REVIEW

published: 29 March 2022

doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2022.840303

Blockchain in Civil Engineering,

Architecture and Construction
Industry: State of the Art, Evolution,
Challenges and Opportunities
Vagelis Plevris 1*, Nikos D. Lagaros 2 and Ahmet Zeytinci 3
1
Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar, 2Institute of Structural
Analysis and Antiseismic Research, School of Civil Engineering, National Technical University of Athens, Athens, Greece, 3School
of Engineering and Applied Sciences, University of the District of Columbia, Washington, DC, United States

Blockchain is a technology that allows the recording of information in a way that it is difficult
or practically impossible to alter, hack, or cheat. It is a new, promising technology,
considered by many as a general-purpose technology (GPT). GPTs are technologies
that have the potential to affect an entire economy, impacting economic growth and
transforming both everyday life and the ways in which we conduct business. We present a
bibliometric analysis of the relevant literature, followed by a discussion about monetary
mediums and the evolution of bitcoin, as the first digital medium managing to solve the
“double-spending” problem and the first successful implementation of blockchain
Edited by:
Georgios Eleftherios Stavroulakis,
technology. The computational operations involved in blockchain are presented,
Technical University of Crete, Greece together with the cryptographic technologies associated with it, its unique
Reviewed by: characteristics, and the advantages it offers as a technology. A comprehensive
Ibrahim Yitmen,
literature review is provided, of the current state of the art in blockchain in the fields of
Jönköping University, Sweden
Sameh Samir F Mehanny, civil engineering, architecture and the construction industry. Six important application
Cairo University, Egypt areas are identified, and the relevant literature is investigated. Namely, building information
*Correspondence: modelling and computer aided design, contract management and smart contracts,
Vagelis Plevris
[email protected]
construction project management, smart buildings and smart cities, construction
supply chain management, and real estate. Finally, we discuss the future applications,
Specialty section: the challenges and the opportunities that blockchain technology brings to these fields.
This article was submitted to
Computational Methods in Structural Keywords: blockchain, general purpose technology (GPT), distributed ledger, civil engineering, architecture,
Engineering, construction, engineering
a section of the journal
Frontiers in Built Environment
Received: 21 December 2021 1 INTRODUCTION
Accepted: 10 March 2022
Published: 29 March 2022
Construction is arguably one of the largest industries in the world, creating infrastructure which is
Citation: the backbone of productivity and economic growth. The Architecture, Engineering, and
Plevris V, Lagaros ND and Zeytinci A Construction (AEC) industry has entered a period of major disruption caused by a host of new
(2022) Blockchain in Civil Engineering,
and more mature digital technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things
Architecture and Construction
Industry: State of the Art, Evolution,
(IoT), Virtual Reality (VR), Geographic Information Systems (GIS), digital photogrammetry,
Challenges and Opportunities. Building Information Modelling (BIM), 3D printing, laser scanning, global positioning systems
Front. Built Environ. 8:840303. (GPS), radio frequency identification devices (RFID), augmented reality (AR), sensors, robotics, big
doi: 10.3389/fbuil.2022.840303 data management, and others (Wang et al., 2020). These technologies have been proven helpful due

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

to the numerous benefits they offer to project stakeholders, such (Shojaei et al., 2021). investigated blockchain as a promising
as increased productivity, reduction in building waste, sustainable technology for the facilitation of a circular economy (CE) in the
performance, enhanced visualization, safety improvement and built environment. They presented and tested a blockchain model
improved data sharing. through a synthetic case study to provide a proof of concept as to
Lately, another innovative digital technology, blockchain, has the feasibility of blockchain as an enabler of a CE in the built
appeared, promising to change the way people do transactions, environment. They conclude that blockchain is shown to be a
keep records, validate data and much more. For many, blockchain feasible and novel approach for employing CE concepts in the
is a new general-purpose technology that can transform both our built environment domain as it can provide full material and
everyday lives and the ways we do business. Bitcoin was the first energy traceability, enabling the user to make predictions for the
successful application of this technology and its first description recycling and reuse of materials and goods used in the built
as an algorithmic idea can be found in the work by (Nakamoto environment.
2008). Blockchain was the technology which allowed Bitcoin to The aim of this study is to formulate a picture of the current
transfer value in a decentralized network, for the very first time in state and practice of the use of blockchain technology in fields
history. Many desirable characteristics of blockchain already exist related to the built environment such as civil engineering,
in Bitcoin, even though Bitcoin was only the first application of architecture and construction industry areas, to identify the
the technology and further developments and improvements current state of the art and to examine the challenges and
have been made since. For this reason, the present study will opportunities ahead. The study also summarizes and
start with discussing monetary mediums, problems related to highlights specific application areas related to the AEC
transferring value using digital currency and how blockchain industry, where blockchain has the potential to provide new
technology managed to solve the well-known “double spending” solutions, and how these solutions can be adopted to improve
problem in digital currency, opening horizons for other performance, sustainability, and safety in the future. The
important applications of the technology. structure of the paper is as follows: Section 1 is the
Although blockchain is still at its early stages today, it probably introduction, followed by the bibliometric analysis of Section
has the potential to play a significant role in construction industry 2. Section 3 presents the idea of monetary mediums, from
in the future, or even reshape it drastically to the better (Shojaei bartering to digital money, the double spending problem and
2019). explored the applications of blockchain in improving how it was first solved using blockchain technology. Section 4
information management systems in the construction industry. focuses on technical details of the technology, while Section 5
The author concludes that blockchain has the potential of discusses the applications of blockchain in the civil, architectural
addressing common problems of the construction industry, and construction industry, where six application areas as
while it can be adaptable to the construction industry identified and discussed in detail. The conclusions and a
structure and the way it is practiced (Nawari and Ravindran relevant discussion are provided in Section 6.
2019b). reviewed blockchain and how it is related to the built
environment. They explored potential applications in the AEC
industry, focusing mainly on Building Information Modeling 2 BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSIS
(BIM) and highlighting its potential and its limitations.
(Tezel et al., 2022) examined blockchain opportunities and 2.1 Papers Published in the Field
related issues in the Built Environment, with particular emphasis A simple look at the most recent scientific literature can reveal
on its potential influence on trust, transparency and how important blockchain has become for the scientific
cybersecurity. The authors also provide directions for future community lately. The word “blockchain” returns 28,600
research, contributing to the cyber-physical convergence in document results in Scopus when searching within “Article
Construction 4.0 (Li et al., 2019). identified recent challenges title, Abstract and Keywords” (Query string: “TITLE-ABS-KEY
in the construction industry and explored blockchain as a (blockchain)”). 28,355 of these results (99.14%) have a
potential solution to some of these challenges. They performed publication year of 2017 or later (i.e. last 5 years), as only 245
a review of blockchain uses in the built environment and papers were published in the topic between 1990–2016. Even
identified seven distinct areas of applications, namely 1) Smart more interestingly, 85.77% of the results (24,531 documents) have
Cities and the Sharing Economy, 2) Smart Energy, 3) Smart a publication year of 2019 or later, i.e. published in the last 3 years.
Homes, 4) Smart Government, 5) Intelligent Transport, 6) BIM The same search, limited within the “Engineering” field only
and Construction Management, and 7) Business Models and (Query string: “TITLE-ABS-KEY (blockchain) AND (LIMIT-TO
Organizational Structures. (SUBJAREA,"ENGI”))”) returns 11,969 document results. These
(Cheng et al., 2021) reviewed the present status and queries were made on 6 March 2022. Figure 1 shows these search
investigated the benefits, challenges, and future research results, per year, for the years from 2013 to 2021. Year 2022 was
opportunities of blockchain meeting the AEC industry. Their excluded from the plot as it is still a year in progress. It has to be
results show that relevant research on blockchain remains new noted that even for year 2021 the process of indexing and adding
and fragmented. Nevertheless, they managed to identify five papers is still a work in progress in Scopus. The exponential
relevant areas of benefit, namely 1) supply chain management, growth in the production of scientific papers is clearly visible,
2) information management, 3) contract management, 4) showing the latest impact of blockchain in all scientific fields,
integration management, and 5) stakeholder management engineering included.

