Arising from concerns over persistent land-related issues such as duplicate certificates, inaccurate boundary maps, and slow administrative processes, a team from the Student Creativity Program for Constructive Idea Videos (PKM-VGK) at Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) developed Notobates, or Non-Fungible Token-Based Certificate. This innovation offers a blockchain-based solution for land administration and management by utilizing unique tokens as a “digital fingerprint” for each land parcel.
Through this approach, official certificates issued by the National Land Agency (BPN) are not replaced but reinforced with transparent, anti-duplication, and easily auditable digital records.
Axel Urwawuska Atarubby, one of the team members, explained that blockchain-based digitalization allows every change in land ownership rights to be recorded permanently and can only occur when several requirements are met, such as verified tax payments and notarized sales or inheritance deeds approved by BPN, notaries, and owners through a multisignature approval mechanism.
“We aim to establish a system that prevents land mafia practices and provides clear ownership status for the community,” said Atarubby on Saturday, Oct. 18, 2025.
Atarubby added that the team’s main goal is to create a trustworthy and tamper-proof audit trail for land administration.
Notobates is not intended to replace the roles of Land Conveyancer (Pejabat Pembuat Akta Tanah/PPAT) or BPN, but rather to serve as a supporting layer that prevents duplicate certificates and data manipulation from the outset.
“We seek to enhance transparency and accountability in land processes such as registration, sale, inheritance, and dispute resolution. The goal is to prevent duplicate certificates and simplify history tracing through an event log embedded in Non-Fungible Token (NFT)-based digital certificates, aligned with Complete Systematic Land Registration (PTSL) and ATR/BPN’s digital certificates. We act as an audit trail, not a legal substitute,” he elaborated.
The Notobates innovation offers three main features.
First, the creation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) that serve as the digital identity for each parcel of land, containing the hash of official certificates and stored on a private blockchain network managed by the government.
Second, a smart contract system that verifies the requirements for ownership transfers, ensuring that certificates cannot be transferred without valid tax compliance (BPHTB and income tax) and authentic deeds.
Third, institutional integration involving ATR/BPN, PPAT/Notaries, the Civil Registry (Dukcapil/IKD), the Directorate General of Taxes (DJP), the Regional Revenue Agency (Bapenda), and the judiciary.
All these institutions are connected through the system and hold respective approval rights in the transaction chain.
“This structure makes Notobates consistent with the government’s priority for digital transformation in public services and eradicating land-related corruption,” Atarubby explained.
Atarubby further noted that this product offers multiple benefits for the community.
For citizens, it ensures ownership certainty, an open history (without disclosing personal data), and protection from forgery.
For PPAT/BPN, it enables automatic duplication checks and a multisignature flow (BPN, PPAT, and the owner) that minimizes the risk of manipulation.
Meanwhile, for local governments and the tax authority (DJP), it simplifies tax verification (NTPN/NTB) as a prerequisite for land transfer and reduces potential tax leakage.
In this system, official documents remain stored at BPN, while the blockchain only retains the digital fingerprint (hash) and event records as authentic evidence.
Each parcel of land is represented by a unique Non-Fungible Token (NFT) created after the issuance of the BPN digital certificate through an audited minting process, which does not contain personal data.
Ownership transfers can only occur through electronic deeds signed by PPAT using a certified electronic signature (TTE), once the tax status has been validated and all related parties (BPN, PPAT, and the owner) have approved via a multi-signature mechanism.
In cases of dispute, court rulings can freeze or modify ownership status, and all such processes are permanently recorded as blockchain events.
To ensure privacy, on-chain data is limited to hashes, events, and status flags, while personal information and cadastral maps remain managed off-chain by BPN.
“Official documents remain with BPN. On the blockchain, we only store the digital fingerprint (hash) and event logs. One parcel corresponds to one token. Any change in ownership must go through a PPAT deed, valid tax confirmation, and mutual approval before being recorded permanently,” Atarubby clarified.
Previously, the Notobates team interviewed Budi Susanto, an NFT activist and Founder of ID-NFT, who strongly supported the realization of this technology.
The team has also designed workflow diagrams and a functional prototype with anti-duplication, tax-conditional transfer, and dispute-freeze scenarios.
“Our tests have not yet reached the stage of an official pilot using real BPN data; they remain closed prototypes to prove workflow feasibility and technical reliability,” said Atarubby.
The UGM PKM-VGK Notobates team consists of five interdisciplinary students: Fransiska Deiss Ayu Arsanti, Yemima Diva Natalia, Axel Urwawuska Atarubby, Yamas Safandy, and Ilyas Bayu Darmawan, under the supervision of Fatima Putri Prativi, a lecturer from UGM Vocational College (SV UGM)
In addition to developing software and producing a four-minute video showcasing a constructive idea, the team is actively creating educational content on social media and preparing intellectual property rights (IPR) registration for the innovation.
With support from the Directorate General of Learning and Student Affairs (Belmawa) of the Ministry of Higher Education, Science, and Technology, as well as institutional partners such as ATR/BPN, Dukcapil, DJP, Bapenda, and notaries, the Notobates team hopes the innovation can become the standard for land audit trails in Indonesia, beginning with small-scale pilot projects and gradually expanding adoption.
“We are open to collaborating with ATR/BPN, PPAT, local governments, and universities to refine this innovation. Essentially, we are not changing the law; we are adding honesty to it. Official documents remain with BPN, but from now on, every land transaction will have an indelible trace,” Atarubby concluded.
Author: Lintang Andwyna
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Lintang Andwyna
Photographs: Notobates Team