Computerisation of Land Records

1. Computerisation of Land Records To Reduce Information Assymetry

2. The Obligation To Computerise 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

3. Existing Challenges To Computerisation of Land Records

4. Existing Challenges 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

5. Existing Challenges 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

6. Technical Requirements Applying Technology to Land Records

7. Technical Requirements 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

8. Technical Requirements 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.

9. Blockchain Solution Using Blockchain Technology for Land Records

10. Blockchain Technology 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

11. Blockchain Technology 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

12. Blockchain Technology 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

13. Thank You