Land Registry Using Blockchain - A Survey of existing systems and

proposing a feasible solution

Ms. Disha Shinde Ms. Snehal Padekar

Department of Computer Engineering Department of Computer Engineering
PCCOE PCCOE
Pune, India Pune, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Mr. Siddharth Raut Mr. Abdul Wasay

Department of Computer Engineering Software Engineer
PCCOE Persistent Systems
Pune, India Pune, India
[email protected] [email protected]

Prof. S. S. Sambhare
Department of Computer Engineering
PCCOE
Pune, India
[email protected]

Abstract— transactions, but nearly all value transactions. In the simplest of

Storing sensitive information like property terms, a blockchain is a time-stamped series of immutable data
papers needs a secure and untamperable database.
Existing centralized systems has numerous drawbacks recording that is managed by a cluster of computers not owned
like performance bottleneck and single point of failure. by any single entity. Cryptocurrencies and blockchain apps have
been one of the fastest-growing areas of computer science over
Hence, a decentralized system with high security is
the previous few years, resulting in a powerful demand for
needed. To cater this need, in this paper, we propose software applications. Blockchain is starting to be explored
blockchain based system for secure storage of property progressively by various sectors seeking to benefit from the
papers. In our system, when a land is bought by a precision and pace that technology can deliver.[1]
person, the government authority will provide the Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology (DLT)
person with the hard copy of property papers and our that distributes information across a computer network rather
system will store the documents into the Inter Planetary than copies it. With blockchain, anyone who has access to the
File System (IPFS), a decentralised database. The IPFS network will automatically receive any changes made to the data.
network will generate the hash of document. This hash There is no central authority in the blockchain network— it is the
will be securely stored into the ethereum blockchain very definition of a democratized system. Because it's a shared
and immutable ledger, the blockchain is open to everyone to see
after satisfying the conditions of the smart contracts.
the information. Therefore, by its very nature, everything that is
The smart contracts will validate and verify the constructed on the blockchain is transparent and all engaged are
documents from the government authorities. This will responsible for their behavior.
create a decentralized, tamper-proof ledger from which
we can retrieve the stored data easily. Smart Contracts:
A smart contract is a computer protocol intended to
Keywords: Blockchain, IPFS, Smart Contract, Land Registry. digitally facilitate, verify, or enforce the negotiation or
performance of a contract. Smart contracts allow the
performance of credible transactions without third parties. Rules
I. INTRODUCTION are put in place so that if an event occurs it generates an action.
For example, if blockchain was being used to coordinate the
Blockchain: delivery of goods, a rule could be put in place so that payment
The blockchain is an incorruptible digital transaction only released when an item has arrived and delivery has been
ledger that can be programmed to record not only economic confirmed.

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 It is true that Blockchain operations are slower than 2. Due to poor implementation of system, individuals are
centralized databases because in comparison with centralized unable to process their application and thus flood the
databases, blockchain must manage more duties. The three extra helpdesk.
functions are: verification of signatures, mechanisms for 3. The system is not safe because of possibilities of
agreement and redundancy. However blockchain has a hacking.
deterministic benefit in offering a reliable, robust and safe way to 4. Since some of the processes are manual, records can be
store information without interfering with respect to system manipulated.
concerned actors.[2] The primary advantage of blockchain is that it is a safe
Many government and private organizations are creating decentralized system. Blockchain implementation will generate a
rules for the implementation of blockchain technology for single source of estate ownership reality and history. The buyer
economic as well as non-financial apps.[3]. Blockchain enables will be ensured that the land carried is the right plot and that the
payment to be completed without any bank or intermediary. vendor is the unambiguous owner of the property that reduces
Therefore blockchain can be used in multiple financial services future conflicts as well as costs and time in the process.
such as digital assets, remittance and internet payment [4].
Blockchain can also be used in other areas, such as smart Auxledger's advantages over current blockchain:
contracts , the Internet of Things (IoT), etc. In various respects, 1. Enhanced safety: Ethereum platform was susceptible to
these fields favor blockchain.[5] attack. Auxledger is a more secure platform. Auxviom
Nick Szabo came out in 1998 with the idea of safe provides more safety in smart contracts due to LLVM
property titles with owner power. A document describing how (Low level Virtual Machine), k-frame and defensive
"new advances in replicated database technology" will enable a programming being implemented differently.
blockchain-based scheme to store a registry of who owns which 2. Transaction cost: The transaction cost is independent of
land. Unfortunately, there was no efficient replicated database market dynamics. Auxledger offers an economic model
system available at the moment, so in reality the protocol was that is self-regulating and has a "no constraints, but pay
never enforced.[6]. what you eat" philosophy, and it does not rely on market
For any kind of a high- value property (real estate, cars, dynamics.
art) it is important to have accurate records which identify the 3. Transaction speed: Auxledger's transaction can achieve
current owner and provide a proof that he is indeed the owner. about 100,000 per second, which makes it possible to
These records can be used to protect owners' rights (e.g. in case support large-scale business applications, unlike
of theft) , resolve disputes and make sure ownership is correctly Ethereum has about 30 tps and Bitcoin 7 tps.
transferred to a new owner after sale thus preventing sale fraud. 4. Data privacy: Auxledger will guarantee that the
Thus it is crucial to maintain correctness and completeness of information is encrypted and no one will be able to keep
this information, and prevent unauthorized, fraudulent changes. track of your record, data privacy and integrity.[7]
The use of blockchain in land registry is being studied mainly for
its ability to safely allow the "nearly immediate" transfer of
assets.

