Blockchain as a tool for land rights: ownership of land in Cyprus Balkiz Yapicioglu Department of Design, Arkin University of Creative Arts and Design, Kyrenia, Cyprus, and Rebecca Leshinsky Department of Property, Construction and Project Management, RMIT University City Campus, Melbourne, Australia Abstract Purpose – This paper aims to set out an argument for the use of blockchain technology as a land registration tool, for Cyprus and other disputed land contexts, to assist with land disputes, which may, in turn, promote peace and harmony. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is exploratory in nature. It raises the historical and present land issues in Cyprus and highlights that blockchain technologies could work as a tool to record disputed property rights on the Island. Findings – While there have been many pilots to date for blockchain land registration, there is still scope to develop blockchain as a tool to record land interests. Cyprus offers an exemplar opportunity to use such a tool to assist in developing peace on the Island. Originality/value – While the paper is conceptual in its application of blockchain technologies, it is novel in that it strives to show how technologies such as blockchain can act as a tool to assist with land registration matters, which, in turn, can assist with new ways to approach the peace process. More research is necessary for this area of inquiry, especially as to how sidechains can act as a conduit for recording competing land interests and disputed land claims. Keywords Cyprus, Peace, Land registration, Blockchain, Disputed titles, Sidechains Paper type Conceptual paper 1. Introduction Land and property ownership tensions in Cyprus, stem from the beginning of the flare-ups in Cyprus in the early 1960s, and were particularly exasperated after the division of the island in 1974. Land ownership issues have grown both in scale and complexity, and are currently, the main intractable knot in the settlement of the Cyprus dispute. Even in 1972, Richard Patrick pointed out that “the matter of land ownership is most sensitive because of its significance in any future geopolitical settlement”. Patrick (1976) also noted that “current claims and counterclaims are difficult to verify because [among other things] neither community is willing to open its land registration books to an impartial audit”. It is obvious that unless there is a transparent and convincing plan to resolve conflicting land claims, the reunification efforts on the island will result in disappointments, as it has continued to be since 1960. Because of the unsuccessful political efforts to date, to resolve the property and land issue in Cyprus, the property question is increasingly being fragmented by individual actions and the courts – a process that will be more expensive, slow and inefficient for all Blockchain as a tool for land rights Received 27 February 2020 Revised 4 March 2020 Accepted 9 March 2020 Journal of Property, Planning and Environmental Law © Emerald Publishing Limited 2514-9407 DOI 10.1108/JPPEL-02-2020-0010 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9407.htm