Introduction
Project Name: Landrush
Name of the organization or individual submitting the proposal: Landrush Ltd
Team Background
The Landrush technical team brings a combined 17 years of hands-on engineering and product development experience directly relevant to building scalable mobile marketplace applications and decentralized infrastructure integrations.
All members are publicly listed on the Landrush GitHub organization and maintain active professional profiles.
Core Team
Lead Full-Stack Developer — Arinze Obasi
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arinze-obasi-161618233/
Full stack Developer — Unsteady Teddy
GitHub: Raphaelj1 (Raphael James) · GitHub
Backend Developer — Ubongabasi Jerome
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ubongabasi-jerome
Engineering Intern — Godspower Ufot
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/godspower-ufot-1b0967363
Product Designer — Aniebiet Peter
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ani
ebiet-peter-5ba80323a
Describe your project.
Landing page: https://www.landrushafrica.com/
Landrush is a land-discovery mobile application for Android and iOS. The platform connects verified landowners, agents, surveyors, agricultural stakeholders, and land seekers across three marketplace categories: leasing, buying, and distress sales.
The application is designed around the Sia Quickstart model, putting the user first: all land imagery, ownership documentation, verification attestations, and user-generated media are encrypted on the user’s device before any data ever leaves the phone. The mobile application then uses the Sia SDK to upload these encrypted blobs directly to the Sia network, with indexd operating as the full renter layer responsible for storage contract management, host negotiation, redundancy, and retrieval. A minimal Go backend coordinates only authentication, lightweight non-sensitive metadata for discovery and inspection scheduling, and verification attestations. It never stores encryption keys, never handles plaintext land media, and cannot access user documents.
Landrush does not broker transactions or process payments. Instead, it provides a transparent infrastructure for land discovery, document integrity verification, inspection scheduling, and trust signaling through a multi-layer verification system.
Users discover land through:
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Native mobile map visualization
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Geospatial search and filtering
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Inspection scheduling workflows
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Verification badges and trust tiers
By combining client-side encryption, direct SDK-to-network uploads, and a minimal zero-knowledge backend, Landrush reduces fraud risks, improves transparency, and advances genuine user-owned data within African property markets.
How Does the Project Serve the Foundation’s Mission of User-Owned Data?
Landrush directly advances the mission of the Sia Foundation by applying decentralized storage to a high-impact real-world problem: land access, trust, and fraud in African property markets.
Today, land records and property listing media are commonly stored on centralized servers controlled by governments, agencies, or proprietary platforms. This creates several vulnerabilities:
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Data manipulation
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Single points of failure
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Vendor lock-in
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Censorship risks
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Poor transparency
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Unauthorized modification of records
Landrush addresses these issues by ensuring that sensitive data never touches a centralized server in plaintext. Using the Sia SDK, all photographs, videos, and ownership documents are encrypted client-side with AES-256-GCM using keys derived from the user’s own passphrase via PBKDF2. Only the ciphertext is uploaded to the Sia network, with indexd acting as the full renter layer that manages storage contracts, host negotiation, and redundancy. The Landrush backend is deliberately minimal and zero-knowledge: it coordinates authentication, general discovery metadata, and inspection appointments, but it never possesses decryption keys, never stores plaintext media, and cannot read ownership documents even if compelled. No centralized party not Landrush Ltd, not a cloud provider, not a government request can unilaterally view, alter, or delete a user’s land records.
This is user-owned data in practice. An everyday farmer, agent, or buyer can list land, share proof of ownership, and schedule inspections while retaining sole cryptographic control of their files. By building with the official Sia SDK and indexd following the Quickstart model, Landrush expands the Sia ecosystem into property technology and emerging markets.
Importantly, Landrush distinguishes between:
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Document integrity (ensuring files are immutable and untampered) and
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Document authenticity (ensuring uploaded claims are independently verified)
To address authenticity, Landrush introduces a multi-layer verification framework rather than relying solely on storage permanence.
Fraud Reduction & Verification Framework
Land fraud remains widespread across several African property markets due to fragmented record-keeping, falsified documents, and limited transparency.
Landrush mitigates this through a layered trust model consisting of:
- Document Integrity Verification
All uploaded documents are:
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Encrypted client-side with AES-256-GCM before upload
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SHA-256 hashed for integrity verification.
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- Stored on the Sia network via the Sia SDK, with indexd operating as the full renter layer managing contract distribution, host negotiation, and redundancy
This ensures uploaded records cannot be silently altered after submission.
