Malachy Mathews discusses the potential for combining BIM (Building Information Modeling) with blockchain technology. He argues that a permissioned blockchain led by an oracle could enable a trusted consensus-based system for transactions in the construction industry. Key transactions around materials, labor, and quality could be recorded on a blockchain to increase transparency, accountability, and trust between clients, architects, engineers, and contractors. By enabling reputation and trust to be built through consensus-validated work, a BIM+blockchain system may improve collaboration in design and construction.
2. BIM+Blockchain
Context:
PhD Research, BIM anthropology, social & personal change,
Trust:
Problems, silo domains, contacts, hierarchy, platform
Evidence of Trust:
Level 2 BIM, CDE, Cloud platform,
3. BIM+Blockchain
Industrial Revolution x 3
History, Timespan, Patterns of Disruption leading to Innovation
● knows no boundaries
● disrespects hierarchies and
● regularly slays sacred cows
4th Industrial Revolution,
“We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter
the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and
complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has
experienced before.” Schwab (2016)
4. BIM+Blockchain
BIM: Collaborative platform for Sharing data
“Reversing process of sending out information to the
user by
bringing the user to the information”.
Its an unbuckling within processes, ink from paper, currency from gold
reserve etc.
A move towards Centralised systems, systems being databases……...
BIM Rubicon: Programmable database,
5. “The elevation or obscurity of BIM will not be about its
power as a tool, or even about the skill of its users, it
will be about the culture change that is taking longer
than your average ice age.” Sullivan (2016)
BIM+Blockchain
6. BIM+Blockchain
Blockchain:
Satoshi Nakamoto, 2008 paper “Bitcoin: a peer to peer electronic
cash system”
This introduced Bitcoin and it is the underlying technology that
facilitates this to happen is what we and many other industries are
interested in “Blockchain”.
It is an ingenious invention that cannot now be uninvented
What is it?
The blockchain is a digital public ledger of transactions, the ledger
is distributed and owned by anyone who has an interest in its
transactions. These owners are referred to as “Nodes” who
validate transactions by *consensus*, If all agree based on
consistent information then the transaction is validated.
7. BIM+Blockchain
Why use a Blockchain:
● Immutability providing
● accountability
● transparency leading to trust on the transactions….
Parties who do not trust each other just have to trust the business Blockchain
Ie Blockchain provides “evidence of trust”
Blockchain.info
8. BIM+Blockchain
Take Blockchain out of its natural home of cryptocurrency and it
becomes somewhat of a
“solution looking for a problem”.
Ref: IBM making Blockchain ready for Business
9. BIM+Blockchain
So why is there no interest in a Blockchain for Design, Construction?
We have an added complication.
Blockchain was invented to enable a - virtual value transaction - Virtual value to virtual value
In our business we transact some virtual value but our closing action is
virtual value to “bricks & mortar”.
We have 3 real values that must be agreed before we close a transaction
● Materials
● Labour
● Quality
All applied to a complex product repeated hundreds of times.
Linking the Physical World to Blockchain
10. BIM+Blockchain
In Design & Construction we have large ecosystems referred to as the “supply-
chain”
This supply chain is involved in hundreds & hundreds of thousands of transactions
which involve exchange of assets (real value items) for currency.
Scale of operation is not really a problem
Value could be
Culture certainly is.
11. BIM+Blockchain
Is there potential for a Blockchain to add value to our supply chain ecosystem ?
To answer this we need to dig a little deeper into Blockchain.
The Blockchain invented by Nakamoto is based around open distributed ledgers
with all nodes connected to each other,
However recognising that this is not always the most efficient system for the
presented problem, closed or permissioned Blockchains have come onto the
scene
12. BIM+Blockchain
“Permissioned Blockchain”
Private Blockchains also know as Permissioned Blockchain allow the network to appoint a group of
participants (nodes) or a single person (node) in the network who are given the express authority to
provide the validation of blocks of transactions or to participate in the consensus mechanism.
