Development of a Blockchain Prototype for Collaborative Risk Assessment of Construction Projects

This research explores the applicability of blockchain technology for collaborative risk assessment of capital projects through prototype development. Risk assessment is a collaborative process where project participants get together to assess and manage potential project risks. Different systems have been developed to support this collaborative risk assessment process. However, such systems are governed in a centralized manner and do not protect the confidentiality of individual inputs from the stakeholders. Moreover, the security and transparency of the data stored can become an issue as well. The research explains the development of a blockchain prototype to address the problems stated above. A private permissioned blockchain network has been configured so that risk-related information can be transacted in a secure, transparent, and trustable way. Smart contract algorithms have been developed to receive risk inputs from multiple stakeholders and update an aggregated output. The system architecture and the functionalities of the prototype are described in detail, and each step of the risk assessment process has been demonstrated on the prototype system. The research discusses the limitations of the current prototype and future work that can be done to improve collaborative risk assessment.