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

FIGURE 1 | Papers in “blockchain” in Scopus database, per year: (A) General search (all fields), (B) Search limited within the “Engineering” field.

2.2 Top Keywords management), building information model (bim, building

We performed a co-occurrence analysis of the top keywords, information model - bim, building information modeling,
including author keywords and index keywords from the Scopus building information modelling), where the word in bold is
database. For this, we search Scopus with the word “blockchain” the main keyword and the words in parentheses are the
within “Article title, Abstract and Keywords” and we limit the different variations that have been merged within the main
search to the “Engineering” field and also to the years 2017–2022 keyword. The network visualization of the co-occurrence of
(6 years in total). The full query string, performed on 7 March the top-30 keywords is presented in Figure 2, generated using
2022, is therefore “TITLE-ABS-KEY(blockchain) AND (LIMIT- the VOSviewer software (van Eck and Waltman 2007), with 5
TO ( SUBJAREA,“ENGI”) ) AND (LIMIT-TO ( PUBYEAR, 2022) clusters presented with different colors, and minimum strength
OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2021) OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, equal to 60.
2020) OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2019) OR LIMIT-TO In this map, the links (lines) between keywords express the
(PUBYEAR, 2018) OR LIMIT-TO (PUBYEAR, 2017))”. The frequency of co-occurrence of the keywords in the documents,
query returned 11,926 documents. Within this result, we while the size of each bubble (keyword) expresses the number of
found the top-30 keywords of the papers. Similar keywords occurrences of a specific keyword. As expected, the keyword
needed to be merged manually, as follows: blockchain (block- “blockchain” appears in the center of the network as the strongest
chain, blockchains, blockchain technology), internet of things keyword (10,135 occurrences), followed by “internet of things”
(iot, internet of things (iot), internet of thing (iot)), smart contract (2072), “smart contract” (1873), “network security” (1,168),
(smart contracts), supply chain (supply chains, supply chain “digital storage” (1,058) and “security” (928). Interestingly, the

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

FIGURE 2 | Bibliometric map of the co-occurrence of top-30 keywords of documents including “blockchain” in the “Engineering” field, in Scopus (2017–2022).

keyword “bitcoin” appears as a small bubble on the top-right, Again, the keyword “blockchain” is in the center of the
which shows that despite it being the first application of network as the strongest keyword (280 occurrences), followed
blockchain, it is now somehow isolated as simply one of the by “smart contract” (91), “construction industry” (76), “building
numerous applications of the broader technology. information model” (56), “architectural design” (50), “internet of
A clear cluster related to engineering applications is the yellow things” (49), “supply chain” (45) and “project management” (28).
one, having to do with power markets and electric power This map reveals some trends and the most important application
transmission networks. Interestingly, keywords related to the areas of the technology in the civil engineering and the
civil engineering and the construction industry are not present construction industry fields. It also shows the connections of
in this network visualization, although the search has been different applications, for example the construction industry (as a
limited to the “engineering” field. This shows that blockchain central node) with BIM, architectural design, smart contract,
applications in these areas are still at a very premature state. It information management and others.
also confirms that the fact that the construction industry has been
traditionally slow in adapting new digital technologies. 2.3 Top Countries
Next, we limit the search to areas related to civil engineering Figure 4 is based on the same data from Scopus as Figure 3, but
and the construction industry. For this, we search within the now the focus is on the co-authorship of the top countries in the
“Article title, Abstract and Keywords” with the query “blockchain field. Setting the minimum documents for a country to 2, the
AND (“construction industry” OR “civil engineering” OR largest set of connected countries is found to be 27. The map is
“construction management” OR “building information presented in Figure 4 with the minimum connection strength set
modelling” OR “smart buildings” OR “real estate")”, which equal to zero.
returns 365 document results. We apply the same technique In this map, the links (lines) between countries represent the
for merging similar keywords as we did before. Setting a frequency of co-authorship between the countries, while the size
minimum strength of connections equal to 10, and 5 clusters, of each bubble (country) expresses the number of publications in
we obtain the bibliometric map of Figure 3. the field by a specific country. In terms of the number of

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

FIGURE 3 | Bibliometric map of the co-occurrence of the top-30 keywords of documents including blockchain in the civil engineering and the construction industry,
in Scopus.

FIGURE 4 | Bibliometric map of the co-authorship of the top countries with documents including blockchain in the civil engineering and the construction industry, in
Scopus.

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

documents published in the field, the most active country is India pays Bob the amount of $100 remotely, she makes the relevant
with 47 documents and 157 citations, followed by China (35, request at a bank online. The bank needs to verify and process the
446), the United Kingdom (34, 388), the US (32, 505), Australia transaction. First, it checks if Alice has $100 at her disposal, in her
(26, 440), Hong Kong (16, 135) and Italy (16, 44). It is not account. If yes, it proceeds with the payment to Bob. For the bank
surprising that India leads this map, as in India IT is a vast this is simply a couple of records in the transactions’ ledger. The
industry comprising information technology services, consulting, bank will debit Alice’s account with the amount of $100 and
and outsourcing, accounting for 8% of India’s GDP in 2020. simultaneously credit Bob’ account with the same amount.
Everything happens at the level of the bank ledger which is a
“book” in which account transactions are recorded. In such
3 MONETARY MEDIUMS: FROM bookkeeping system with double entries, credits and debits are
BARTERING TO DIGITAL MONEY simply entries that are made in the account ledgers to record
changes in value, as a result of transactions.
In the long past, there were no monetary mediums. People in As mentioned, such online payments need a trusted third
primitive societies would simply exchange goods using a fair party to act as an intermediary. Unlike cash transactions, that are
barter arrangement. Bartering has to do with the exchange of truly “peer-to-peer” from one party to the other, traditional
services and goods between two people or parties without the use online payments need to go through a bank. This causes
of money. It is based on equivalent estimates of the value of problems and difficulties in certain cases. First of all, the bank
services and goods. This approach has significant limitations, one needs to be online, it needs to be working during the transaction
of the most important ones being not being able to store wealth in and it needs to be there to validate the payment. Although these
the long term. may seem to be small problems in the real world, there are other
Then came money, a monetary medium in the form of a metal more significant problems and difficulties arising from the fact
coin, a piece of paper or even a shell or other object, that people that an intermediary is always necessary. For example, banks may
could use as a medium of exchange, a unit for measuring value delay or even censor transactions, while in some cases transaction
and a means to store wealth. The value of money depends mostly fees may be too high. This is the case with international payments
on the importance that the people place on it. The invention of between two banks in different, distant countries and especially
money had an important role in the evolution and development when a third world country is involved. In addition, one needs to
of human societies as it allowed people to trade services and goods open a bank account to send or receive such payments. All banks
indirectly, providing also a very effective and direct way to store have specific regulations. There are certain requirements for
wealth. Historians believe that objects made of metal were first opening an account and rules on who can pay or who can get
used as money as early as 5,000 BC. Around the second half of the paid. According to the 2019 National Survey of Household Use of
7th century B.C., the Lydians were the first western civilization to Banking and Financial Services by FDIC (Federal Deposit
make coins. The Lydian stater was the first coin officially issued Insurance Corporation 2020), 5.4% of households in the US
by a state in the world history and was the model for virtually all had no access to a checking or savings account at a bank or
subsequent coinage (Kroll 2012). Later on, other civilizations credit union. This represents approximately 7 million U.S.
began to mint their own coins, having specific properties and households or a total of approximately 14 million American
values. Around 700 B.C., the Chinese moved to paper money. In adults who are literally unbanked. Interestingly, nearly half of
Europe, the first banknotes were issued in 1,666 by the Bank of them reported that they did not have a bank account due to lack
Stockholm while in the US, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was of enough money to meet minimum requirements, while
said to have issued the first paper money in 1,690. approximately 1/3 of unbanked households reported that they
did not have an account because they do not trust banks (Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation 2020). Privacy is a major concern
3.1 Digital Money and the Need for a Trusted as a lot of personal information is revealed in every transaction
Third Party and the bank or a bank employee have access to this sensitive
The 21st century and the evolution of computers and digital information.
technology gave rise to a new form of currency, digital money,
allowing digital, mobile payments between different parties.
Mobile payments can be used to buy a service or product 3.2 The “Beauty” of Cash, Digital Cash and
through the use of a portable electronic device, such as a the “Double-Spending Problem”
smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop computer, to name a Cash payments do not have these issues. The “beauty” of cash lies
few. Money nowadays needs not have a physical form. It can in its simplicity and on the fact that it is truly “peer-to-peer”,
merely sit in bank accounts, waiting to be used online for without the need of any intermediaries. But cash has other
whatever necessary. Mobile payments offer the advantage that problems: For example, when Alice gives Bob a bank note, the
the parties involved in a transaction do not have to be in the same two parties need to be in the same place at the same time for the
physical location for a successful transaction to take place. Unlike physical object (the bank note) to be handed from one person to
hand-to-hand physical payments by cash, digital payments can be the other. In addition, cash is bulky and therefore it cannot be
made remotely, through an institution (usually a bank). The bank easily used for big transactions. At this point the question arises:
acts as an intermediary or a “trusted third party”. When Alice Could we have online, digital payments that are just like cash, i.e.