● Transaction speed much faster
● Fewer nodes with high trust levels.
● No need for every node to verify a transaction,
● Less repetitive work on a public blockchain.
● Free or at least very inexpensive transactions.
https://monax.io/explainers/permissioned_blockchains/
15. BIM+Blockchain
Smart Contracts
To begin with, smart contracts are neither particularly smart nor
are they, strictly speaking, contracts.
They are blockchain housed scripts which represent unilateral
promises to provide a determinate computation based on
transactions which are sent to the script.
Smart contracts can be coded to reflect any kind of business or
engineering logic which is data-driven.
Processes of checks and balances are necessary to be
satisfied prior to title transfer in almost any modern commercial
context one could imagine.
The Idea of Smart Contracts Copyright (c) 1997 by Nick Szabo
16. BIM+Blockchain
Oracle Contracts
● An Oracle contract is an adjudicated contract
● with the added requirement the adjudicator is deemed the most appropriate person to be performing
the adjudication and the method must likewise be insurable.
● The Oracle must make decisions in physical space—not simply assess digital data.
● The Oracle must be able to be present in both the virtual world (BIM) and the real world (Artefact)
determine causation of an event and deal with significant ambiguity in relation to the facts being
observed.
● The validity of the Oracle is what establishes tangibility and invokes law— therefore, money and
property.
Robles (2015)
17. BIM+Blockchain
Smart / Oracle Contracts
In order for smart contracts to work you need an oracle. Someone who is a trusted authority who creates
the transaction by writing the code and embedding it into the blockchain so “all nodes have the same data
and can come to a consensus agreement”.
These contracts require a trusted entity to manage the interactions between the blockchain (virtual) and
the outside world (real).
While this is technically possible, the question must arise is it more cost effective and trustworthy?
20. BIM+Blockchain
Process Proposition
A Permissioned Blockchain led by an Oracle with a 4 node
consensus to include a collaborative grouping of
Client, Architect, Engineer, Contractor
with consensus categories of
Material, Labour and Quality
Using blockchain, collaborators will be able to work together as
free agents instead of under a hierarchy of bosses. Bloomberg 2016
21. BIM+Blockchain
How does the Oracle build and propose a consensus transaction? 1/3
By using a set of tools already at our disposal.
A pre construction BIM Model with material specification is shared by the
design and construction stakeholders to the Oracle.
The Oracle sets in motion a 4 node consensus permissioned Blockchain and
sets the scene for the build.
A “virtual” BIM is constructed in sequence with the “real” build using point
cloud, object recognition, photogrammetry information delivered from the site.
22. BIM+Blockchain
How does the Oracle build and propose a consensus transaction? 2/3
The consensus transaction is built using the a set of criteria including materials,
labour and quality.
Materials and Labour are quantitative resources and can have checks and
balances including checking as constructed BIM against pre constructed BIM
before being prepared for a consensus transaction between the contractor and
client, (2 node consensus)
Once a consensus is agreed the Oracle writes a smart contract into the
blockchain triggering payment.
23. BIM+Blockchain
How does the Oracle build and propose a consensus transaction? 3/3
Quality is a Qualitative resource and will require a 4 node consensus Client,
Architect/Designer, Engineer, Contractor.
Once a consensus is agreed the Oracle writes a smart contract into the
blockchain triggering payment.
Running a comparison of current payment systems against this proposed
methodology will quickly identify if there are efficiencies to be gained.
24. BIM+Blockchain
How does the Oracle build and propose a consensus transaction? 3/3
But benefits of a consensus transaction approach should not stop at payments.
There is a new currency in town, it's the
“Currency of Reputation”
26. BIM+Blockchain
Currency of Reputation
AIRBnB, Uber, TaskRabbit, Travelocity
Must be based on confirmed identity
Collaborative performance rated at job end
Or
With confirmation of consensus transaction
An opportunity to build your reputation as you design or construct your building
27. BIM+Blockchain
A permissioned Blockchain
“Design & Construction Trust Machine”
+
Currency of Reputation = Trust by Consensus
+
Can only be achieved through Collaboration.
