BERBLOM: Blockchain-enabled reliable land ownership management system using ERC-4907 smart contract

Abstract Land administration in Nigeria continues to face critical challenges, including document inconsistencies, opaque verification procedures, slow processing times, and persistent administrative malpractice associated with centralized and conventional, non-automated record-management systems. These systemic weaknesses create opportunities for double allocation, unauthorized alterations, and hidden registry manipulation, highlighting the need for more secure and transparent digital approaches. This paper proposes BERBLOM, a blockchain-enabled land ownership management system tailored to Nigerian land-registry workflows. The system tokenizes land parcels as ERC-4907 assets and stores supporting documents in the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to enhance data integrity and reduce single points of failure. BERBLOM supports practical use cases such as government plot allocation, peer-to-peer property transfers, and an on-chain leasing mechanism that automatically reverts ownership upon lease expiration. The framework operates on a permissioned Hyperledger Besu network using the Quorum Byzantine Fault Tolerance (QBFT) consensus protocol, selected for its Byzantine fault tolerance, predictable gas-free operation, and scalability under controlled conditions. Experimental evaluation indicates that QBFT maintains stable throughput and manageable latency as the number of validator nodes increases from 4 to 32. A Flutter-based decentralized application (DApp) enables real-time interaction through event-driven synchronization. While human-driven corruption and malpractice cannot be fully eliminated, the proposed prototype demonstrates how blockchain-based registries can reduce opportunities for hidden technical manipulation and improve on-chain accountability. It is important to note that the primary performance benefits of BERBLOM are realized after tokenization. Initial land registration remains dependent on legally mandated, human-driven governmental approvals; however, post-registration operations such as peer-to-peer transfers and on-chain leasing can be executed without intermediaries and complete within seconds. Consequently, the performance analysis focuses on the lifecycle stages where blockchain automation provides the greatest impact.