  This is critical for the citizens to see one view of the data and therefore be clearly able to see who owns the property.  This information must be verified by a number of parties – using Blockchain to verify that data and share the answer in one place is critical to establishing Trust and “one view of the Truth”

To Verify the Project on Blockchain Scan the QR code:

and to verify live on Ledger: Click Here

A more detailed understanding of the CBRC Score is available on Request

© Antony Welfare 2024

CBRC