II. RELATED WORK

Land is one of India's most contentious topics. It lacks a correct

scheme for maintaining property documents and providing the
outcomes of rare and long drawn legal conflict to an individual
with conclusive titles. Today in India land title does not ensure
its full rights to an owner. In addition, property transactions are
carried out on paper and not very frequently updated, resulting in
countless conflicts over property. Land documents are
centralized and preserved in the sub-registrar's office in India. It
is also possible that the record may be altered or manipulated. If
these records are stored on a distributed ledger then it will be
impossible to alter or manipulate them, so it will be a revolution Fig. 1[7]. System architecture of Auxledger
to implement blockchain in the land registry. Figure 1 shows the Land Layby (LLB) seeks to bring legitimacy and transparency to
system architecture of Auxledger. property registries with a government blockchain with its
Issues related to e-registration industry experience and technology focus vision. Because
1. E-registration is a centralized method (government) and blockchains are intended to enable a set of mutually distrustful
all information will be lost if there is a crash in the parties to reach consensus on who has what, they will provide the
system, so it's not that safe. members of the LLB ecosystem with transparency of land
registry. It will also tackle problems of trust gaps by openly

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disclosing land and property alternatives. It will enhance record storage system because IPFS has comparatively excellent
keeping effectiveness for property information, customer distributed storage efficiency. It can be conveniently converted if
information, transaction information and a log of prior edits there is a system with better results in the future. Future research
thanks to the intrinsic distributed ledger scheme. In addition, to will examine how to enforce the model in genuine network
maintain data consistency, the data stored on the blockchain is circumstances to evaluate efficiency.
always replicated to all nodes under the blockchain network.
Figure 2 shows the LLB's ecosystem positioning: The paper's input is:
● They have proposed a new blockchain data storage
model that shows how IPFS networks can be used to
decrease blockchain data storage.
● They have introduced a concept evidence illustrating
how miners can use this paper's model to store fewer
blockchain information in actual mining situation, and
how new nodes can synchronize with the network
rapidly.
● They have decoded and created genuine Bitcoin
information statistics, calculated the scheme's
compression rate, and demonstrated the scheme's
outstanding features through storage space, security, and
new node synchronization rate.[9]

Fig. 2[8]. System architecture of Land LayBy Upuli Perera[10] surveyed the Land Registration System in Sri
Lanka and demonstrated it to be a failure in terms of the
requirements of an effective land market. First, the deed
The Clients (Buyers and Land Sellers) that are enrolled on the registration scheme that arose as a temporary land registration
LLB platform reside within the User Role layer. Personal details alternative until a suitable title registration scheme was started
are stored on a local server to protect the client’s privacy. For continued for more than 200 years as the land registration
each user, however, a unique ID is produced that serves as their scheme in Sri Lanka. This is despite several efforts to launch a
crypto address. Producers are the platform delegates accountable scheme for Sri Lanka's title registration. As a consequence, land
for generating value. Some of these manufacturers will have tenure safety could not be accomplished efficiently and
effectively, causing obstacles to the land market and thus to the
access to validate the Land Listings and Land Deals produced on
country's growth.
the platform, i.e. advocates who may have professional
compensation or have to practice under a permit granted by a Within the deed registration scheme, tenure problems would also
professional body that controls their operations. At some point of have impacted this to a higher extent. Looking at other countries '
platform growth, other trusted professionals working under a experience in this respect demonstrates that pragmatic and
regulatory umbrella will be included in the role of validating courageous choices have proved successful in overcoming the
execution problems of title registration initiatives in their
listings. Land Valuers, Surveyors and Finance Agents will
respective instances. Accordingly, the author's research has also
include such manufacturers. The manufacturers will also be tried to define regions that can enhance the effective and efficient
enrolled in the Land LayBy Listing, but they will have exclusive execution of the current land titling project.
access to a Decentralized Application (DApp). The producers
will also have as their crypto address a unique hash ID. The suggestions made by the author are:
Producers will mainly use the DApp to check information of the 1. Titling at the time of land development on a demand
property. This is also where the manufacturer will be rewarded driven basis via local authorities in tax assessed urban/suburban
areas.
for correct verification of the data and penalized for incorrect
2. Upgrade the "Qualified Title Strategy" Special
entry. Since the blockchain database will store these entries, the Registration Area (Dehiwala, Wellawatta, Kirulapana Areas)
information will be immutable. This will guarantee that the 3. Effective cooperation with Divisional Secretaries and
record is still accessible to everyone as a tamper proof. The front Provincial Land Commissars in charge of regularizing
end of the DApp utilizes HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to make a infringements or formalizing informal settlements.
page and capture data from the database using smart contracts 4. Mobilize and strengthen Samatha Mandala to ease
that connect to blockchain.[8] out solving manageable land disputes and litigation with regard
to private lands.
5. Integrate with the Sustainable Township Program
Quihong Zheng[9] proposed an innovative blockchain storage (STP)/REEL(Real Estate Exchange Limited) Project in order to
model based on IPFS. In this scheme, IPFS is selected as the

