Georgia Pursues On-Chain Property Rights and Tokenization Through Hedera Partnership

Georgia's Ministry of Justice has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the public blockchain network Hedera, as the country considers moving its land registry onto the blockchain and exploring the tokenization of real estate.

Key Takeaways

Georgia's Ministry of Justice has signed an MoU with Hedera to assess blockchain integration for property rights and real estate tokenization.
The initiative aims to enhance the protection of property rights, transparency, and reliability in land registry processes.
The agreement, currently nonbinding, will lead to the establishment of joint working groups to explore this initiative further.

According to an announcement made by the Ministry of Justice in Georgia, the MoU with Hedera focuses on integrating blockchain technology into public infrastructure. At a meeting involving Paata Salia, Georgia's Minister of Justice, and a representative from Hedera, discussions highlighted the potential benefits of transferring data from the National Agency of Public Registry to a blockchain network. This move is expected to improve the protection of property rights while ensuring greater transparency and reliability in processes.

One of the significant aspects under deliberation is the tokenization of real estate, which aligns with current trends in real-world asset (RWA) tokenization projects.

At this stage, the MoU remains nonbinding; however, the next steps involve creating joint working groups comprising experts from the Ministry of Justice and the National Agency of Public Registry, as detailed in the announcement.

Meeting between the Ministry of Georgia and Hedera representative. Source: Ministry of Justice of Georgia

Georgia eyes onchain property rights and tokenization with Hedera partnership

Georgia’s Proactive Approach to Blockchain

This is not Georgia’s first exploration into blockchain technology. The country has been an advocate for blockchain in government since at least early February 2017. During that time, Georgia signed an agreement to utilize the Bitcoin blockchain for verifying property transactions. By late April of that year, over 100,000 property records had already been registered on the blockchain.

The momentum for adopting blockchain in government has continued. A year ago, the United National Movement coalition collaborated with Rarilabs to introduce a new blockchain solution aimed at public administration. Various initiatives, both political and technical, have attempted to promote blockchain usage within public administration, although not all proposals have been embraced by the ruling Georgian Dream party.

Earlier this year in June 2024, Natia Turnava, the acting governor of Georgia's central bank, alongside Varlam Ebanoidze, head of the bank's financial and supervisory technology development department, met with Ripple executive James Wallis to explore potential collaborations for digitalizing the Georgian economy. This meeting followed the central bank's announcement in November 2023 that it had chosen Ripple Labs as its official technology partner to help develop its central bank digital currency (CBDC), after signaling plans for a limited-access pilot of the CBDC just two months prior.

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