The Department of Urban Planning and Municipalities of the United Arab Emirates has reached an agreement with Tech Mahindra Ltd. in order to launch a distributed ledger blockchain technology solution to track land registry records.

Tech Mahindra is an information technology company based in India, will create the blockchain registry for the land development strategy of Abu Dhabi.

By using a blockchain, the UAE expects to improve the customer experience by increasing the transparency and traceability of records, the security of those records and the trust in the archiving authority. Tech Mahindra also states that it will greatly reduce processing time related to transactions related to land registration.

The government and private sectors in Abu Dhabi are working together to achieve the government-led digital transformation agenda, adopting new era technologies and providing better citizen experiences for Abu Dhabi residents.

All documents related to the land registry issued by the municipalities are now also included and will be traced in a blockchain. Blockchains operate by securing transactions as they occur by distributing a ledger between separate parties, each of which stores its own separate copy of the database. Each analysis, in this case records, which is added is also secured by cryptographic keys to help protect the privacy of the records, but also prevents manipulation after the fact. In addition, a technology known as SmartHub will use the blockchain to provide services such as the verification of the lease and the purchase of resale properties.

Governments around the world have been exploring blockchain technology to protect records, including property registration information.

Once services are deployed, owners, registrars and real estate brokers in Abu Dhabi will gain access to the SmartHub application and its underlying blockchain to facilitate the registration, purchase and exchange of land.