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peer-to-peer, with no need for intermediaries, no banks, no highlight its advantages, such as payment freedom, availability,
delays, no censorship and no privacy issues? Is there a way to total control of one’s money, security, transparency and low fees.
have digital money that would behave just like cash? On the other hand, some economists and other experts have
Many researchers had tried to deal with this issue, but they characterized Bitcoin as a speculative bubble or even an advanced
faced the so called “double-spending problem.” Unlike physical Ponzi scheme. They criticize Bitcoin for its use in illegal
currencies that cannot be easily replicated, digital currencies can transactions, large carbon footprint, price volatility, scalability
be easily reproduced digitally. Double spending has to do with the problems and low speed.
problem of a digital currency or token being spent twice, which
should not be allowed in a fair system. In other words, if
somebody tries to use a digital token for a second time, after 4 BLOCKCHAIN
it has been already spent, the system should be able to detect it
and reject the second transaction. 4.1 Technical Details
4.1.1 Asymmetric Cryptography
Asymmetric cryptography, also known as public-key
3.3 The Solution to the Double-Spending cryptography uses a pair of keys, a Public and a Private key to
Problem encrypt and decrypt a message. Each user has a pair of keys. The
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto introduced Bitcoin to the world. In two keys are mathematically related. The private key cannot be
his novel work (Nakamoto 2008) the brilliant idea of a system for shared with others and works similarly to a password, while the
electronic transactions which does not rely on a “trusted third public key can be shared with and is visible to everyone. Both keys
party” is explained. This system was the first successful are needed to perform an operation. A message which is
application managing to solve the double-spending problem encrypted with the private key can only be decrypted with the
and the first implementation of blockchain technology. It is a public key, and vice-versa: a message or data encrypted with the
peer-to-peer electronic cash system which uses cryptography and public key can only be decrypted with the private key. Based on
the concept of “proof-of-work” (PoW) to record the history of which key is used first, there are two main uses of asymmetric
transactions. The real identity of Satoshi Nakamoto remains a cryptography, as shown schematically in Figure 5.
matter of dispute until today. In the first case depicted in Figure 5, called Digital signature or
The code of Bitcoin was released in 2009, after the original Sender authentication, data is encrypted with the private key of
paper was published in 2008. In Bitcoin, there is no bank, no the sender and can be decrypted with the corresponding public
central system, no single institution in the middle playing a key. This ensures that the message came from the stated sender.
special role. That’s why it is called a “decentralized network”. Example: Alice sends a message to Bob and she encrypts it with
All parties in this network are equal and there is no central her private key. Bob receives the message. He decrypts it using the
authority or special player. The technology that enabled Bitcoin public key of Alice and that guarantees that the message came
to make this breakthrough, is called blockchain. Bitcoin and other indeed from Alice.
cryptocurrencies, all based on blockchain technology, offer peer- In the second case, called Digital envelope or Receiver
to-peer transactions with privacy for any amount of money, just authentication, data is encrypted with the public key of the
like cash. recipient and can be decrypted with the corresponding private
The system uses a decentralized approach which is based on key. This ensures that the message can only be read by the
the creation of blocks which are linked together, forming a chain intended recipient. Example: Alice sends a message to Bob and
of blocks, the so-called “block chain”. This is what we nowadays she encrypts it using the public key of Bob. Then Bob is the only
call blockchain technology. In the blockchain, every transaction one who can decrypt and read the message as only he has access to
and every block have a timestamp and blocks are linked together the pairing private key. This ensures confidentiality of a message.
with their hash values and “proof-of-work”. The record of a Together, the two keys help ensure the security of the
transaction is distributed among many nodes in the system which exchanged data. Asymmetric encryption has many applications
makes it practically impossible for a bad actor to gain control of such as in key exchange, email security and web security. In
the system and manipulate the ledger to their advantage. Using Bitcoin and other blockchain applications, asymmetric
proof of work, the amount of computational power needed to encryption is used to ensure the integrity of transactions.
reverse or change a transaction is enormous. This technology Bitcoin uses the ECDSA algorithm (Elliptic Curve Digital
allows bitcoin to transfer value in a decentralized way without the Signature Algorithm) and in particular the Secp256k1 elliptic
need for any intermediary, or a trusted third party such as a bank. curve and the double-SHA hash to implement its public key
In addition, the system uses public-key cryptography which cryptography.
allows users to transact anonymously or more accurately, When a person creates a crypto wallet, the system generates a
pseudonymously. pair of keys. The private key can generate the public key, but the
Bitcoin has a market capitalization of more than $700 billion public key cannot be converted back into the private key. The
(as of 6 March 2022) and it is the largest application of blockchain public key itself is not a bitcoin address. The address of a wallet,
technology until today. Despite its widespread fame and its high which is similar to a bank account number (where one can receive
value, Bitcoin itself remains a controversy. For many, it is the payments) is derived from the public key by putting the public
ultimate democratic tool and the currency of the future. They key into a hash function (see next subsection). Bitcoin addresses

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FIGURE 5 | Uses of asymmetric cryptography in message sending.

are 34-digit alphanumeric. An example Bitcoin address is • Collision resistance: Practically, it is impossible to find two
“1J7mdg5rbQyUHENYdx39WVWK7fsLpEoXZy”. Such an messages giving the same hash value.
address appears most commonly as the recipient of funds. • Avalanche effect: A slight change in a message will result to a
Note that several of the characters in an address are used as a drastic change in the hash value, so that the new hash
checksum. This way typographical errors can be automatically appears to be completely different and uncorrelated to the
found and rejected by the system. old one.
On the other hand, the private key is used for the digital
signature of the transactions, and it provides access to the funds Bitcoin uses the SHA-256 hashing algorithm, which belongs to
in the wallet. In other words, it is equivalent to a password or the SHA-2 set of cryptographic hash functions designed by the
PIN code that provides control over a bank account. US NSA (National Security Agency). The algorithm was first
Mathematically speaking, a signature is generated from a published in 2001 (Penard and van Werkhoven 2008).
hash of something to be signed, plus a private key. When Irrespective of the size of the message, the hash values of
Alice sends Bob an amount of Bitcoin, she presents her SHA-256 will always be 256 bits and they are represented by
public key and a signature (transaction fingerprint). The 64 hexadecimal “digits” (each one taken from the set
signature, which is different each time, is created with her “0123456789abcdef” containing 16 such “digits”).
private key and can only be produced by someone who has The value set of SHA-256 contains 2256 = 1664 ≈ 1077 different
access to Alice’s private key. However, anyone in the network message digests, an unfathomably large number considering that,
can verify the signature if they have access to the public key and for example, it is estimated that there are between 1078 to 1082
the transaction fingerprint. In other words, it is ensured that atoms in the known, observable Universe. Examples of SHA-256
only Alice, having the private key, can spend the bitcoin she has hash values can be found in Table 1. One can see that the hash
in her account, but anyone in the network, having her public value of the message “This is a message” is completely different
key, can easily verify that it is Alice who made the payment. than the one of “This is a message.” with an added dot in the end,
which shows the avalanche effect. Also, it is seen that the hash
4.1.2 Cryptographic Hash Functions value remains always the same length (64 digits), even for longer
A hash function is a one-way function that maps data of an messages.
arbitrary size to fix-sized values (Estébanez et al., 2014). The Other than Bitcoin, the SHA algorithm is used in many
return of a hash function is called the hash value, digest, hash applications, such as Digital Signature Verification, Secure
code, or simply hash. A hash function is deterministic, meaning Sockets Layer (SSL) Handshake, Integrity Checks, Password
that for a given input value it should always generate the same Hashing and others. For example, using password hashing, the
output. Hash functions are designed to be irreversible, a property password of a user need not to be stored in a website’s database.
which is usually referred to as pre-image resistance, which means Instead, the hash value of the password is stored. This is enough
that it is not possible to generate the input from the hash, and to validate a given password when a user tries to log in. On the
therefore a hash function is essentially a one-way function. other hand, if a hacker gets access to the database, all they will find
A cryptographic hash function has additionally some desired is the hashes of the passwords and not the passwords themselves,
special properties: which increases security.

