BRE report on blockchain benefits for the built environment
A new report from BRE explores how blockchain technology can help to address the particular challenges of the built environment sector.
Blockchain is a type of ‘distributed ledger technology’. It is a digital record of the economic transactions or changes of ownership of an asset. The information is shared and continually updated on a network of computers simultaneously. Information is encrypted, allowing digital information to be distributed, but not copied. BRE states ‘a blockchain is both transparent and incorruptible’.
The BRE report, ‘Blockchain – feasibility and opportunity assessment’ draws its findings from a series of workshops run by BRE and Constructing Excellence. The sort of projects the groups looked at included the potential for better ‘track and trace’ of products through their lifecycles to give a clear indication of provenance.
Dr Shamir Ghumra, director of the Centre of Sustainable Products, says: “This report will help inform the debate on blockchains. There are many opportunities and synergies we can explore with this technology for the built environment itself, but importantly we should see direct benefit and engagement with all parts of the value chain.”
