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.
This study is intended to examine the influence of the current worldwide financial and economic crisis on financial decentralization process in Bulgaria and identify the answers of the central and lo-cal governments to the critical situation in the context of specific conditions of the national economy and the stage of financial decentralization reform. Analysis is focused on dynamics of the main mac-roeconomic indicators, based on fact figures for the period 1990–2009 and forecast for the period 2010-2011, and its impact on the public finance. The most important actions, taken by the national government to consolidate the crisis are described and evaluated on the base of their effects on the lo-cal finance. A comparison is made between the loss of Bulgarian economy in the beginning of transition (1991-1993), during the financial crisis in 1996-1997, caused by credit crunch and series of bank bankruptcies, and the current financial and economic crisis. Finally, some conclusions and pol-icy recommendations are outlined, intended to improve crisis management in Bulgaria both on the national and local level.