• Quick computation: The hash value is computationally 4.1.3 Blockchain Definition, Characteristics and
inexpensive to compute, for a given message. Structure
• It is practically impossible to generate a message that will Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) or simply blockchain is a
give a given hash technology able to simplify and secure transactions among

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TABLE 1 | Examples of hash values generated by the SHA-256 hash algorithm.

Message Hash Value

Empty string SHA256(“") e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

This is a message a826c7e389ec9f379cafdc544d7e9a4395ff7bfb58917bbebee51b3d0b1c996a
This is a message. a3964890912366008dee9864a4dfddf88446f354b989e340f826e21b2e83bd9c
This is a longer message. But the hash length remains always the same! 4a7af8b298b8988523ab80bf572960aca294e0fd47ae860ee9c0f80f0b233645

FIGURE 6 | An example of a simple blockchain.

parties and record keeping in general. It has to do with a the block is validated by the other nodes, it is added to the main
growing number of blocks containing records. These records chain and all the nodes of the network are synchronized with
are usually transaction data and timestamps, but it can be the latest main chain. Each block has its unique hash value,
virtually anything that can be recorded. The blocks are which is not included in the block itself (it can be easily
linked together using hash values created with a calculated anytime), but it is added to the next block in
cryptographic hash function. The innovation lies in the the chain.
connection of each new block of data with the previous one, In Bitcoin and similar systems relying on blockchain to
using the cryptographic hash. In particular, the hash value of a transfer value, the steps needed for a transaction to get into
given block is part of the information stored in the next block. the blockchain are the following:
Any small change in a block would lead to a new hash value for
the block, which would automatically invalidate all subsequent • A peer-to-peer transaction is requested by a user.
blocks. In addition, the ledger is not stored in a central location, • Each user has a private key and a public key. A transaction is
but it is distributed in thousands of copies among the nodes of signed with the private key of the user, for authentication
the network, which are also asked to validate the blocks purposes.
containing the transactions. Blockchain technology uses a • The transaction is sent first to the closest node of the
decentralized architecture based on distributed computing, network, and it is verified and propagated to other nodes.
crypto-chain block structures to store data, node consensus • The transaction waits until a miner picks it up to include it
algorithms to verify data and smart contracts to program data in the next block to be mined
(Xu et al., 2021). • The transaction, together with a number of other
The structure of a blockchain is depicted in a simplistic way transactions are packed together in a block by a miner.
in Figure 6. Note that in this example, for illustration Other miners may try to create other blocks using probably
purposes, we use simple hash values with 8 digits instead of different combinations of transactions.
real SHA-256 hashes with 64 digits. After several transactions • The first miner achieving to solve the “Proof of Work”
have taken place within a predefined time interval, a miner cryptographic puzzle adds the block to the main chain and
node will pack the transaction data into a new block, together receives a reward in cryptocurrency
with some additional information, with a timestamp and a • The update in the blockchain is distributed across the
signature. As shown, each block contains the hash value of the network
previous block, making a chain of blocks. The miner node will • Other nodes verify the result and propagate the block
send the package to all the other nodes of the network. After • The transaction is complete.

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

TABLE 2 | Details of Block 712,650 of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Property Value

Hash 00000000000000000001a4110f39e05a871b04fdc43ccdb5d1fbe45e14a97249
Timestamp 2021-12-05 07:45
Height 712,650
Number of Transactions 129
Difficulty 22,335,659,268,936.39
Merkle root 9ef36627c62611d1cfa6fd2ce4e29b4c8c709fbe45325de542dd65666f4a00a0
Size 1,861,938 bytes
Nonce 3,134,706,325
Transaction Volume 739.76,687,155 BTC
Block Reward 6.25 BTC
Fee Reward 0.20322136 BTC

If a bad actor goes back in time and tries to change a try on average approximately 1619 ≈ 7.55579·1022 hashes with
transaction record in a given old block, this will cause a different nonces. A more accurate estimation for the needed
change in the hash of the block and the block will be no number of tries is in fact given by formula D·232, where D is the
longer connected to the next block in the chain. Such an difficulty of the block, shown in Table 2 for Block 712,650. In our
attempt will be easily spotted and be denied by the decent case, this formula will result to 22335659268936.39*232 =
nodes of the blockchain network. 9.59309·1022 hashes. Since a block is created every 10 min
(600 s) on average. In Table 2, we see that the hash value of
4.1.4 Proof of Work the block has 19 leading zeros (in bold), as a result of mining and
As mentioned, calculating the hash function of a block would be a the relevant difficulty. The computational power of the bitcoin
computationally easy operation as SHA-256 hashes are easy to network for the time period related to the generation of block
calculate on any modern computer. In other words, generating 712,650 can be calculated as 9.59309·1022 hashes/600 s ≈ 160
any hash for a given set of transactions is trivial. The bitcoin million TH/s (tera hash per second) = 160 EH/s (exa hash per
protocol and other similar blockchain networks make this harder second). This shows how computationally demanding Bitcoin
by introducing a level of difficulty in the hashing operation. In mining has become lately. It also has a huge effect on the carbon
particular, a miner has to add some special info into the header of footprint of Bitcoin.
the block, an integer number known as a nonce (“number used Miners race and compete to solve the cryptographic puzzle
once”), to achieve a hash that has a value which is lower than a first, i.e. to find the nonce that produces a target hash that is below
predefined threshold value, or in other words it has a number of the threshold set by the block difficulty. The winning miner
leading zeros. Since hash values cannot be predicted and the receives two kinds of reward: 1) in the form of newly mined
outcome is completely “random” (although deterministic), a crypto coins (currently 6.25 BTC per block), and 2) transaction
miner node has to try many times with different nonces until fees. In the example of Block 712,650, the miner will receive 6.25 +
it finds the right nonce that will give the hash with the desired 0.20322136 = 6.45322136 BTC as the total reward.
properties. The first reward is set by the bitcoin protocol. The rate at
In Bitcoin, this mechanism aims to add a new block to the which new Bitcoins are generated (mined) is reduced over time,
blockchain every 10 min, on average. To do so, it adjusts the as rewards are halved every approximately 4 years. Today, there
difficulty of the cryptographic puzzle depending on how quickly have been three halving events. When bitcoin started in 2008, the
miner nodes are adding blocks. If miners have high reward was 50 BTC which was halved to 25 BTC in 2012, 12.5
computational power and add blocks too quickly, the difficulty BTC in 2016 and lately 6.25 BTC in 2020. Bitcoin last halved on
increases, and hash computations become harder. In contrast, if 11 May 2020, around 3 p.m. EST, resulting in a block reward of
blocks are added too slowly, hash computations become easier. 12.5/2 = 6.25 BTC. Halving occurs after every 210,000 blocks are
This concept, called “Proof of work” (PoW) is a consensus mined. Given that a block is produced every 10 min on average,
mechanism requiring members in a decentralized network to 210,000 blocks require 2,100,000 min which is 1,458.33 days or
do some computational work in order to prevent bad actors from 3.99 years (considering each year equal to 365.25 days). The
gaming the system. maximum supply of BTC coins will be 21 million coins, after
In the simple example of Figure 6, we see that the hash values all bitcoins have been “mined”.
of the blocks, all have 3 leading zeros, which means that some Eventually, after all bitcoins have been generated, miners
“work” was needed for finding the proper nonce that would will keep receiving only the second reward, in the form of
provide the hash for each block. As a practical example and a case transaction fees. Transaction fees are therefore used to 1)
study, Table 2 shows some properties of Block 712,650 of the avoid spam transactions in the bitcoin network, and 2) give
Bitcoin blockchain, mined on 05 December 2021 at 7:45 AM incentive to the miners to keep mining even after the
(GMT+3). We see that the block has a hash value with 19 leading generation of new bitcoin has come to end. Transaction
zeros. To achieve this number of leading zeros, one would need to fees also reflect the speed with which one would like their

