Authenticating Deeds/Organizing Society Considerations for Blockchain-Based Land Registries

For years now the hype surrounding block-chain as a new and more decentralized architecture to facilitate transactions has led people to search for cases of application for this emerging technology. Before thematizing the hype that has been propelling block-chain on the global stage, it is useful to mention the main novelty that block-chain brings: authentication of uniqueness of data in digital settings or “native authentication,” i.e. without relying on an external/non-digital intermediary. Without this property, it could not be used for digital currency, which, of course, must be unforgeable. Other relevant, and related properties are: decentralization (even if no unique guarantor is often substituted by clusters of miners), immutability (records cannot be deleted), auditability (mathematically provable), and pseudonymity (via key-pair identification).