The flurry of activity related to blockchain-for-land

over the past few years is impressive, with a num ber of firms working with land registries worldwide. Yet, skepticism is growing around the technology’s potential for land administration due to the fitful growth of various pilots. Some projects, notably those in Georgia and Dubai, do continue to grow. But other blockchain-for-land efforts — such as those in Vermont, Brazil and Ukraine — have succumbed to “pilot-itis.” These projects worked on a small scale, and were even replicated, but haven’t been able to reach larger populations.

There are a few noticeable trends behind why some projects scaled and others didn’t. Pilots that struggled to expand ignored influential stakeholders in the early stages. Or, projects tried to address problems for which blockchain was an ill-suited solution. There were frequently unrealistic expectations concerning outcomes, partially due to a lack of blockchain education. Projects are too often undertaken by governments enthusiastic about the technology, but fuzzy on how it works and what it can deliver. Sometimes, a project was implemented under the wrong bureaucratic or legal conditions.

A land registry should first think more critically about its capabilities, needs and ecosystem before implementing a blockchain-based solution. A set of recommendations to assist land officials during their exploration and implementation of blockchain is below:

Get tech experts and land experts in the same room

Blockchain is a database technology at its most basic, while land administration is a public issue with wide-ranging political, social and economic impacts. So, the stakeholders in the room need to understand both technology and land. Those are usually two different sets of people.

A blockchain-for-land project should engage with political, technical and socioeconomic stakeholders from the very beginning. For example, senior land officials can provide long-term strategic vision, and also possess the experience to spot unintended consequences and risks related to blockchain. IT professionals understand technological nuances and can better evaluate blockchain as a back-end technology. Finally, outreach to the broader real estate community can help to promote blockchain as a tool to improve business operations.

Identify the problem and determine whether blockchain can actually solve that problem

Stakeholders must work together to answer the following question: What is limiting the everyday functionality of the land registry? There are many possible responses, ranging from undocumented land rights to record manipulation, poor service delivery and sloppy paper-based storage. But blockchain can’t solve every problem, and identifying the specific issue to be solved will help determine whether blockchain is an appropriate answer.

Blockchain will not address problems related to inaccurate, outdated or nonexistent records. Nor is the technology particularly helpful in cases in which records aren’t digitized. It can’t rewrite land laws or improve the institutional capacity of a registry, either. Blockchain is useful for solving issues concerning corruption, lack of trust, inefficient services and secure data. Still, the technology isn’t a cure-all, and stakeholders must be realistic about the potential of blockchain:

• Blockchain replicates data across many computers or servers, increasing the resiliency of a land registry database.
• A blockchain-based system allows users to view the same data and track processes in real time, fostering greater transparency in land administration and real estate.
• It’s more difficult to attack a blockchain-based solution because, in part, it lacks a sensitive central point to target, leading to greater protection against hacks.
• Land records are more tamper-resistant in a blockchain because control is distributed, all users verify new data through consensus and all data is paired with a unique fingerprint — or hash — to ensure integrity.
• Data sharing, combined with smart contracts and digital signatures, can help to streamline workflows, remove non-value-add intermediaries and decrease transaction times for registries, real estate firms and customers.

Check if blockchain can scale in your environment

Pilot projects are a good first step to test a solution, but many struggle to expand. A big reason is that the enabling environment — the legal, bureaucratic, financial and political conditions — doesn’t facilitate scaling. For example, it’s difficult to scale a blockchain-for-land project in a fragmented land administration system, such as the county-based system in the United States. It’s likely more efficient to deploy a blockchain on a nation-wide registry, or in a system within which local offices maintain technical interoperability and follow the same rules.

Pertinent laws and regulations must also change. No project exists in a vacuum; it’s subject to the rules of a particular jurisdiction. Governments may need to adapt or pass legislation that allows for land administration and/or real estate transactions to take place in the digital realm. Last, buy-in from entrenched stakeholders profiting from the current system is usually critical if any reform project is to succeed. This process can be very difficult, but it’s sometimes possible through demonstrating the long-term benefits of the reforms.

As with most solutions to complex problems, technology alone is insufficient. Land registries must also consider the people and processes involved in reform efforts. After all, it’s individuals and institutions that are behind the ways in which technology is developed and deployed. In order to better insure innovation and reform, land officials must think more critically about their capabilities, needs and ecosystems. Blockchain-for-land can positively affect populations around the world — if implemented correctly.