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

transaction to be validated in the system. Transactions with In PoS, when a block is ready, the system chooses a node to
higher fees are more likely to be processed first, as miners have act as its reviewer and validator. The validator will check if the
the incentive to include them in their blocks, in order to get a transactions are accurate. In this case, they will add the block
higher cumulative mining reward. to the blockchain and they will receive a reward. The
PoW is an efficient mechanism which protects the network probability of being selected to act as a validator is
against malicious and fraudulent actors. In a hypothetic scenario proportional to the number of staked coins one has. The
concerning Block 712,650, we suppose that after 30 min another 3 more coins one has staked, the more probable it is to be
blocks have been added to the chain (i.e. blocks 712,651, 712,652, selected as validator. In case a validator validates a block
712,653) and at that time everybody is working on making the next which has inaccurate information in it, there will be a penalty
block, i.e. block 712,654. Bill, a bad actor, instead of building the next and the validator will lose part of their staked coins. In such a
block wants to alter a transaction in block 712,650 to his favor. If Bill system, the mining power is proportional to the number of
does that, then the hash of the block will be changed and the link of staked coins one has. Unlike PoW, which uses a difficult
the blockchain will be broken. The community will simply reject the computational puzzle, requiring tremendous amounts of
copy of the blockchain presented to them, unless Bill manages to computing power and electricity with a huge carbon
properly “redo” the next blocks, i.e. 712651, 712,652, 712,653 before footprint, PoS is simpler, faster and more eco-friendly.
the other nodes manage to generate block 712,654. This is the only Consensus mechanisms, such as PoW and PoS, usually deal
way that Bill can cheat the network and alter an existing transaction with the trilemma of decentralization, scalability and security.
in the blockchain. To do so, Bill must be fast enough, which means he Both PoW and pure PoS have a decentralized nature where all
needs to have at least 51% of the computational power of the whole participants have the right to participate in validation. An
network, which is very difficult to achieve. If 51% or more of the alternative approach is the so-called “Delegated PoS”, which is
computational power remains in good hands, then this assures that a more centralized system where only a limited number of
the network will work in a decent way, rejecting such fraudulent people with known identities have the power to validate
attempts. transactions and generate blocks.

4.1.5 Proof of Stake: An Alternative to PoW 4.1.6 Merkle Tree

Validators in a blockchain network have to carry out the task of A Merkle tree is an inverse tree structure where every leaf node
appending a block of transactions to the blockchain. In most cases, has a label which is the cryptographic hash of a transaction (or
they will receive a reward for doing so. For security purposes, the any other data) and every non-leaf node has a label which is the
blockchain protocol must have a mechanism to prevent a bad actor hash of the labels of its child nodes. A simple Merkle tree is
from taking over the majority of validation. PoW systems use depicted in Figure 7.
validation based on computational power to verify transactions, This structure allows for an efficient and secure validation
which incentivizes consuming huge quantities of energy. Although of records of large data structures. The validation that a leaf
PoW offers some advantages, such as a decentralized way of verifying node is part of the tree requires the computation of a number
transactions, high security level, and allowing miners to earn rewards, of hashes which is proportional to the logarithm of the
it also has disadvantages and limitations. Its main drawbacks are high number of the leaf nodes in the tree. Merkle trees are used
energy usage, slow transaction speeds, and scalability problems. PoW in Bitcoin and other crypto networks. An average Bitcoin
has mathematical limitations on scalability, as the block size and the block contains over 1,000 transactions, so the Merkle tree is in
block creation frequency need to be within certain bounds, to fact much larger than the one presented in Figure 7. A full
maintain security. For Bitcoin, these bounds set a limit of a few (“thick”) node of the network has full, complete blocks. On the
transactions per second (TPS), far below requirements for worldwide other hand, a “thin” node has only headers but still needs to be
adaption and practical applications at a global scale. At this time, able to verify transactions. In thin nodes, the Merkle tree is
Bitcoin executes around 5 TPS, compared, for example, to VISA’s used to verify a specific transaction without the need to
24,000 TPS. To make things even worse, the energy needed for a download the whole blockchain. For example, in Figure 7,
single Bitcoin transaction is equivalent to the one needed for several to verify that Transaction B is included in the Block, we have
hundreds of thousands of VISA transactions. to query the network about HA and HCD, only. Given HB and
Another promising approach is Proof of Stake (PoS), which HA, we calculate HAB. Then, given HAB and HCD, we
extends the voting power to the stakeholders of the system. In calculate HABCD and we compare it with the Merkle root
PoS, participants owning crypto coins can stake them, which of the tree, which is part of the header. The transaction is
will give them the right to check new blocks, validate them and proved to be valid, unaltered and part of the block if the final
add them to the blockchain. The first functioning hash is equal to the Merkle root of the tree, on top of it. In a
implementation of a PoS cryptocurrency was Peercoin, Merkle tree with 1,000 transactions, one would need to have
introduced in 2012. PoS is tremendously more energy- only about 10 hash outputs to validate a given transaction.
efficient than PoW (Bach et al., 2018). did a comparative
analysis of typical consensus mechanisms and some of their 4.2 General Purpose Technologies
contemporaries that are in use in modern blockchains. The General Purpose Technologies (GPTs) can affect an entire
analysis focused on the algorithms, scalability issues, reward economy. They can impact economic growth and transform
mechanisms and security risks. both our everyday lives and the ways we do business. Such

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FIGURE 7 | A simple Merkle tree.

