As i said - over here, not in USA. we use completely different system.
There is a central record for each separate local government(located at the regional judicial office), with copies being sent to up the chain.
But the thing is - over here whatever is in that local deed book is the current legal state of the property.
Licensed notary is obliged by law to check the current legal state of the property, verify identity of the ones making the change, and do the change itself - but due to sorry state of the books first part isn't always reliable.
I am also not proposing a solution for USA problems, but for my country.
I'm not sure which country you're describing, but Andhra Pradesh in India had signed an MoU with the Etherium Foundation for property records. I still don't see the Blockchain could have resolved the mess that is property records in India. How would it have worked? Would each property owner hold the private keys verifying their ownership, and possession of the keys proves ownership? My friend in Andhra Pradesh discovered that a portion of the family's land had been sold by a relative, and each party had "legal" paperwork to show for it. All you need to do is pay off the right guy in the local office to smooth things along. I can see the value of a distributed ledger for something like this, but it's an all or nothing proposition.
Yes, but also the US system is not necessarily a problem if you like decentralization.
People say a blockchain is decentralized, but maybe it's more accurate to say it's a centralized system without anyone being in control. Which might in fact not be preferred to an actual decentralized system.
There is a central record for each separate local government(located at the regional judicial office), with copies being sent to up the chain.
But the thing is - over here whatever is in that local deed book is the current legal state of the property.
Licensed notary is obliged by law to check the current legal state of the property, verify identity of the ones making the change, and do the change itself - but due to sorry state of the books first part isn't always reliable.
I am also not proposing a solution for USA problems, but for my country.