# March 2026
Welcome to the March edition of the Construction Blockchain Newsletter. This month’s theme is tokenised money as governed infrastructure: the question is no longer whether the technology functions, but whether programmable instruments can be integrated into existing legal, payment, and settlement rails without diluting controls. Cambridge’s latest work is useful precisely because it treats interoperability, claims clarity, and supervisory-grade risk management as the binding constraints. For construction, that is the decisive test: blockchain-enabled payment or assurance layers will only scale where identity, access control, provenance, reporting, and dispute pathways are engineered end to end.
Europe is moving tokenisation from strategy into execution, with the UK’s Digital Gilt Instrument pilot progressing while the Bank of England signals possible revisions to systemic sterling stablecoin constraints. Australia is taking a wholesale, sandbox-first route after Project Acacia, and North America is testing tokenised securities inside regulated market infrastructure under SEC oversight. South America and Africa, meanwhile, highlight the tightening compliance perimeter: Brazil is operationalising supervision through new Central Bank rules, and South Africa’s draft travel-rule guidance makes transfer traceability a non-negotiable requirement.
Construction Blockchain Newsletter
Welcome to the March edition of the Construction Blockchain Newsletter. This month’s theme is tokenised money as governed infrastructure: the story is no longer whether blockchains “work”, but whether regulated institutions can integrate programmable instruments into existing legal, payments, and settlement rails without weakening controls. Cambridge’s latest analysis is valuable precisely because it treats interoperability, claims clarity, and supervisory-grade risk management as the binding constraints. For the built environment, that is the right lens: construction will only adopt blockchain-enabled payment or assurance layers where identity, access control, provenance, reporting, and dispute resolution are engineered end to end.
Regionally, Europe is pushing tokenisation into execution mode, with the UK’s Digital Gilt Instrument pilot advancing while the Bank of England signals it may recalibrate proposed constraints for systemic sterling stablecoins. Asia and Australia show a wholesale, sandbox-first approach, with the RBA positioning a DFMI sandbox after Project Acacia’s lessons on tokenised assets and settlement forms. North America is moving through regulated market infrastructure rather than retail crypto narratives, as exchanges test tokenised securities under SEC oversight. South America and Africa underscore the compliance perimeter tightening: Brazil is operationalising supervision through new Central Bank rules, and South Africa’s draft “travel rule” guidance makes transfer traceability an enforceable expectation.
The Research & Development Digest follows the same logic, focusing on procurement governance, evidence-driven progress payments, and carbon accounting that can withstand audit. The Events Agenda and Knowledge Upgrade are selected to strengthen practical literacy in regulated tokenisation and enterprise deployment, not speculative trading.
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Construction Blockchain
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World & Blockchain
Worldwide
Cambridge: tokenised money is an integration and governance challenge
Cambridge’s Centre for Alternative Finance has published a detailed report arguing that “tokenised money” (including stablecoins and tokenised bank liabilities) is advancing, but scale depends on interoperability, programmability constraints, and regulatory design. The report’s useful discipline is that it treats market plumbing as the bottleneck: legal clarity around claims, credible risk controls, and integration with existing payment and settlement rails. For construction, the implication is blunt: any blockchain-enabled payment or assurance layer will be adopted only where data provenance, access control, reporting, and dispute pathways are engineered end-to-end.
Europe
UK tokenised gilt pilot advances; BoE reconsiders stablecoin constraints
HM Treasury has appointed HSBC as platform provider for the UK’s Digital Gilt Instrument pilot issuance, pushing sovereign tokenisation from “strategy” into an execution programme. In parallel, reporting indicates Bank of England Deputy Governor Sarah Breeden has said the BoE is open to revising proposed rules for systemic sterling stablecoins (including the balance of backing assets held as BoE deposits and caps on holdings), while maintaining that financial stability objectives must be met. For construction and infrastructure finance, this is the pattern to watch: tokenised instruments may arrive, but only inside a strict compliance and resilience envelope.
Asia & Australia
RBA signals wholesale tokenisation sandbox after Acacia pilot lessons
In a speech published 25 March 2026, the Reserve Bank of Australia described outcomes from recent wholesale experiments (via Project Acacia) spanning tokenised assets and multiple settlement forms (private money and central bank money). The RBA’s framing is pragmatic: pilots revealed appetite, but the next step is a technology sandbox that lets industry test designs under controlled conditions. For built-environment stakeholders, Australia’s relevance is indirect but important: tokenised trade payables, milestone payments, and supply-chain finance are explicitly in scope for wholesale tokenisation thinking, provided governance and risk controls are demonstrable.
