Decentralised Land Registry and Transactions

10/31/2024

Land registry is a system that maintains public records of land ownership, transactions, and property boundaries, offering legal documentation and information on titles and associated rights. However, challenges persist within current registries, including issues of accuracy, efficiency and transparency. Implementing blockchain in land registry systems can enhance transparency, prevent fraud, streamline transactions, and ensure the integrity of property records. This document presents a comprehensive exploration about integrating blockchain technology into land registry systems, with the goal of revolutionising traditional practices by addressing their limitations. The proposed solution, named Decentralised Land Registry (DLR), leverages a permissioned blockchain system, in this case, Hyperledger Fabric, enabling a secure and controlled environment for data access and transaction validation within the system. By using a permissioned blockchain we guarantee that the nodes maintaining the system are from different government entities and therefore compliance can be ensured. The use of smart contracts ensures consensus and immutability and allows support for legitimate property transactions overseen by registry authorities. Decentralised identities are created under user control to enhance privacy and security, alongside verifiable credentials serving as ownership proofs for the land, issued by a centralised authority. Decentralised identities and ownership proofs are issued using a self-sovereign identity approach, leveraging Hyperledger Indy as the ledger and Hyperledger Aries as the agent representing government entities and issuing these credentials. Overall, this solution marks a pivotal shift in land registry systems, resolving existing limitations and fostering a transparent, reliable, and efficient landscape for managing property rights and transactions.

Authors in the community:

• 

  P

  Pedro Miguel Carvalho Henriques

  ist196761

Supervisors of this institution:

• 

  M

  Miguel Nuno Dias Alves Pupo Correia

  ist130598

electrical-engineering-electronic-engineering-information-engineering - Electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering

eng - English

Instituto Superior Técnico