- Authority-Based Validation
Where available, uploaded document hashes may be cross-checked against recognized authorities such as:
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State land registries
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Survey plans
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Certificates of Occupancy
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Governor’s Consent records
The platform initially supports manual verification workflows and will expand into registry integrations where APIs or partnerships become available.
- Human Verification Layer
Landrush incorporates verified third-party validators such as:
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Licensed surveyors
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Verified agents
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Legal documentation professionals
Users may selectively grant these validators access to encrypted documents through secure Sia object sharing. Validators may: -
Confirm land existence
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Validate coordinates
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Inspect uploaded documentation
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Submit signed cryptographic attestations
The Landrush team never accesses plaintext documents.
- Geospatial Verification
The platform supports:
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GPS-tagged image capture
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Timestamped inspections
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Coordinate-linked listings
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Native map visualization
This creates an additional layer connecting ownership claims to physical land locations.
- Transparent Verification Tiers
Listings display clear trust labels computed from cryptographic proofs and validator attestations, such as:
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Unverified
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Document Verified
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Inspection Verified
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Fully Verified
This ensures users understand the level of verification associated with each listing rather than assuming guarantees.
Note: All ownership documents are encrypted client-side before upload. The Landrush team cannot view plaintext documents. Verification is performed through cryptographic integrity checks (SHA-256 hashes), geospatial proofs, and optional third-party validator attestations. Users may grant time-bound access to verified surveyors or legal professionals via secure Sia object sharing; these validators submit cryptographic attestations without the Landrush team ever accessing the underlying document.
Are you a resident of any jurisdiction on that list? NO
Will your payment bank account be located in any jurisdiction on that list? NO
Grant Specifics
Amount of money requested and justification with a reasonable breakdown of expenses:
Total Requested: $10,000 USD (Small Grant — 3-Month MVP)
Budget includes:-
Mobile Development
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Backend Development
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Sia SDK Integration
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Security Auditing & Testing
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App Store Preparation & Deployment
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Documentation & Open-Source Release
Grant payments will be received monthly via ACH/wire in USD.
What is the high-level architecture overview for the grant? What security best practices are you following?
Architecture Overview
Client: Cross-platform mobile application for Android and iOS built with React Native, leveraging native mobile map SDKs for geospatial discovery. The app features native camera integration for direct capture of land imagery and video, with on-device compression and client-side encryption before any data is transmitted.
API Backend: Minimal Go REST API handling authentication, inspection scheduling, and coordination of non-sensitive listing metadata. The backend does not orchestrate storage operations; all encrypted uploads and downloads are performed directly by the mobile client via the Sia SDK.
Decentralized Storage Layer: All land imagery, video, and ownership documentation is encrypted client-side on the user’s device using AES-256-GCM before upload. The mobile application uses the Sia SDK to upload encrypted blobs directly to the Sia network, with indexd operating as the full renter layer responsible for storage contract management, host negotiation, redundancy, and retrieval. The backend never handles plaintext media, never stores encryption keys, and cannot access user documents. Only lightweight, non-sensitive metadata (listing titles, general location, availability status) touches the PostgreSQL database. If any S3-compatible bridge becomes necessary for auxiliary services, we will use s3d as recommended.
Database: PostgreSQL for lightweight metadata indexing and relational data (users, listings, inspection appointments). No sensitive land media or ownership documents are stored here.
Verification: SHA-256 hashing of encrypted documents; hashes cross-referenced with Sia content identifiers to detect tampering. Verification tiers are derived from cryptographic proofs and third-party validator attestations, not centralized review.
Communication: Direct contact details are revealed only after a confirmed inspection booking, mediated through the backend authorization layer.
Security Best Practices
Credential Management: All server-side secrets managed via environment variables; never committed to version control. Mobile application secrets use native secure storage (iOS Keychain / Android Keystore). JWT tokens are stored securely on-device and never in plain text. Encryption keys are derived from user passphrases via PBKDF2 and stored in hardware-backed secure storage; there is no server-side key escrow.
Input Validation: Strict sanitization and validation on all API inputs to prevent injection attacks. On-device file validation enforces type whitelisting and size limits before encryption and upload.
Secure Communication: TLS 1.3 enforced for all mobile-to-API traffic with certificate pinning to prevent man-in-the-middle attacks. All Sia network traffic is natively encrypted via the Sia protocol.
Access Control: JWT-based authentication and role-based authorization for listing management. Biometric authentication (Face ID / fingerprint) is supported where hardware permits.