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deal with the land tenure issues regarding the informal 2. Within 24 hours, LAS shall provide evidence of
settlements in the city of Colombo. possession of the seller on the estate to the notary.
3. Usually, a contract is drafted by a notary if ownership is
However these suggestions are more biased on verified.
expediting the title registration in urban areas and have been 4. Seller and buyer sign the contract after notary
made based on a blind review of the present land administrative confirmation of their identity.
system of Sri Lanka. Hence further research is needed in 5. Document is notarized and signed with its digital
analyzing the feasibility of these proposals and also looks for signature.
more options that would work out for rural areas of Sri Lanka as 6. The notary is required to submit this digital document to
well. [10] LAS within 24 hours.
7. LAS instantly creates a note on the estate saying that the
Through the adoption of blockchain technology, this ongoing property has been sold after obtaining a document from
study explores two nations use cases of land record the notary.
modernization. Through the Honduras and Georgia instances,
Raquel Benbunan-Fich[11] examines how socio-political and As we can see, this system is time-consuming and inefficient. A
technical problems affect government organisations' IS readiness possible solution for this may be as : Again actors would be
when adopting an evolving technology. While both nations were sellers, buyers, notaries and LAS. To register transactions, LAS
partnering with private companies to obtain blockchain would have a smart contract operating on blockchain.
knowledge, one situation was less effective than the other. The
absence of an extensive country-wide land registry with valid 1. The contract shall be drafted by a notary in digital form.
and complete land documents in Honduras, as well as political 2. Seller and buyer sign agreement through
opposition to altering the status quo, placed an end to the implementation with their digital signature after notary
blockchain project. confirmation of their identity.
3. Necessary information will be presented automatically
A powerful public-private partnership with political buy-in, to the LAS intelligent real estate transfer registration
together with more contemporary and reliable digital property agreement.
documents, facilitated the implementation of land registry 4. If terms are met, the transfer note is registered in
blockchain in Georgia. Analyzing these two instances helps blockchain and LAS almost immediately.
recognize enabling and limiting factors linked to the
digitalization of public records and the implementation of This case study provides original thoughts on how blockchain
blockchain land registry projects. While these projects do not and intelligent agreements can be implemented when registering
depend on new technology creation, they involve process real estate transactions in LAS.[12]
redesign and preparation for technology. The combination of
socio-political variables with technology-related variables such A. Rajalakshmi[13] discusses that keeping research records in
as infrastructure and willingness, as these two instances academics is essential to guarantee that research work is properly
demonstrate, generate the circumstances for achievement or planned, managed and executed. With fast technology growth
failure of advanced digitization initiatives. and growing data documents, there are enormous opportunities
for data leakage and record tampering, which is a severe threat to
study records ' privacy and authenticity. This data can lead to
Peled’s proposed framework for public innovation:[11] effectiveness issues when stored in a core server. A distributed
system is therefore needed, which is both effective and safe.
Blockchain is the evolving technology that tries to fix these
problems by generating documents in a distributed setting that
are tamper-proof. IPFS is a protocol intended to store
hypermedia with content-addressability in a peer-to-peer
distributed file storage.
The framework suggested in this article tries to
Fig. 3[11.] Proposed framework for public innovation combine these techniques with other traditional techniques of
encryption to generate a safe, tamper-proof model of scholarly
In this paper, Miroslav Stefanović[12] talks about the registration study recording that is consistent with techniques of access
process for the transfer of ownership over real estate in LAS in control. In addition, the scheme uses ethereum smart contracts to
Serbia is provided. Sellers, buyers, notaries and LAS are actors store the provenance metadata data collected from the IPFS file
in this process. Seller and buyer require notary services at the system to the blockchain network, creating manipulative
preliminary contract and the following steps are: documents for further auditing purposes.[13]

