Blockchain for a Circular Digital Built Environment
| 
Abstract
Blockchain was repeatedly mentioned as a promising solution for a circular economy (CE) in the built environment, while others remain critical of its applicability and disruptive potential. Proposed applications remain scattered, mostly at a conceptual or prototypical level, and focused on track and trace aspects of existing systems. This paper proposes six promising applications of blockchain in two categories related to data-level requirements for enabling circular information flows: time stamping, storage, access, incentives, decentralized markets, and machine agents. The use cases presented, linked to the technological characteristics of blockchain, should help the reader to better understand the promise and associated challenges of blockchain towards a circular digital built environment.