Dependency Management: Regular vulnerability audits and pinned dependency versions for both mobile and backend codebases.
Data Privacy: Document encryption is performed client-side before any Sia upload; users control their own encryption keys. EXIF metadata is stripped from images on-device before encryption to protect user privacy. The Landrush team cannot access plaintext documents.
Mobile Resilience: On-device image compression and offline-first listing caching to accommodate African connectivity constraints. Background upload queues ensure large media files reach Sia even on unstable networks.
What are the goals of this small grant? (MAY-JULY)
Goals: Deliver a fully functional, open-source MVP demonstrating a real-world Sia SDK use case: a decentralized land discovery mobile application for Android and iOS with user-owned storage for documents and media, plus a working inspection scheduling system.
Timeline (3 Months):
Month 1 — Milestone 1: Sia Storage Foundation & Backend
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Sia SDK integration (client-side encryption, upload, download, content addressing).
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REST API scaffolding, PostgreSQL metadata schema, auth system.
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Document hashing and verification pipeline.
Month 2 — Milestone 2: Mobile App Development & Discovery
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Cross-platform mobile client with native map-based discovery and search/filter.
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Native camera integration for direct photo/video capture, on-device compression, and client-side encryption.
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Listing creation flow for landowners/agents.
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Inspection booking system and contact-reveal logic.
Month 3 — Milestone 3: Polish, Security, App Store Prep & Open-Source Release
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End-to-end testing on Android and iOS devices, security review, dependency audit.
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App Store and Play Store submission preparation.
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README, build instructions, and MIT-licensed public release.
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Monthly progress report submission.
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Monthly progress reports will be submitted at the conclusion of each monthly milestone (Milestone 1, Milestone 2, and Milestone 3).
Who is the target user for your project?
Who is the target user for your project?
While our long-term vision is pan-African, our initial deployment and go-to-market strategy for the MVP focus strictly on Nigeria, where we plan to establish a strong presence and properly test the market before expanding. Our long-term goal is to gradually scale into other West African countries and eventually other parts of Africa as adoption grows.
Target users within Nigeria include:
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Nigerian landowners seeking to lease or sell property
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Real estate agents and verified property professionals
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Agricultural businesses and farmers seeking lease agreements
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Property investors and individual buyers looking for transparent, user-controlled land discovery via mobile devices.
What are your plans for this project following the grant?
Post-grant, Landrush will scale to additional African markets, introduce community-driven verification incentives, and explore premium listing tiers. We will optimize the mobile experience based on user feedback, add offline-first capabilities for rural areas with intermittent connectivity, and contribute feedback, SDK bug reports, and potential SDK improvements back to the Sia ecosystem to strengthen developer tooling for emerging-market mobile applications.
Potential risks that will affect the outcome of the project:
Regulatory variance: Land digitization laws differ across African jurisdictions; we will prioritize markets with clearer property rights frameworks first.
Connectivity & adoption: Rural users may have limited bandwidth and older Android devices; we will build aggressively on-device compression, offline caching, and support Android API level 24+.
App store compliance: Google Play and Apple App Store review processes can introduce delays; we will begin submission prep in Month 2 and adhere strictly to platform content guidelines.
Document standardization: Ownership documents vary by region; we will start with a flexible document schema and expand iteratively.
User key responsibility: Because encryption keys are client-side and there is no server-side escrow, users who lose their passphrase cannot recover their documents. We will implement optional biometric key wrapping and clear UX warnings about this responsibility.
- Stored on the Sia network via the Sia SDK, with indexd operating as the full renter layer managing contract distribution, host negotiation, and redundancy
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Personal Data Protection & Privacy Policy
A full Privacy Policy will be available and active when we launch. Since the platform is built on a zero-knowledge framework, privacy and user data protection are part of the core design from the start.
We are committed to complying with data protection laws in different regions, including Nigeria’s Nigeria Data Protection Regulation (NDPR).
Development Information
Will all of your project’s code be open-source?
Yes. 100% of the project code will be released under the MIT License.
Leave a link where code will be accessible for review.
https://github.com/Landrush-ltdDo you agree to submit monthly progress reports?
Yes. I agree to submit monthly progress reports.
Contact
Email: [email protected]
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Note on Landing Page
Right now, the landing page at https://www.landrushafrica.com/ mainly serves as our pre-launch waitlist site. The icons are currently placeholders while we prepare for the MVP launch. At this stage, our main focus is building a waitlist of interested real estate agents, landowners, and property seekers across Nigeria ahead of the official release.
