London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Friday, Aug 22, 2025

Inter-American Development Bank to Pilot Land Registries on Blockchain

Inter-American Development Bank to Pilot Land Registries on Blockchain

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.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
After 200,000 Orders in 2 Minutes: Xiaomi Accelerates Marketing in Europe
Ukraine Declares De Facto War on Hungary and Slovakia with Terror Drone Strikes on Their Gas Lifeline
Animated K-pop Musical ‘KPop Demon Hunters’ Becomes Netflix’s Most-Watched Original Animated Film
New York Appeals Court Voids Nearly $500 Million Civil Fraud Penalty Against Trump While Upholding Fraud Liability
Elon Musk tweeted, “Europe is dying”
Far-Right Activist Convicted of Incitement Changes Gender and Demands: "Send Me to a Women’s Prison" | The Storm in Germany
Hungary Criticizes Ukraine: "Violating Our Sovereignty"
Will this be the first country to return to negative interest rates?
Child-free hotels spark controversy
North Korea is where this 95-year-old wants to die. South Korea won’t let him go. Is this our ally or a human rights enemy?
Hong Kong Launches Regulatory Regime and Trials for HKD-Backed Stablecoins
China rehearses September 3 Victory Day parade as imagery points to ‘loyal wingman’ FH-97 family presence
Trump Called Viktor Orbán: "Why Are You Using the Veto"
Horror in the Skies: Plane Engine Exploded, Passengers Sent Farewell Messages
MSNBC Rebrands as MS NOW Amid Comcast’s Cable Spin-Off
AI in Policing: Draft One Helps Speed Up Reports but Raises Legal and Ethical Concerns
Shame in Norway: Crown Princess’s Son Accused of Four Rapes
Apple Begins Simultaneous iPhone 17 Production in India and China
A Robot to Give Birth: The Chinese Announcement That Shakes the World
Finnish MP Dies by Suicide in Parliament Building
Outrage in the Tennis World After Jannik Sinner’s Withdrawal Storm
William and Kate Are Moving House – and the New Neighbors Were Evicted
Class Action Lawsuit Against Volkswagen: Steering Wheel Switches Cause Accidents
Taylor Swift on the Way to the Super Bowl? All the Clues Stirring Up Fans
Dogfights in the Skies: Airbus on Track to Overtake Boeing and Claim Aviation Supremacy
Tim Cook Promises an AI Revolution at Apple: "One of the Most Significant Technologies of Our Generation"
Apple Expands Social Media Presence in China With RedNote Account Ahead of iPhone 17 Launch
Are AI Data Centres the Infrastructure of the Future or the Next Crisis?
Cambridge Dictionary Adds 'Skibidi,' 'Delulu,' and 'Tradwife' Amid Surge of Online Slang
Bill Barr Testifies No Evidence Implicated Trump in Epstein Case; DOJ Set to Release Records
Zelenskyy Returns to White House Flanked by European Allies as Trump Pressures Land-Swap Deal with Putin
The CEO Who Replaced 80% of Employees for the AI Revolution: "I Would Do It Again"
Emails Worth Billions: How Airlines Generate Huge Profits
Character.ai Bets on Future of AI Companionship
China Ramps Up Tax Crackdown on Overseas Investments
Japanese Office Furniture Maker Expands into Bomb Shelter Market
Intel Shares Surge on Possible U.S. Government Investment
Hurricane Erin Threatens U.S. East Coast with Dangerous Surf
EU Blocks Trade Statement Over Digital Rule Dispute
EU Sends Record Aid as Spain Battles Wildfires
JPMorgan Plans New Canary Wharf Tower
Zelenskyy and his allies say they will press Trump on security guarantees
Beijing is moving into gold and other assets, diversifying away from the dollar
Escalating Clashes in Serbia as Anti-Government Protests Spread Nationwide
The Drought in Britain and the Strange Request from the Government to Delete Old Emails
Category 5 Hurricane in the Caribbean: 'Catastrophic Storm' with Winds of 255 km/h
"No, Thanks": The Mathematical Genius Who Turned Down 1.5 Billion Dollars from Zuckerberg
The surprising hero, the ugly incident, and the criticism despite victory: "Liverpool’s defense exposed in full"
Digital Humans Move Beyond Sci-Fi: From Virtual DJs to AI Customer Agents
YouTube will start using AI to guess your age. If it’s wrong, you’ll have to prove it
×