technologies have the inherent potential for technical • Anonymous. The identity of participants can be either fully
improvements, and innovational complementarities, giving rise anonymous or pseudonymous.
to increasing returns-to-scale (Bresnahan and Trajtenberg 1995). • Unanimous. The participants agree to the validity of the
Thus, they can drastically alter societies and foster generalized records.
productivity gains through their impact on pre-existing economic • Distributed. Copies of the ledger are distributed to all
and social structures. Examples of GPTs include electricity, the participants, for complete transparency.
electric motor, the steam engine, the computer and the internet. • Time-stamped. Every block and every transaction have a
These technologies fundamentally impacted how we live, timestamp.
expanded our lives (physically and emotionally), helped build
our cities and changed how people interact with the world. 4.5 Decentralized and Centralized Ledgers
In a fully decentralized blockchain, e.g. Bitcoin, anyone can
4.3 Blockchain as GPT participate and transact on the ledger. There are no
Given its unique characteristics, such as immutability, “privileged” users, and a distributed consensus protocol is
transparency, and distribution (Sandner and Schulden 2019), used. As a result of this system design, there should be
blockchain is recognized by many as a new form of GPT. mechanisms in place to combat the vulnerabilities arising from
Naturally, it takes time for a GPT to diffuse through the it. These mechanisms prevent people from corrupting the system
economy. Although blockchain is still at the infrastructure and ensure that transactions are correct. Bitcoin uses Proof-of-
building stage, it is expected to unleash several applications Work (PoW) and “mining” for this.
across different verticals within the next 5–15 years. Like the In a centralized blockchain, not anyone can transact on the
internet in its first years, blockchain is difficult to predict or even ledger. There are a few trusted centralized authorities that have
understand well, but in the future, it could become ubiquitous in the right to validate transactions and modify the ledger. In this
the exchange of physical and digital goods, record keeping, case the blockchain can still be distributed, meaning that many
information, and online platforms. According to an article by parties can again hold copies of the ledger. Yet, the validity of
Harvard Business Review, “Blockchain is the first native digital the system comes from the fact that only some credible and
medium for value, just as the internet was the first native digital reputable participants can modify the ledger. And because
medium for information.” participants’ identities are known, their transactions can
therefore be audited.
Centralization can undermine the technology’s purpose
4.4 The Properties of Distributed Ledger as a shared ledger. Too much power can be placed in the
Technology control of a single entity or a few special “players”. The past
A distributed ledger has some specific properties. In particular, has shown that when a single entity takes too much power
it is: then it may no longer operate for the benefit of the society.
Fully decentralized distributed systems can mitigate risk
• Programmable. For example, it can be programmed to run and prevent attacks while centralized systems are more
specific smart contracts prone to them. A centralized ledger would essentially act
• Secure. All the records are encrypted like a third-party and thus the concept of peer-to-peer, fully
• Immutable. The validated records cannot be deleted or distributed network without intermediaries would no longer
changed as they are irreversible. be valid.

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

TABLE 3 | Key areas of the civil, architectural and construction industry where blockchain can be applied.

Application Area References

1. Building information modelling and Computer Aided Design Pradeep et al., (2020)
Nawari and Ravindran (2019c)
Das et al. (2021)
Lemeš and Lemeš (2020)
Dounas et al. (2021)
Lee et al. (2021)
Zheng et al. (2019)
Nawari and Ravindran (2019a)
Androulaki et al. (2018)

2. Contract management and smart contracts Vigliotti. (2021)

McNamara and Sepasgozar. (2021)
Hamledari and Fischer (2021b)
Ahmadisheykhsarmast and Sonmez (2020)
Nanayakkara et al. (2021)
Xu et al. (2021)

3. Construction project management Perera et al., (2020)

Udokwu et al., (2021)
Hargaden et al., (2019)
Hewavitharana et al. (2019)
Turk and Klinc. (2017)
Li et al. (2021)

4. Smart buildings and smart cities Berglund et al. (2020)

Lam et al., (2018)
Valtanen. (2021)
Liu et al., (2021)
Tiwari and Batra. (2021)
Bindra et al. (2021)

5. Construction supply chain management Qian and Papadonikolaki. (2021)

Tezel et al., (2020)
Tezel et al. (2021)
Hamledari and Fischer. (2021a)
Yoon and Pishdad-Bozorgi (2022)

6. Real estate Mehendale et al. (2019)

Perera et al. (2021)
Mishra et al. (2021)
Wouda and Opdenakker (2019)
Nasarre-Aznar (2018)

5 BLOCKCHAIN IN THE CIVIL, on the same BIM model with clear ownership, while design and
ARCHITECTURAL AND CONSTRUCTION construction decisions can be recorded on the blockchain for
future analysis and liability.
INDUSTRY Information exchange in BIM is critical yet complex due to the
In this section we identify several key areas of the civil, multi-party collaboration nature of a construction project.
architectural and construction industry where blockchain can Bimchain, funded in 2017, is a blockchain technology software
be applied, and we investigate the current state of the art, the aiming at accelerating the BIM revolution in the Building
benefits that blockchain technology can offer and the challenges Industry by integrating the BIM software and processes to
and opportunities ahead. The summarized results are presented create a binding traceability of data exchanges. As paper-based
in Table 3, while the following sub-sections provide further solutions are often insufficient, (Pradeep et al., 2020), investigated
details and a relevant discussion for each application area. the use of blockchain technology and in particular the
commercial software Bimchain for improving Trust in BIM
Data Exchange. Their work showed that Bimchain manages to
5.1 Building Information Modelling and accomplish most of its objectives, such as improving data
Computer Aided Design reliability, limiting the scope of liability, and clarifying
Blockchain can be used to provide live and trustworthy stakeholder responsibilities, among others. However, the legal
information for BIM, by information sharing among present validity of the tool’s proofs is still untested and therefore it is still
and future information owners. Furthermore, it can help enhance not able to establish a global acceptance for real-world
the benefits of BIM by allowing architects and engineers to design applications.

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

(Nawari and Ravindran 2019c) proposed the use of blockchain and trigger payments based on milestones (Vigliotti 2021). They
in a BIM workflow environment. They presented an overview of are executed automatically reducing the necessity of
the blockchain and discussed its integration with the Building intermediaries and as a result time and money can be saved.
information process, focusing on how blockchain can help in They can be used to automate agreements, thus revolutionizing
improving the BIM working environment by providing reliable construction contracts and payments which usually rely on
data storage and management of permissions, reinforcing traditional methods.
network security, and ensuring data ownership and change (McNamara and Sepasgozar 2021) discussed and investigated
tracing (Das et al., 2021). presented a comprehensive study on the use of blockchain and intelligent contracts (iContracts) for the
the requirements of BIM security, claiming that although the digitalization of the construction industry. The authors identified
technologies to support BIM security are available in research and 9 influencing factors based on 46 studies and presented a
on the market, they are not customized in existing collaborative conceptual three-dimensional model for iContract system
BIM platforms to support security. They proposed a conceptual adoption. The study aims to identify key considerations for
encryption strategy for securing BIM data distribution and a such contracts, develop a theoretical adoption model and offer
distributed blockchain-based framework for BIM change an agenda of 6 research directions for the future (Hamledari and
recording. Fischer 2021b). investigated the role of smart contracts in the
(Lemeš and Lemeš 2020) presented a work on using automation of construction progress payments. Current
blockchain technology in Distributed and collaborative CAD computerized payment applications cannot support reliable
(Computer Aided Design) environments, such as BIM and automation of progress payments due to the fact that they rely
Geographical Information Systems (GIS). They argue that on centralized control mechanisms and no guaranteed execution.
blockchain can provide answers to key issues such as data The authors argue that decentralized smart contracts based on
integrity and confidence in information stored in information blockchain can address these limitations in an effective way. They
systems (Dounas et al., 2021). introduced a framework for explore the conceptual underpinning for the design of an
decentralized architectural design BIM and blockchain automated payment system and investigate the role of smart
integration in the context of the 4th industrial revolution. The contracts in enabling reliable and autonomous conditioning of
authors examined the constraints of BIM regarding collaboration cash flow on product flow status. They also use a test case for
and trust. Then they introduced a blockchain solution for payments based on progress and smart contracts in the context of
creating new operational and business models for architectural unmanned aerial vehicle-based progress monitoring.
design, through scaling collaboration, project governance, and (Ahmadisheykhsarmast and Sonmez 2020) proposed the use
shifting trust to the infrastructure. They focused on the design of smart contracts for securing the payments in construction
process and validated the framework with a prototype of BIM contracts. This can guarantee payments while eliminating
design optimization integrated with blockchain. administrative costs and burdens related to trusted
(Lee et al., 2021) proposed an integrated digital twin and intermediaries, by employing an automated protocol running
blockchain solution to support accountable information sharing on a decentralized blockchain. On the other hand (Nanayakkara
in construction projects. In this implementation, the digital twin et al., 2021), investigated the suitability of blockchain and smart
updates the BIM in nearly real-time using sensors and internet of contracts for dealing with payment issues in the construction
things, while the blockchain has the role of authentication and industry. They concluded that solutions based on blockchain and
adding confidence to the transaction data. The framework was smart contracts can mitigate the payment and the related
tested with a case study where virtual positioning data from a financial issues in the construction industry, including non-
prefabricated brick was transmitted to a digital twin in real-time payments, partial payments, long payment cycle, cost of
and recorded on the blockchain using time stamps (Zheng et al., finance, retention, security of payments, among others.
2019). presented a novel BIM system called bcBIM to facilitate In the structural engineering field, very powerful capabilities
BIM data audit for historical modifications by blockchain in are available today for the simulation and analysis of structures,
mobile cloud with big data sharing. The authors proposed a given the development of computational methods, numerical
method of BIM data organization based on private or public analysis software and hardware during the last decades
blockchains. Using blockchain, the system can trace, authenticate (Plevris and Tsiatas 2018). In this area (Xu et al., 2021),
and prevent tampering of historical data related to BIM (Nawari presented a work on the application of a blockchain network
N. and Ravindran S. 2019). proposed a new framework with the and smart contracts in structural health monitoring (SHM). Their
integration of BIM and blockchain to improve the efficiency of results showed that such a system can provide several advantages,
building permit processes in post-disaster events, with the such as monitoring authority verification, generation of abnormal
application of smart contracts and Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) alerts, data immutability, resistance to attacks, and
(Androulaki et al., 2018). traceability query.