North America
US exchanges push tokenised securities under SEC oversight
Reporting indicates the SEC has approved Nasdaq’s proposal to pilot trading and settlement of certain stocks in tokenised form, while the NYSE (via ICE) has announced a partnership with Securitize to develop a tokenised securities platform and associated standards for digital transfer and tokenisation agents. This is not “crypto adoption”; it is regulated market infrastructure exploring whether tokenisation can reduce settlement friction without weakening investor protections. For construction, the enabling implication is that regulated tokenised rails for equities and funds could accelerate institutional comfort with tokenised cashflows, receivables, and project-linked instruments—provided auditability and recourse are clear.
South America
Brazil tightens virtual-asset perimeter with new BCB rules and CMN measures
Reporting indicates the SEC has approved Nasdaq’s proposal to pilot trading and settlement of certain stocks in tokenised form, while the NYSE (via ICE) has announced a partnership with Securitize to develop a tokenised securities platform and associated standards for digital transfer and tokenisation agents. This is not “crypto adoption”; it is regulated market infrastructure exploring whether tokenisation can reduce settlement friction without weakening investor protections. For construction, the enabling implication is that regulated tokenised rails for equities and funds could accelerate institutional comfort with tokenised cashflows, receivables, and project-linked instruments—provided auditability and recourse are clear.
Africa
South Africa issues draft “travel rule” guidance for crypto asset transfers
South Africa’s Financial Intelligence Centre has issued draft public compliance communication guidance on the “travel rule” for crypto asset service providers, setting expectations for the collection and transmission of originator/beneficiary information in crypto transfers. This is a concrete supervisory move: it treats crypto transfer data as enforceable AML/CFT infrastructure rather than voluntary best practice. For construction and infrastructure delivery (where cross-border supplier payments and layered subcontracting are common), the implication is not theoretical. Any proposal to use crypto rails or tokenised settlement in African contexts will be assessed on traceability, screening, record retention, and audit response—i.e., compliance-by-design from day one.
Research & Development Digest
This monthly Research Digest features three peer-reviewed papers selected for direct relevance to construction’s settlement and evidence problems: procurement governance, automated progress payments, and verifiable embodied-carbon accounting.
Blockchain for settlement, evidence, and assurance in construction delivery
Applications of blockchain for construction project procurement
Kim M; Kim Y-W, 2024.
A procurement-focused review (Automation in Construction) that maps where blockchain is actually proposed in construction delivery: tendering, contract administration, payment certification, and auditability. The key takeaway is sceptical and useful: many claimed benefits assume well-defined workflows, robust data governance, and clear dispute pathways. Without those, the technology simply preserves ambiguity more permanently. For enterprise teams, it supports a staged approach: stabilise procurement evidence and approvals first; then decide where shared records add accountability without increasing friction.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105550
Wu Y; Li Z, 2025.
This paper (Developments in the Built Environment) treats the “oracle problem” as the centre of gravity: smart contracts are only as trustworthy as the progress evidence they consume. It proposes a digital-twin workflow that verifies progress against BIM milestones and triggers payments via smart contracts, storing evidence off-chain and governing disbursements with multi-signature control. Even if prototype performance claims do not generalise, the construction insight is robust: payment automation is a governed evidence system problem first, and a contract-code problem second.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2025.100781
Kim H; Kim S; Lee J; Jeong K; Hong T; An J, 2026.
A Building and Environment paper proposing BC-LCAP, a platform combining APIs, a web application, and a blockchain layer with role-specific chaincode to calculate and record emissions across ordering, manufacturing, transport, and construction stages. The construction relevance is increasingly hard-nosed: embodied-carbon claims are drifting into contractual liability space, pushing provenance and calculation transparency into assurance design. The paper helps teams think about carbon evidence as an operational data product with attribution, governance, and tamper resistance—not a post-hoc report.
Events Agenda
Financial Times Live: Digital Assets Summit 2026
A market-infrastructure forum: tokenisation, custody, settlement, and regulation discussed by mainstream finance. For construction and infrastructure, the value is reconnaissance on what will be “bankable” in the next 12–24 months (e.g., tokenised cash equivalents and compliant settlement rails that could underpin escrow/retention and receivables finance). Expect constraints: resilience, governance, and enforceability, not demos.
City Week 2026 (includes The Future of Digital Assets Summit)
18–19 May 2026, London (in-person + livestream)
A broader capital-markets programme with a digital assets summit (19 May, morning). Useful for pressure-testing assumptions because digital assets sit alongside mainstream market structure and regulatory narratives. Bring a blunt question: which designs survive supervision and dispute resolution, and which depend on “trust us” governance?
OMFIF: Digital Money Summit 2026
Focused on the public–private boundary of money: stablecoins, tokenised deposits, CBDCs, and resilience. For built-environment organisations, it is enabling-infrastructure insight: if wholesale digital money primitives mature, conditional settlement tied to evidence becomes more plausible, but only with rigorous controls and supervisory comfort.