1. Notary applications document proving possession of Victoria L. Lemieux[14] provides a synthesis of original research
LAS estate by the seller. documenting several instances in which blockchain technology
has been applied to property transaction, medical and financial

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record keeping. The article discusses a typology of blockchain
alternatives to manage present documents representing three
separate design patterns using a thematic synthesis of the
instances. It then considers the distinct kinds of alternatives in
relation to the consequences of keeping records and preserving
authentic records in the long term.[14]

Anetta Proskurovska[15] explores a blockchain technology's

social and economic processes in the region of land management.
Specifically, the paper focuses, first, on an evolving blockchain-
based solution in Sweden to alter and enhance its property
management scheme (LAS) and, second, on the prospective
impacts of upgraded LAS to generate more complicated, land- Fig. 4. System architecture of Proposed system
based economic derivatives. We explore how these changes
affect housing markets at the financial markets interface and how
these changes affect the various stakeholders engaged in these Figure 4 shows the architecture of Proposed system.
procedures on the economic organization. The argument is
created using Sweden's case, where Lantmäteriet, a government
agency, is pioneering the use of real-estate conveyance
blockchain technology.[15] Stakeholders of proposed system are :

Abdurrashid Ibrahim Sanka[16] talks that Blockchain inspires ADMIN / LAND INSPECTOR : The admin is the Government
many individuals around the globe and has begun to make many Authority which is going to use the system to store the land
adoptions after successful tests have realized its promising records and access them whenever required.
advantages. Blockchain applications range from cryptocurrency,
smart contracts, banking, management of healthcare and identity,
insurance, land registration to IoT sector. Scalability and BUYER : The buyer will be able to contact the Government
performance problems, however, are significant blockchain Land Registry System to verify whether the property belongs to
difficulties and are less studied. Many lightweight nodes, the seller or not.
particularly IoT devices, rely on blockchain servers and bring a
lot of workload because they are unable to store the complete SELLER : Seller is the person whose property details will be
blockchain because of its enormous size. To save hashing stored into the system and any buyer who wishes to purchase
executions and enhance efficiency, author designs a tailored land will contact the Government.
SHA-256 hash core particular for effective blockchain caching.
Author has constructed and used libraries from Jansson and Curl
Working :
to interface his system with the true heart of Bitcoin. Finally, the
author assesses the Bitcoin core's performance throughput. The
general outcome disclosed that when cache hit, authors system The land registry system will have an admin section. The admin
increases the efficiency of the throughput 103 times. The design will login into the system by providing the necessary credentials.
also provides tiny use of the job region, low power consumption The admin can search for a property by the adhar number of
and greater efficiency.[16] owner or PropertyId. Admin will enter the aadhar number or the
PropertyId and hit the search button. The adhar no or PropertyId
will be searched from the database. All the matching entries from
PROBLEMS IDENTIFIED the database will be displayed in the form of URLs. Hence we
will get the list of all the property owned by the owner.
The current land system in India does not fix the This system will solve the aforementioned problems
"double spending" issue. Because of numerous cases of fraud and like, single point of failure and centralized access. Blockchain
forgery of property papers, a single point of failure could prove has already solved the double spending problem so frauds and
disastrous. Blockchain can be a long-term, viable and best forgeries will be eliminated using this system.
solution since it can provide a decentralized platform for secure
storage of these papers. The current system suffers from the IV. CONCLUSION
security aspect as all the papers are centrally stored in a
government database which can prove to be vulnerable. The current centralized system has issues like
Apart from this, numerous cases of corruption have bottlenecks, single point of failure and chances of forgeries and
occurred in the past where illegally people could tamper with the frauds. Thus using Blockchain we can solve all problems which
government records and this can be harmful. are prevailing in the current centralized system. The proposed
system is designed in a way to provide an easy and secure way to
III. PROPOSED SYSTEM : store and retrieve the property papers and also notify the owner if

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anyone is accessing his papers. This ensures a tamper proof and financialisation of housing? The case of Sweden ” - September
secure storage. 2018.
[16]Abdurrashid Ibrahim Sanka and Ray C.C. Cheung,
Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong
Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China, “Efficient High Performance
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