Incentivizing High-Quality Data Sets in Construction Using Blockchain: A Feasibility Study in the Swiss Industry

Exploratory literature review of blockchain in the construction industry

“…In a survey conducted by Badi et al, of 104 respondents in the UK construction industry, regarding the use of smart contracts, the main factors which determined its adoption in enterprise is competitive edge and commercial value [47]. Hunhevicz, et al, proposed a digital contracting framework which simulated the decision points of a typical design-bid-build project in Switzerland, which included the client, owner, planner, contractor, and supplier, all interacting with smart contracts to control the approvals and validations process of contract activities, such as project definition, design coordination, tendering, supplier selection, and contract signing; furthermore, this was prototyped through a web-based application connected to the Ethereum blockchain [48].…”

“…BuildingSmart is an organisation that promotes digital workflow through utilisation of IFC, while OpenBIM is a set of common agreed workflow standards for BIM projects, for the purpose of increasing supply chain collaboration and standardising data exchange processes [59]. Hunhevicz, et al, produced a prototype which incentivised users to produce high quality data sets following the OpenBIM standard, this incorporated the use of smart contracts to provide financial rewards based on the quality of data provided by its users [48]. Ye, et al, produced a prototype which incorporated an IFC model that interoperated with smart contracts, which executed payments autonomously based on elements quantified within the BIM model; furthermore, readable text was maintained as it transferred into smart contracts, which allowed users the ability to intuitive cross-reference IFC data in blockchain code [60].…”

Digital Building Twins and Blockchain for Performance-Based (Smart) Contracts

“…In the construction industry, the concept of crypto-economic incentives was proposed to add a layer of monetary/non-monetary incentives to processes to increase trust and collaboration across life cycle phases and stakeholders [65], e.g. to incentivize high-quality data sets [66]. Performance-based smart contracts seem well aligned with this concept and are therefore likely to profit from the blockchain.…”

Blockchain and BIM (Building Information Modeling): Progress in Academia and Industry

“…In [20], Hunhevicz et al propose an Ethereum-based prototype that aims at increasing data quantity and quality in construction design projects by using smart contracts and incentive mechanisms. The high-quality data at the end of the design phase often shows to be a problem for the stakeholders trusted with the operation of a building.…”

“…Among these 27 publications, 13 deal with BIM; 3 out of 27 deal with a combination of BIM, DLT and IoT/smart sensors and others deal with a combination of IoT and/or RFID with DLT but without BIM. It should be noted that [42] does not cover the publications/projects that we have covered above (specifically [10]- [15], [17], [18], [20]- [28], [31]- [41], [43], [44]), with the exception of [19], [29] and [30] which [42] mentions only briefly. The following relevant papers from 2019 and later are covered by Yang as well:…”