5.3 Construction Project Management

5.2 Contract Management and Smart Construction project management (CPM) can potentially benefit
Contracts from an agile and more decentralized approach based on
A Smart Contract is a computer program that works based on an blockchain, with high transparency, and the parties being
“if/then” principle. Smart contracts can identify accountabilities compensated for outcomes and for work performed. Given

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

that the construction industry has been historically reported as opportunities and limiting any relevant threats arising from
one of the slowest sectors in the adaptation of information urbanization. Smart cities enable operational efficiency,
technology, the question of whether blockchain as a maximize environmental sustainability efforts and create new
technology is hype or real in the construction industry was citizen services. Blockchain innovation can be utilized to make
addressed by (Perera et al., 2020). Their work aimed at smarter cities. Blockchain-based solutions can be utilized to
analyzing the potential of blockchain applications in enhance our cities and provide for better economic
construction through case analyses and a comprehensive development and livability, by offering enhanced security,
literature review. According to the study, blockchain has immutability, resilience and transparency.
indeed a credible potential in the construction industry, due to (Berglund et al., 2020) investigated the role of civil engineering
its exponential general use, the investments involved, and a in smart cities and smart infrastructures. They examined a
number of start-up businesses contributing to Industry 4.0. number of smart technologies that can be used for
In the work of (Udokwu et al., 2021), a blockchain-based CPM infrastructure management, such as crowdsourcing and citizen
platform implementing smart contract technologies was science, sensors, data transmission, actuators, big data analytics,
presented for facilitating the peer-to-peer collaboration data visualization, Internet of Things, and blockchain. They
between parties in the construction industry, leading to identified the gaps in the application of such technologies for
improved information flow, cost and time reduction, and infrastructure systems and they highlighted how civil engineering
improvement in the quality of the services. The system relies can adopt new roles toward the development of applications
on diligent up-front requirement studies with a coherent system related to smart cities (Lam et al., 2018). investigated the use of a
architecture and the use of cooperation protocols (Hargaden blockchain system in smart cities, claiming that malpractices
et al., 2019). examined the role of blockchain technologies in related to civil engineering can be avoided if there are transparent,
CPM, providing insights into the performance of blockchain in timely, and unalterable records of the relevant activities, based on
construction and investigating the feasibility of its potential a blockchain (Valtanen 2021). identified several design challenges
adoption with case studies. The authors claim that blockchain regarding the development of blockchain-enabled capabilities of a
can increase the efficiency of processes within the construction smart home. They analyzed and classified these challenges and
industry and eliminate current issues related to trust, verification did an organized literature review to identify the best practices
and transparency (Hewavitharana et al., 2019). examined how and find possible solutions (Liu et al., 2021). explored the impact
blockchain can address the project management perspectives in of integrating BIM and blockchain into a smart city environment,
the construction industry regarding the guidelines mentioned in on making more sustainable buildings. They investigated the
the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK). Five relationships between BIM, blockchain, and sustainable building
criteria were selected for the analysis using the relevant throughout the life cycle of a construction project.
guidelines, namely 1) contract management, 2) purchase (Tiwari and Batra 2021) examined the application of
management, 3) finance management, 4) asset and inventory blockchain-based solutions for the reparations in smart
management, and 5) subcontractor management. It was buildings, proposing a prototype simulating the system
identified that blockchain can indeed assist in all these areas. architecture and discussing how blockchain can further
(Turk and Klinc 2017) presented an investigation on the expedite security, automation, and transparency in smart
potential of blockchain for construction management. The buildings. The work focused on the use of smart contracts in
authors highlighted that blockchain can improve the smart buildings, for repairs and service. On the other hand
trustworthiness and reliability of logbooks in construction, (Bindra et al., 2021), investigated the use of blockchain
while it can also help secure storing of sensitive data. They technology and smart contracts for the flexible, decentralized
concluded that blockchain can offer solutions to various access control of smart buildings. According to the study, visitor
problems in construction information management while and occupant access to equipment and spaces within the
decentralizing the construction processes (Li et al., 2021). buildings continue to be managed in a conservative, old-
proposed the use of a 2-layer adaptive supervision model fashioned, and inflexible way, through inefficient,
based on blockchain for off-site modular housing production, unsystematic, and human-intensive processes. Their work
where the 1st layer includes the adaptive private sidechains of describes a methodology relying on blockchain and smart
participants and the 2nd is the main blockchain for trading and contracts that can securely and flexibly manage building access
communication among all participants. The blockchain-based privileges for both short-term visitors and long-term occupants,
methodology has the benefit of avoiding tampering of the taking into consideration the risk associated with accessing a
operation records, while driving the participants to promptly space in the building, in an efficient, decentralized way.
publish their operation records, without any privacy risks.
5.5 Construction Supply Chain Management
5.4 Smart Buildings and Smart Cities The construction industry is characterized by fragmentation in
As urbanization is increasing rapidly, offering improved livability processes, operations and services. One of its major problems is
and a higher standard of living, the concept of “smart cities” are the disconnect between construction and design, due to the lack
one of the main focus areas of many governments across the of trustworthy and open information across the supply chain.
globe. Many countries attempt to establish special strategies for Blockchain has the potential to adverse these issues using open
transforming their cities into smart cities, utilizing the potential and transparent transactions. It can be used to trace physical

