Blockchain in Land Records

1. The contents of this document are confidential
Computerisation of
Land Records
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To Reduce Information Assymetry

2. RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT
 All records that are appropriate to be computerised are
computerised within a reasonable time.
 And connected through a network so that access to these records
is facilitated
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The Obligation To Computerise

3. Existing Challenges
To Computerisation of Land Records

4. PAPER RECORDS
 Proof of ownership exists essentially in paper form
 Computerisation as currently implemented is little more than
digitisation of paper records.
DATA HISTORY
 Due to complexity of transactions, the title history is often unclear
and due diligence is time consuming, expensive and uncertain.
 Most title reports are accompanied by strong caveats
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Existing Challenges

5. CORRUPTION
 Land transactions require registration and officials have
considerable discretion in stamp duty and registration charges
 This is an opportunity for malicious parties to indulge in corruption
VULNERABILITY
 When the title management system is centralised in the registers of
the government, it has a single point of failure
 This means that if the title registry is vulnerable to modification,
essential title records could be manipulated
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Existing Challenges

6. Technical Requirements
Applying Technology to Land Records

7. DIGITAL RECORDS
 There is a need to completely move away from reliance on
paper records
 This will require smart contracts that can be entirely digital
ELECTRONIC LEDGER
 There is a need to establish a reliable electronic ledger that
offers non-repudiable proof of the conclusion of a property
transaction
 The ledger must be tamper-proof and time-stamped to ensure
that records cannot be altered once entered
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Technical Requirements

8. NON-DISCRETIONARY
 The process of registration must be made as free from
discretion as possible
 This will ensure that the risk of corruption is reduced to the
minimum
DISTRIBUTED LEDGER
 In order to ensure that there is no single point of failure, the
ledger should be distributed
 If the only way a record can be changed is to change it on all
copies of the distributed ledger, tampering with the record
becomes infeasible.
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Technical Requirements

9. Blockchain Solution
Using Blockchain Technology for Land Records

10. DISTRIBUTED LEDGER
 Blockchain technology enables the maintenance of a distributed
ledger among all nodes of the system
 Every new transaction is cryptogaphically secured and added to
the chain as part of a new block
 As other blocks are added to the chain the veracity of the
transaction become unassaiable.
TIME-STAMP
 The blockchain is effectively timestamped and transactions
once added cannot be re-arranged in chronological sequence
 This allows everyone to access the entire history of all the
transfers of a given property
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Blockchain Technology

11. SMART CONTRACTS
 Blockchain technology allows the creation of smart contracts
that eliminates opportunities for regulatory discretion
 These smart contracts can be self-executing if combined with
digital payment technologies or crypto-currencies
 Reduce the need for manual intervention as they are automated
SECURITY AND FAULT TOLERANCE
 Since there is no single point of failure it is very expensive to
bring the entire system down.
 If any one node is brought down for any reason, all the others
are still accessible
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Blockchain Technology

12. TRANSPARENCY
 Since the entire blockchain is accessible at all times, there is
complete transparency about all transactions
 This allows for public audit as well as private title due diligence
CONSISTENCY
 The blockchain can only be added to and changed in the
manner prescribed by the software
 This ensures consistency of data across all transaction records
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Blockchain Technology

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