The blockchain may deprive us of private property!

The Federal Chamber of Notaries of Russia plans to transfer the Registry of notices on pledges of movable property to the technology of blockchain.

According to many experts, the new technology will better protect information and speed up access to data for all users. Although in this case we are not talking about blockchain technology in its classical sense, but about a closed distributed registry, whose data will be accessible to a wide range of users, but its changes can only be made by authorized persons - notaries.

At the moment, tens of thousands of appeals to the Russian Register of pledge notices are recorded daily. Moreover, each of the requests has its legal consequences. The stability of the work and the security of information have the key importance here.

However, it is too early to talk about 100% reliability of the technology: too little time has passed, there is not enough experience in its practical use. There is no corresponding legislative base, moreover, all over the world. But this all is only a matter of time.

There is a more significant problem.

Professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna, Norbert Bolz, at the Congress "Electronics and documents" expressed the following idea: "In the modern world, the concept of truth disappears, and there is only competition of sources." Now it is surprising that these words were spoken back in 2000. The scientist foresaw the development of a global world order.

Appearing 10 years later, the technology of blockchain fits into the global competition of sources as an immediate fixer of its results. For example: there is an applicant of a certain transaction or a smart contract, the transfer of ownership of real estate, this action is confirmed by tens of thousands of users and becomes legitimate.

But who can check, track, see that the owner of the property will not be the owner, and the acquirer is not the acquirer? And in general, there was no transaction, and there was a banal fraud - just scammers were faster, more efficient than the owner and had time to declare a fictitious deal. How to prove their guilt, in that case? How to liquidate a deal when it has already been confirmed and is low-lying? And who will act as a vehicle of truth? The owner, the specialist or the one who managed it before? So far, we are exaggerating a little, outlining the circle of the problem.

Speeches on the transition of public property registries to blockchain does not go. If to speak about Russia, then it is planned to transfer only the register of notices on pledges of movable property to this technology. But in the near future blockchain in the sphere of real estate can happen. Acronis has already released an application for storing and confirming electronic documents. Every citizen of Estonia already has personal identification cards on the technology of blockchain. Medical data of Estonians is also stored in a distributed register. In Switzerland, in the canton of Zug, electronic projects for citizens in the sphere of housing and communal services are being developed. In Georgia, the entire land cadastre was transferred to a distributed register integrated into the system of the National Public Register of Georgia. It is assumed that the use of the new technology will reduce the costs of citizens to legal support for a real estate transaction from $ 50-200 to $ 5-10. In the UK, blockchain technology is already being actively used in the social sphere.

How much time is left before the first public blockchain register of rights to real estate? The trend is obvious. The classical right of ownership is replaced by the electronic one. It’s fast, isn’t it?

According to the assistant professor of the Urals State Law University Igor Rents, "the transaction can not be concluded in a mathematical algorithm, it is equally impossible to qualify its participants through a computer code."