Article Produced By
Tim Robustelli

https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-for-land-what-we-are-getting-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it

Microsoft announced its fully managed Azure Blockchain Service

in a press release on May 2. The new blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) platform will purportedly allow users to build blockchain applications on preconfigured network. According to Microsoft’s head of corporate communications, Frank Shaw, this service “simplifies the formation, management, and governance of consortium blockchain networks.”

Shaw further noted that Azure Blockchain Service can create a new consortium network “in a few simple clicks,” or let the user perform basic operations like adding new members to the network. Quorum, an open source blockchain platform backed by JPMorgan Chase, is the first platform that can be managed via Azure Blockchain Service. Azure CTO Mark Russinovich

explained the choice:

“Because it’s built on the popular Ethereum protocol, which has the world’s largest blockchain developer community, Quorum is a natural choice.”

Microsoft Azure released its blockchain app creation service Azure Blockchain Workbench in May 2018. This platform was also designed to automate aspects of blockchain-related work — in this case to streamline blockchain app development by providing readily available infrastructure for the developer.

In October 2018, Microsoft Azure joined forces with Nasdaq. Nasdaq opted to integrate Azure blockchain technology into its financial framework with the expectation that it would speed up transactions. On April 30, Amazon Web Services, the cloud computing wing of retail giant Amazon, released its own BaaS platform dubbed Amazon Managed Blockchain

Article Produced By
Max Boddy

https://cointelegraph.com/news/microsoft-releases-blockchain-manager-app

The central banks of Singapore and Canada have successfully

used their blockchain networks to send each other digital currency, a joint press release confirmed on May 2. As part of the distributed ledger technology (DLT) projects being pursued by both banks, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (BAS) sent funds to the Bank of Canada (BoC) without a third party.

The process was made possible by linking up two DLT networks: MAS’ nascent Project Ubin platform and BoC’s Project Jasper. JPMorgan and accounting giant Accenture, which assisted in the development of the platforms, also partnered with the banks to make the trade possible. “The next wave of central bank blockchain projects can make further progress by bringing technology exploration together with policy questions about the future of cross-border payments,” MAS chief fintech officer, Sopnendu Mohanty, commented in the press release.

He added:

“It is challenging work, and we welcome other central banks to join us in this global collaboration, to bring benefit to consumers, businesses and the broader financial industry.”

As with other bank-initiated blockchain payments schemes at various stages of development worldwide, cost-cutting and efficiency lay at the heart of the central bank trade, which the participants claim is the first to be completed successfully. MAS and BoC subsequently released a summary report in which they discussed the merits of the joint network bridge. “In our tests, no other action would proceed if any action fails, thus ensuring the end to end consistency of a transaction,” it reads. The summary

stated:

“In the correspondent banking method of payment, the sender and receiver trust the correspondent bank. In this DLT-based system using HTLC, trust will still be required, albeit in the technical system rather than in a third party.”

MAS had previous eyed 2020 as a potential timeframe for Project Ubin to begin delivering tangible results.

Article Produced By
William Suberg

https://cointelegraph.com/news/singapore-and-canada-central-banks-complete-first-cross-border-blockchain-payment

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing platform

subsidiary of retail giant Amazon, has made its Amazon Managed Blockchain (AMB) generally available, according to an announcement on April 30. The product will purportedly allow customers to set up blockchain networks within their organizations, and uses the Ethereum and Hyperledger open source frameworks. Notably, Amazon states that AMB can scale to support thousands to millions of transactions.

Amazon states that the blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) will allow businesses to develop their own networks more quickly and at a lower cost, as it eliminates the need to “to provision hardware, install software, create and manage certificates for access control, and configure network settings.” Rahul Pathak, General Manager, Amazon Managed Blockchain at AWS

said:

“Amazon Managed Blockchain takes care of provisioning nodes, setting up the network, managing certificates and security, and scaling the network.”

According to AWS’ announcement, major firms that have implemented AMB include United States communications giant AT&T, the Nestlé global food and beverage company and Singapore Exchange Limited. AWS initially announced AMB in November of last year along with the Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB). QLDB is a ledger database designed to provide transparent, immutable, and cryptographically verifiable log of transactions, which is overseen by a central authority.

Article Produced By
Aaron Wood

https://cointelegraph.com/news/amazon-web-services-launches-managed-blockchain-service