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

objects from the origin to the destination. It can also improve 5.6 Real Estate: Property Ownership, Land
payment settlements, compliance management and material Titles, Asset Management and Maintenance
planning, while smart contracts can be implemented to Real estate is known as one of the most important sectors of the
automatically purchase, track, and verify items in the supply economy, playing a crucial role in the lives of people across the
chain, in real-time. world. The size of the global real estate assets managed
According to the study of (Qian and Papadonikolaki 2021), professionally was estimated at $8.5 trillion in 2017. Real
supply chain management (SCM) has long been committed to the estate investments provide better returns than the stock
reduction of cost and increase of efficiency, while trying to reduce market without as much volatility, providing also tax benefits
fragmentation and optimize resources. Since trust has always in many cases. Although real estate is so important and despite
been a significant factor in managing SCM relationships, the the technological advancements that have affected other sectors,
study aimed at examining how trust can be affected by it has not changed much during the last decades. It is still a “pen
introducing blockchain technology in the construction SCM. and pencil” business, relying on archaic methods for keeping
Based on semi-structured interviews and information from records and doing transactions. The industry suffers from various
experts, the study suggests that blockchain can help enhance problems, such as limited participation due to barriers to enter,
trust in SCM and provide supply chain partners with proper slow and costly verification procedures involving a lot of
protection mechanisms to avoid the risks and costs associated intermediaries and very limited foreign investments, to name
with opportunistic behaviour in collaboration. This can shift trust only a few.
from relational to system-based and cognition-based. However, Figure 8 presents the real estate ecosystem today and depicts
the authors highlight that the extent to which blockchain can the number of different parties involved and the relevant
develop and spread will ultimately depend on the readiness of the interactions. This traditional model has several drawbacks and
social capital to accept decentralised governance schemes. limitations:
(Tezel et al., 2020) examined the potential and future
directions of blockchain applied to construction supply chains. • There are a lot of intermediaries, that increase the cost and
For this, the authors collected empirical data through semi- reduce the transactions’ speed.
structured interviews with seventeen experts in the field. They • The current approach requires significant time and effort
used SWOT analysis to present the strengths, weaknesses, for due diligence and financial verification.
opportunities and threats involved and they also exhibited the • Foreign investments are difficult, expensive, and slow.
requirements for and steps toward a construction supply International bank accounts, accreditation, financing,
structure facilitated by blockchain technology. The same group credit score, cash requirements, access to sponsors, fund
(Tezel et al., 2021) later investigated the implementation of managers, even citizenship, might be needed for investing in
blockchain in construction, presenting discussions on SCM real estate in a foreign country. As a result, the real estate
applications of blockchain for construction by collecting business remains very “local”, in geographical terms.
feedback for 3 models based on blockchain: reverse auction- • Real estate transactions are done via wire transfers and
based tendering for bidding, project bank accounts for payment require costly and slow verification processes with increased
purposes, and asset tokenization for the financing of projects. A likelihood or error.
set of general and model-specific challenges and opportunities • Real estate investment can be very expensive and as a result
were identified for the implementation of blockchain in there is limited participation. Although everybody is
construction. interested in housing, real estate is the investment choice
(Hamledari and Fischer 2021a) presented the of the rich and not open to all. People with small amounts of
implementation of crypto assets based on blockchain for the money are not allowed to invest in expensive real estate
integration of the physical and financial supply chains in the assets as the current system does not support fractional
construction industry. The paper demonstrated how ownership. One needs to either buy a whole building/
blockchain-based crypto assets used for payments made apartment or nothing.
conditionally on the flow of products can address the • Low liquidity. Real estate assets are traditionally difficult to
limitations of physical and financial supply chains due to trade or convert to cash because of their high value and the
high fragmentation and relying on financial institutions. The cost of the intermediaries, each time a transaction is made.
study also highlights the problem of price volatility and
examines potential solutions (Yoon and Pishdad-Bozorgi Real estate is entering the blockchain era and it can benefit
2022). aimed to explore the applications of blockchain in from the numerous advantages that the technology can offer.
addressing issues related to CSC. They identified the main Traditionally, real estate transaction records are housed in central
problems in CSC as related to collaboration, information servers controlled by a single administration point. With
sharing and sustainability. Although these issues have been Blockchain, all real estate ownership and transaction records
dealt with individually in the past, they are essentially can be stored securely as tamper-proof digital records on the
coupled and interconnected. Blockchain technology can blockchain, in a decentralized way. Such records are fully
provide a holistic system view approach to address all of accurate, safe, and immutable. Blockchain immutability proves
them together, i.e., enhance sustainability, promote ownership and facilitates transactions. In addition, with the use of
collaboration, and facilitate information sharing, all at once. blockchain, verification becomes an easy task which does not

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

FIGURE 8 | The Real Estate ecosystem today.

require lengthy procedures, high cost and intermediaries offers quick and costless verification (Mishra et al., 2021).
(Mehendale et al., 2019). discussed how blockchain can discussed the digitalization of land records using blockchain
revolutionize the real estate industry, by reducing the technology. According to the authors, the immutable,
paperwork and the time needed for property assessment, auditable and traceable features of blockchain entice
document collection, the preparation of contracts, and others governments around the world to implement decentralized
(Perera et al., 2021). highlighted the potential of blockchain in technology within the process of land registration.
real estate, with respect to property transactions, where In addition, real estate assets can be fully tokenized in the
businesses depend on the reliability of transaction records and blockchain system, allowing participation to people having
blockchain can be user to enhance trust and ensure ownership. limited amounts of savings. Real estate tokenization is the
Their paper demonstrates a methodology for developing a process of creating a digital asset that represents a property on
blockchain system starting from problem analysis, selection of the blockchain. The tokenization process addresses various
blockchain platform, system modelling, prototype development, challenges in capital formation and liquidity, although it
and evaluation. Their findings provide the foundation for requires a legal wrapper around the property, to securitize and
developing proofs of concept for other potential applications create an investment vehicle. The use of intermediaries can be
of blockchain in the built environment. minimized, while the system can facilitate foreign real estate
Information and data related to the building or structure need investments and liquidity as anyone will be able to buy or sell even
to be tracked at every stage of its life cycle. Blockchain can provide tiny shares of real estate assets (Wouda and Opdenakker 2019).
a living ledger that records everything happening with the asset. investigate the application of a blockchain solution for improving
Blockchain can allow tracking and access to all the necessary the transaction process of an office building in the Netherlands.
information and data through the life cycle of the asset. In case of The authors highlight the problems of the current system, such as
any refurbishments or other improvements to a building, these lack of market transparency, slow speed and inefficiency
changes can be documented and recorded, and the whole (Nasarre-Aznar 2018). investigate the relationship between
repository can be transferred to new owners when the collaborative housing and blockchain. The authors conclude
property is sold. In the future, each property will come with a that the technology has the potential to facilitate access to
universally shared data set, which will include background housing through the reduction of cost and time and
information such as past sales, repairs and amenities. This minimizing the role of intermediaries.
digital history of transactions will help every stakeholder prove
their ownership, increase transparency and eliminate fraud
attempts. This alone will have tremendous consequences in 6 CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION
countries where one cannot rely on public authorities because
of corruption. The transactions can be made easy, safe, and We are moving to a digital economy where financial and physical
inexpensive due to the use of blockchain technology which assets will increasingly have digital representations. According to

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Plevris et al. Blockchain in Civil Engineering, Architecture and Construction

the World Economic Forum, by 2025, blockchains will store identified six important application areas and examined the
around 10% of the world’s GPD. Countries are trying to make the relevant challenges and opportunities ahead, namely in: 1)
necessary legislative and regulatory changes to adapt to the new Building information modelling (BIM) and Computer Aided
environment and make this change a reality. New opportunities Design (CAD); 2) Contract management and smart contracts;
arise. Looking towards the future, it appears that blockchain is 3) Construction project management; 4) Smart buildings and
something that we will be hearing a lot more of. Although nobody smart cities; 5) Construction supply chain management; and 6)
can predict the degree to which it will affect the economy, our Property ownership, land titles, asset management and
lives and every single sector particularly in the long run, most maintenance in real estate. The conclusion of the study is that
experts agree that it has the potential to play a significant role in although blockchain technology is new and there are certainly
the future, in a wide range of fields across different verticals. This several early challenges to tackle, it has great potential to become
is evidenced by the fast-growing occurrence of blockchain-related an extremely positive force of change in the construction
articles in the scientific literature during the very recent years, in industry. As engineers, it is our inherent responsibility to
several scientific areas, including engineering. facilitate the digital transformation of the AEC industry and to
The present study briefly examined the technical details, main make it ready for the challenges and opportunities of the future,
concepts and aspects of blockchain technology and aimed at and blockchain is bound to play a pivotal role in this
formulating a picture of the current state and practice of its use in transformation.
fields related to civil, architectural and construction engineering.
The study also summarized and highlighted specific application
areas related to the Architecture, Engineering, and Construction AUTHOR CONTRIBUTIONS
(AEC) industry where blockchain has the potential to provide
new solutions, and how they can be adopted to improve All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual
performance, sustainability, and safety in the future. We contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

Hamledari, H., and Fischer, M. (2021b). Role of Blockchain-Enabled Smart

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Circular Economy in the Built Environment Sector through Blockchain
Technology. J. Clean. Prod. 294, 126352. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.126352 Copyright © 2022 Plevris, Lagaros and Zeytinci. This is an open-access article
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