The new administration of Colombia has put on hold an initiative to tokenize land, which was intended to put land titles onto blockchain technology.
Ministry of Information Technology and Communications of the outgoing government announced this initiative just two weeks before President Gustavo Petro took office.
Forbes published yesterday, August 30th, that National Lands Agency interim head Juan Manuel Noruega Martnez stated that this initiative does not top his agency’s priorities for 2022. His comment:
Even though Colombia’s new president is generally considered pro-cryptocurrencies and has previously voiced his support, this decision remains surprising.
According to an announcement, this partnership between Colombia’s National Land Agency, Ripple and software development firm Peersyst Technology sought to tokenize real estate on blockchain to streamline property search operations, create cheaper property title administration fees and more efficient payment processing as well as increase transparency.
According to a 2013 survey, only half of small and medium rural properties possess proper property titles; according to the 2016 peace agreement that formalised Colombia’s end to war.
Due to a lack of formality, farmers are reluctant to invest in land, which prevents it from being used as collateral against loans. To address this problem, a blockchain ledger was created which provides landowners with security while giving them an incentive to invest in their properties.
Peersyst Technology reports that its register was established on July 1 after more than one year of hard work.
Peersyst reports that the QR code found in land certificates verifies transactions made on July 30th on the blockchain, making them easily identifiable by anyone looking at the XRP blockchain.
Though no major developments have taken place with Ripple’s collaborative project in Colombian land tokenization, we understand that their plans to tokenize it have been put on pause due to new administration of Colombia.
