The land registration process is still mostly complicated and inefficient in many countries of the world. There are three major problems associated with land registration at the moment: time delays, fraud, and human error.
First, it can take an extremely long time for title registrations to occur.
Whether the lengthy timeframe is due to information being backed up or other internal issues, it is clear that land registration currently works on an outdated system.
In some countries, the issue of the backlog is so significant that it causes the majority of the land to be left unregistered. Many African countries face these very issues. In Ghana, for example, real estate is almost invisible due to the backlog. The customary land tenure system accounts for nearly 80% of all land in the country and is usually unregistered.
How Blockchain Can Solve Land Registry Issues
Notably, the issues of time delays are not “exclusive” to third-world countries. There are blockchain trends that you need to watch in 2019. Trends in blockchain can fix land registry issues, especially in first world country’s such as England and Wales, for example. Although the registration documents are now submitted through an online portal in Great Britain, the registration process itself is not automated and is still carried out in an “old way.” A group of fallible people, susceptible to human error — still operate with the same speed they’ve been working for years with paperwork.
Additionally, the process of land registration gets tied up due to legal matters. Someone may refuse to move from the land. Who is responsible for running this individual off the property? The seller? The buyer? A government agency? Traditionally, a constable was called, or the police, but the responsibility has shifted.
The second most prevalent problem deals with fraud and blockchain can solve this land registry issue.
For instance, it’s pervasive in Brazil for people to take land either through bribery, intimidation, and other illegal practices. Once the property is taken over, a person or company will build farms or other “good” real estate, and then register the land as their own through Brazil’s outdated land registry system.
The third ailment to land registry systems is human error. Many of title registration systems are paper-based and rely purely on the implementation of human action. Actions solely carried out by people means that the whole process is prone to failure, as humans are not as sophisticated as their digital counterparts. Blockchain technology can rectify all of these problems.
How Blockchain Solves Land Issues
Blockchain technology can significantly enhance the efficiency of land registry systems. Land registration can be much more streamlined with automation provided through smart contracts. And these contracts don’t need any government intervention.
Changes to blockchain occur, nearly real-time. Real-time drastically shortens the weekly and sometimes monthly time delays associated with the land registry system. Blockchain also can limit fraud by giving every legit member access to the blockchain. Everything available can be seen immediately blockchain dramatically increases transparency, and there is no means in which fraud can happen.
Human error exponentially adds to the time delay associated with paper-based land registry systems. A blockchain-based system streamlines every operation through automation of contracts, and failure is reduced. Blockchain saves governments vast amounts of money because the blockchain-based systems are digital. Of course, some functions can only be done through paper, but a digital system saves money — and all kinds of government “money power.” The entire land registration as a whole is quicker and more efficient with blockchain.
Blockchain Land Registry: Real-Life Use Cases
Other names are entering the blockchain system. The company Corda is currently utilized in the UK for its “Digital Steet” program. The overall task of the Digital Street Program is to enhance current land registry systems in the region through digitalization. The goal is to digitize at least 95% of all of the UK’s land registry systems by 2022. Ultimately, the idea is to provide a minimum of a three-day turnaround by utilizing automation associated with blockchain.
Natural Disasters and Efficient Land Registry with Blockchain in India
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, many were eager to get the small country back on its feet. However, there was one main problem standing in the way. Many portions of the land were not backed up by a registry, which meant that people were fighting over land. There is fighting over portions of land because there was no way of telling which piece of land belonged to whom.
Land registration is a colonial idea and is often hard to implement in various places around the globe. Especially tricky are situations where there is only an “oral history” of who has resided or owns the lands in question. Due to high illiteracy rates in this and other developing countries, the land is often stolen from people who are unaware that registration was even necessary in the first place. This land problem a major problem in remote parts of India and has now gone on in history for decades.
However, a real estate blockchain company can go into these underdeveloped countries to ensure that lands stay in the right owners’ hands by putting blockchain technology to use.
Uploading land purchase data on blockchain will keep the data safe and secure at all times. As long as blockchain nodes are distributed evenly between blockchain members, there is no room for fraud or foul play. These same systems are used to protect the identities of landowners. Additionally, blockchain provides extensive security measures with near-zero hacking risks.
Bringing Registry to Countries with Blockchain
In Brazil, vast amounts of rainforest are destroyed by nefarious actors. These “ghosts,” as they are known in the region, are continually destroying vast amounts of rainforest for uses associated with paper production, or various other goods.
Illegal systems can thrive when there is improper handling of land registry in the banking, financial, and government systems.
The rainforests becoming “deforested” happens purely because Brazil, at the moment, does not have the proper land registry system in place. With blockchain, a more transparent system can quickly be developed, which would benefit everyone in Brazil as a whole. A fast system of blockchain may be an answer to many ecological issues.
Final Thoughts
Blockchain will provide protection globally to the land management systems. With the help of blockchain, fraud, intimidation, bribery, and acquiring or stealing land will stop in land acquisition. Blockchain will prove beneficial in most regions globally. In places like Brazil, India, and even in the UK and elsewhere — secure and efficient land registry with blockchain is possible. No more suffering from the illegal acts and takeovers of vile individuals, characters, and companies.