Immutability, accountability, transparency = Trust by Consensus
28. Blockchain is a foundational technology:
It has the potential to create new foundations for our economic and social systems.
There is a synergy between BIM and the Blockchain and it needs to be explored !
BIM+Blockchain
Hello
Inform on synergies - leader for BIM SoA - BIM story
Context - Research - problem of trust in collaborative environments
Solutions from other industries - Blockchain
3 industrial revolutions since the 18th century - transformational effect on industry and society.
Recognisable pattern - disruption driven by foundational technological invention leading to innovation driven by entrepreneurship.
Amplified in the 3rd industrial revolution - digital technologies - 3 effects
Shorter timespan - world's economies.
4th industrial revolution that will follow the same pattern but will be different in its scale, scope, complexity and speed of innovation.
Revit - programming a database - all sorts of possibilities open up with this realisation.
BIM Rubicon - students
Reversing traditional information process
Un Buckling process - ink from paper - currency from reserve -
Gary Sullivans quote in the Construction Manager magazine last year……..
how true…..
but remember what i said about the patterns of a digital transformation
If it meets an immovable force - it will just flow around it - and the immoveable force will get left behind.
Back to 1990 when David Chaum setup “DigiCash” which was based on
Public and private key technology in order to create Blind Signature Technology. In
1998, Nick Szabo designed a mechanism for a decentralized digital currency he called "bit gold" again a precursor to Bitcoin
The development of Blockchain features a brilliant cast of characters and if you want an insight
Digital Gold by Nathanial Popper
Laszlo Hanyecz (laszlo) made the first documented purchase of a good with bitcoin when he bought two Domino's pizzas from jercos for 10,000 BTC.
In 2013 the value of BT was = to 12.4 million.
An immutable object is an object whose state cannot be modified after it is created. Its important to understand the advantages and the workings of blockchain
Only then can you apply it to other industrys
And current industries with an interest in a blockchain solution are listed here……..
The largest industry missing from this list is Design and Construction…….
While it is quite possible to setup your own Blockchain (because the code is open source) most of us do not have the skills, time or capital to do so, industry will use Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) providers Microsoft Azure, IBM, Stratis, and more.
Is a blockchain in which only one participant can generate the blocks in which transactions are confirmed.
Transactions are sent to this one node instead of being broadcast to the network as a whole,
once a block has been built by this central party, it is broadcast to the other nodes in the network, who can independently confirm the validity of the transactions within, and record the new block locally and permanently.
“Smart contracts” may be the most transformative blockchain application at the moment. These automate payments and the transfer of currency or other assets as negotiated conditions are met. For example, a smart contract might send a payment to a supplier as soon as a shipment is delivered. A firm could signal via blockchain that a particular good has been received—or the product could have GPS functionality, which would automatically log a location update that, in turn, triggered a payment. We’ve already seen a few early experiments with such self-executing contracts in the areas of venture funding, banking, and digital rights management.
Decentralised Adjudication Force - Oracles
Decentralised Adjudication Force - Oracles
Quality is 4 node consensus, Material is a 2 node consensus, Labour is a 2 node consensus. Oracle remains independent and has a role to propose consensus transaction, gather and validate transactions and create block. The blockchain is owned by all nodes providing immutable, transparent evidence of trust for the collaboration.
One strategy is to add bitcoin as a payment mechanism. The infrastructure and market for bitcoin are already well developed, and adopting the virtual currency will force a variety of functions, including IT, finance, accounting, sales, and marketing, to build blockchain capabilities. Another low-risk approach is to use blockchain internally as a database for applications like managing physical and digital assets, recording internal transactions, and verifying identities. This may be an especially useful solution for companies struggling to reconcile multiple internal databases.
Blockchain value is to dramatically reduce the cost of transactions. It has the potential to become the system of record for all transactions. The Internet derives its value from the applications built on it Blockchain outside of crytocurrencies will derive its value from new applications built on it.
