The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is set to partner with ChromaWay, the creator of the blockchain system Chromia, to test a blockchain solution for land registries for Latin American countries.
ChromaWay will work with the 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 as well. In the initial phases, the project will serve to cater for features that are unique to these countries only.
A key goal of the blockchain project is to involve banks to collect the legal information about farmers and urbanites, and technical information about the properties in question to create a thorough database of land ownership wherever the land was sold indirectly or through informal ways.
The bank intends to put $600,000 into the project. The initial round of the project will involve an exploratory phase where the management will understand how land registries can be linked with blockchain in a way that creates trust between the stakeholders.
Eirivelthon Santos Lima, the project director of IADB’s environment, rural development and disaster risk management division in La Paz, Bolivia said that it was important to work with the various governments in Latin America to show how the technology can be used for their convenience.
This project aims to unearth how blockchain technology in particular can be used to establish proper land titles in Latin America. “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,” Lima said.
Blockchain for Transparent Land Registry Data
ChromaWay’s credentials make it a suitable candidate for this project. ChromaWay has had extensive experience with distributed ledgers which the company has integrated with its flagship blockchain, Chromia. The IADB was particularly interested in ChromaWay because of the work it has done in tracking land titles in countries like Sweden, Australia and India.
The main benefit of using the land registries protocol ChromaWay proposes is that everything will be digital and the time to collect land registry data (that used to take months with the traditional system) will take a couple of minutes.
According to ChromaWay CEO, Henrik Hjelte, the partnership with IDB aims to unlock the opportunity for the partnering countries to experience the improved distributed ledger technology to be integrated with the social programs. He noted positively that his company was excited to implement these blockchain solutions in regions where secure land registration systems can have a positive impact.
