A blockchain system for land ownership records. Now that might actually work. The problem needs an immutable shared ledger that cannot be easily destroyed or tampered with. Transaction volume is low enough for a blockchain system. There are many countries that lack documented land ownership.
One of the World Bank's blogs suggests this, but not much seems to have been done.[1]
How would that handle shared ownership of some of those lands? Will that entail their owners now paying tax on these lands whose ownership is now “recognized”? (a negative for some of the people involved, because at this moment they pay no tax on it). Will this registering of lands “help” them be put on the market? If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county? I.e. how do we stop alienating lands that have been owned by the community for possibly centuries?
And these are just a couple of hard to answer questions, because land “ownership” (for lack of a better word) is really complex and ancient and not easy to put into “organizational boxes” dreamed up by our technocratic society.
>If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county?
This is only a feature in a couple jurisdictions. Not all countries ban the sale of land. You might guess those jurisdictions won't be interested in recording land sales, since land can't be sold.
One of the World Bank's blogs suggests this, but not much seems to have been done.[1]
[1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/keeping-it-clean...