BitFury and the republic of Georgia’s National Agency of Public Registry announce a partnership to launch blockchain-based land titling system. They will be assisted by world-famous Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto.

The memorandum of understanding has been signed today in the Georgian Technology Park in the national capital Tbilisi. Valery Vavilov, BitFury’s CEO, described the benefits of the blockchain-based cadastral registration system.

“First, it will add security to the data so the data cannot be corrupted. Second, by powering the registry with the blockchain, the public auditor will also make a real-time audit. So the auditor will audit the registry not once per year, but every 10 minutes [for example]. Third, it will reduce the friction in registration and the cost of property rights registration because people could do this in the future using their smart phones. Blockchain will be used as a notary service.”

Vavilov also assumes that in the future property rights registration will be simply made using smartphones. According to him, blockchain will act as a notary certification of deals and rights.

Creation of a blockchain-based property registry will help Georgia to demonstrate to the world that the country is “modern, transparent and corruption-free,” said Chairman of the National Agency of Public Registry Papuna Ugrekhelidze.

Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto Polar known for his studies of the shadow economy and influence of property rights on national economic growth added that the absence of legally documented property rights negatively affects national and world economies. He emphasised that assets that are not properly and legally recorded cannot be used to obtain credits, therefore, it undermines the investment potential of countries.

“Of the 7.3 billion people in the world, only two billion have a title that is legal and effective and public regarding their control over an asset,” said de Soto. According to him, property rights are an integral part of the global economic development and poverty reduction.

Bitcoin infrastructure provider BitFury created two bitcoin mining centres in Georgia. The first one is situated in the city of Gory. The second mining farm opened last December is located in the Georgian capital Tbilisi. According to Vavilov, Georgia attracts BitFury with favourable electricity and labour costs, as well as convenient taxation system and the absence of corruption.

Elena Platonova