Fun

Inter-American Development Bank to Pilot Land Registries on Blockchain

News Feed - 2019-10-29 03:10:19

After years of talking about it, the Inter-American Development Bank is for the first time testing out a blockchain for land registries.


Next month, the global organization will embark on a two-year project to put land registration and lending in three Latin American countries on a blockchain.


The IADB, the largest source of development financing for Latin America and the Caribbean, has long been bullish on blockchain for land registries, despite the high costs of blockchain projects with sometimes uncertain returns.


The organization is working with blockchain startup ChromaWay and Bolivian IT services company Jalasoft to pilot the technology in Bolivia, Peru and Paraguay, with the goal of extending the test to other parts of South America.


“We need to work with our governments in Latin America to show them the potential of the technology,” said Eirivelthon Santos Lima, the project director of IADB’s environment, rural development and disaster risk management division in La Paz, Bolivia. “The issue is very abstract for them and the best way to teach them about this technology and get them interested is to show them how it works from scratch.”


The IADB hopes that ChromaWay’s blockchain can help ease the burden of efforts to reestablish proper land titles in Latin America countries, which can cost $50 million to $100 million per project, Lima added.


These projects usually involve the bank collecting the legal information of farmers and urbanites and technical information about properties to create a proper record of land ownership where land was sold informally.


Through its R&D arm, IDB Lab, the bank is putting $600,000 toward the project. Phase One will explore how to connect land registries to the blockchain in a way that creates more trust as well as what kind of blockchain to use.


The bank will rely on standards for blockchain technology developed by IDB Lab and LAC-ChaiN, an alliance to promote the use of blockchain in Latin America and the Carribbean. It will also use the World Wide Web Consortium (WC3) specification for verifiable claims and decentralized identifiers. Partner’s track record


The IADB picked ChromaWay because it noticed the startup’s work in tracking land titles in Sweden, and similar projects running in Australia, Canada, and India.


“We’ve had up to 32 steps in the process to claim a property in Sweden, which could take up to three months between the buyer’s bank, seller’s bank and real estate agents,” said ChromaWay chief executive Henrik Hjelte. “We digitize this process and shorten the time to online in a few minutes.”


ChromaWay will apply several of its blockchain-related technologies for the project. This includes Postchain, which the firm describes as a blockchain rooted in relational databases, and Rell, a programming language for blockchain and smart contracts. The bank also has the option of deploying the project on ChromaWay’s public blockchain, known as Chromia.


Unlike a pure blockchain, ChromaWay’s tech also includes database capabilities like organizing and setting parameters on the data that is represented, the firm said.


“It’s basically a root based on a mathematical way to represent the data,” Hjelte said. “This way you cannot have the same Social Security number for more than one person, and you cannot sell the same property twice.”


IADB image by Shutterstock

News Feed

Was sub-$60K a bear trap? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this week
William Suberg37 minutes agoWas sub-$60K a bear trap? 5 things to know in Bitcoin this weekBitcoin teases a return of the bull market as the monthly and quarterly close save BTC price action from a major trend loss.296 T
Cointelegraph Markets Pro9 hours agoBitcoin disappoints while Markets Pro delivers 88% gains in 29 hoursCointelegraph Markets Pro hands investors breaking alerts leading to multiple double-digit trades in a “dead” cr
Pro Trader-Focused NFT Marketplace Blur Secures $11 Million in Seed Round Led by Paradigm
Pro Trader-Focused NFT Marketplace Blur Secures $11 Million in Seed Round Led by Paradigm On March 28, the non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Blur announced the company has raise
Visa Plans to Bring Cryptocurrency Services to Traditional Banks in Brazil
Visa Plans to Bring Cryptocurrency Services to Traditional Banks in Brazil Visa, the multinational payments giant, has announced it is planning to bring cryptocurrency services to
Better Business Bureau Warns of Cryptocurrency Investment Scams on Tiktok
Better Business Bureau Warns of Cryptocurrency Investment Scams on Tiktok The Better Business Bureau (BBB) has warned about cryptocurrency scams on Tiktok. “You are scrollin
VanEck files form 8-A for spot Ether ETF, approval timeline revealed?
Vince Quill7 hours agoVanEck files form 8-A for spot Ether ETF, approval timeline revealed?Senior Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas pointed to VanEck’s 8-A filing for its Bitcoin ETF as a clue for the potential laun
Crypto Derivatives Surge, Bitcoin Options Open Interest Climbs to $9.6 Billion
Crypto Derivatives Surge, Bitcoin Options Open Interest Climbs to $9.6 Billion Bitcoin options open interest has reached $9.6 billion according to derivatives ma
Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson Asks Fans if They Prefer Bitcoin or Ethereum
Former Heavyweight Boxing Champion Mike Tyson Asks Fans if They Prefer Bitcoin or Ethereum On Saturday, former heavyweight boxing champion, Mike Tyson, asked his
Republican Congressman Tom Emmer Queries FDIC on Alleged Efforts to Purge Crypto Activity from US
Republican Congressman Tom Emmer Queries FDIC on Alleged Efforts to Purge Crypto Activity from US On Wednesday, Tom Emmer, the U.S. Republican congressman from Minnesota, revealed
TON users gain free access to advanced analytics
Josh O"Sullivan1 hour agoTON users gain free access to advanced analyticsThe Open Network community gains free access to over 60 advanced analytics indicators through an IntoTheBlock integration.471 Total views2 Total sh
Bitwise CIO says BTC ETFs are huge success and 13F filings make him ‘incredibly bullish’
Nancy Lubale3 hours agoBitwise CIO says BTC ETFs are huge success and 13F filings make him ‘incredibly bullish’Bitwise CIO Matt Hougan says this week"s 13F filings prove that the spot Bitcoin ETFs were a “huge succ
Defiance CEO ‘Completely Bullish on Bitcoin’ — Says It’s ‘a Good Time to Get in’
Defiance CEO "Completely Bullish on Bitcoin" — Says It"s "a Good Time to Get in" The head of Defiance ETFs says she is “completely bullish on bitcoin.” Noting that