Various stakeholders are involved in managing supply chain processes in construction. Suppliers can hardly tolerate upfront costs when faced with flaws in the payment pipeline. This is a serious problem in building construction that uses a large variety of materials as opposed to civil construction that requires fewer types of materials. Alternative secure payment systems are needed, and the use of cryptocurrencies can be an option. However, cryptocurrencies are seldom used in building construction projects due to several challenges that are mostly ignored in the existing literature. To fill this gap, this study investigates the use of cryptocurrencies in construction supply chains as an alternative payment solution to improve the financial performance of the stakeholders by taking advantage of this economical and traceable financial transaction system. The study involves exploratory, descriptive, and empirical survey research. Accordingly, a literature review, focus group discussions, and statistical analyses (Friedman test, Wilcoxon test, and Mann–Whitney U test) were performed. The results imply that a lack of technical knowledge about cryptocurrencies, fluctuations in the value of cryptocurrencies, limited market opportunities, security gaps, personal information required by cryptocurrency systems, no assurance of permanent use, and government actions limiting the use of cryptocurrencies were the most significant barriers against using cryptocurrencies in construction supply chain management. The findings are expected to provide critical information to construction professionals and regulatory agencies about the potential advantages and shortcomings of cryptocurrencies, hence motivating policymakers to create strategies that minimize the concerns of construction professionals about using cryptocurrencies in the building construction industry.
Recent technological developments are gradually causing changes and transformations in the existing global money and payment systems. The worldwide interest in electronically created cryptocurrencies as an alternative payment system is growing day by day. As a natural result of this interest, the payment system has been receiving attention with the potential to integrate into project processes as an alternative to traditional payment methods. The construction industry is one of the sectors, where cryptocurrencies could be integrated into several processes including money transactions. In this study, the awareness of cryptocurrencies among construction professionals and the possibility of their use in the future projects are investigated. For this purpose, a survey was prepared and administered to 284 professionals working in construction companies in Turkey. The collected results showed that the awareness of cryptocurrency among construction professionals changed based on firm size by revenue and having international or national operations. In general, it could be stated that cryptocurrencies would be considered as an alternative payment tool in the construction projects as the awareness increases.
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