South Ural State University told how blockchain technology helps improve the reliability of registration of rights to real estate and real estate turnover. The study was published in The Journal of High Technology Management Research, indexed in the Scopus database (Q1). Ph.D. in Law, Head of the Department of Civil Law and Civil Litigation, Deputy Director at the Institute of Law Tikhon Podshivalov proved that the use of the Blockchain increases the reliability of the registration of rights to real estate and makes it more secure. The International Bar Association views the Blockchain as a tamper-proof sequence of ledger entries available to a multi-member network.
“As part of the study, we assessed the possibilities of using virtual reality and augmented reality technology to record real estate by creating a virtual real estate registry and argued the possibility of using online arbitration when challenging the right to real estate registered using the Blockchain technology. The use of the Blockchain when registering rights to real estate can have four main directions in its development: the transfer of document flow when making real estate transactions; transition to the Blockchain to maintain a register of real estate rights; real estate tokenization; creation of a virtual real estate cadastre to account for objects,” the expert explains.
The advantage of the Blockchain is that this technology allows you to automate and make transparent registers of rights, transactions, wills, shares, corporate acts, and decisions. In this case, registration is carried out through a distributed registry, that is, any database that all its users have access to is synchronized on the network and stores records of all transactions in the registry that are available to users.
“It turns out that such registries are stored on hundreds and thousands of computers, and any change in the chain of registrations is automatically copied to each of them. The accuracy of the record ensures the reliability of registration and confirms the previously made record in the register as well as the rights associated with the object of right that you enter. An associated chain of blocks of information is created, so the cancellation or change of any block will be visible to the entire system. This eliminates the human factor, which increases the accuracy and automation of registration,” says Tikhon Podshivalov.
The introduction of the Blockchain will not just simplify the procedure for registering rights to real estate but also increase the indisputability of the registered rights. However, the use of technology is associated with the solution of many legal problems, such as the creation of a token, which represents a stake in real estate; the creation of a virtual real estate cadastre; online arbitration to resolve disputes over ownership; a legal framework for regulating the activities of smart factories and digital enterprises.
South Ural State University is a university of transformation where innovative research is carried out in most priority areas of science and technology development. Following the strategy of scientific and technological development of the Russian Federation, the university focuses on the development of major scientific interdisciplinary projects in the field of the digital industry, materials science, and ecology. In 2021, SUSU won the competition under the Priority 2030 program. The university performs the functions of a regional project office of the Ural Interregional Scientific and Educational Center of the World Level (UMNOC), designed to solve the tasks of the national project "Science and Universities".