Knowledge Upgrade
Training Course: “Blockchain, Web3 and Tokenization”
Provider: Universidade de Lisboa
Format: Online
Start date: 1 Apr 2026
Duration: 21 hours (1–16 Apr 2026)
This short, structured course is a pragmatic option for enterprise teams who need vocabulary, design patterns, and risk awareness without drifting into trading culture. Its tokenisation emphasis is relevant to construction where the “asset” is often a right or obligation: payments, warranties, materials provenance, carbon attributes, and contractual triggers. The value is not learning to “deploy a chain”; it is learning to ask competent questions about identity, governance, data quality, and enforceability—because in regulated adoption, weak requirements engineering is what kills pilots.
# February 2026
Welcome to this month’s Construction Blockchain Newsletter. This month’s tracks blockchain’s shift from speculation towards governed infrastructure across finance and industry. In the news section, the common thread is regulated experimentation and tighter oversight: stablecoins edging into supervised trials, banks testing tokenised instruments on public rails under permissioned access, and authorities and policymakers reinforcing reporting and compliance—alongside reminders that stablecoins can also carry geopolitical and legislative risk when policy coalitions fracture. The research digest focuses on what can be engineered and verified in construction delivery: smart-contract automation for IPD financial administration, scan-to-BIM progress evidence triggering payments, and a five-year mapping of the field that highlights where maturity is real and where adoption constraints still dominate. The events agenda points to three different “signal types” in March—expo, finance summit, and institutional conference—each useful for a different purpose (vendor scanning, compliance and tokenised money, or market-structure narratives). Finally, the knowledge update highlights structured upskilling via the Oxford Fintech Programme, relevant to practitioners seeking a credible grounding in tokenisation, payments, and governance.
Construction Blockchain Newsletter
Welcome to this month’s Construction Blockchain Newsletter. This month’s tracks blockchain’s shift from speculation towards governed infrastructure across finance and industry. In the news section, the common thread is regulated experimentation and tighter oversight: stablecoins edging into supervised trials, banks testing tokenised instruments on public rails under permissioned access, and authorities and policymakers reinforcing reporting and compliance—alongside reminders that stablecoins can also carry geopolitical and legislative risk when policy coalitions fracture. The research digest focuses on what can be engineered and verified in construction delivery: smart-contract automation for IPD financial administration, scan-to-BIM progress evidence triggering payments, and a five-year mapping of the field that highlights where maturity is real and where adoption constraints still dominate. The events agenda points to three different “signal types” in March—expo, finance summit, and institutional conference—each useful for a different purpose (vendor scanning, compliance and tokenised money, or market-structure narratives). Finally, the knowledge update highlights structured upskilling via the Oxford Fintech Programme, relevant to practitioners seeking a credible grounding in tokenisation, payments, and governance.
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Construction Blockchain
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World & Blockchain
Worldwide
Revolut to test stablecoin in UK trial
A convergence in the financial system is taking shape. It’s quieter than the hype cycles and far more durable: banks are adopting blockchain infrastructure, and blockchains are evolving to the needs of regulated institutions and global enterprises. The result isn’t a replacement for the old system or a wild leap into a new one – it’s a convergence.
Europe
BNP Paribas pilots money market fund tokenisation on public Ethereum (permissioned access)
BNP Paribas says its Asset Management arm has issued a tokenised share class of an existing French-domiciled money market fund, recorded on the public Ethereum network via its AssetFoundry™ platform. Crucially, it uses a permissioned access model: only eligible, authorised participants can hold or transfer the tokenised shares, aiming to combine public-chain resilience and ecosystem maturity with regulated-fund controls. The bank frames this as a limited intra-group experiment testing end-to-end processes (issuance, transfer agency, tokenisation, wallet operations, and connectivity), and positions it alongside an earlier Luxembourg issuance conducted on a private blockchain—suggesting BNP Paribas is deliberately comparing operating models rather than betting on a single architecture.
Asia
Iran, sanctions, and stablecoins: report links central bank activity to large USDT flows
A Guardian investigation citing findings from crypto-analytics firm Elliptic reports that Iran’s central bank appears to have channelled at least c.$507m in Tether (USDT) through accounts Elliptic assesses to be under its control. Because USDT is dollar-pegged and highly liquid, the report argues it may form part of a deliberate strategy to bypass the global banking system under sanctions pressure, potentially to facilitate trade or stabilise the rial. The story also politicises the issue domestically in the UK by noting public advocacy of Tether by Nigel Farage.
North America
US policy volatility: White House “could drop” crypto market-structure bill after Coinbase row
Reporting cited by Cointelegraph suggests the White House is considering withdrawing support for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act after Coinbase pulled its backing, allegedly without warning administration officials. The flashpoint is said to be stablecoin “yield”/rewards language, where banking interests reportedly want tighter constraints, while Coinbase argues the draft would undermine DeFi and broader on chain finance use cases. The episode is a useful reminder that “regulatory clarity” remains politically fragile: even industry aligned bills can stall quickly when coalitions fracture or the banking lobby exerts pressure.
Africa
Ghana Legalizes Crypto While Ghanaian Village Shows Bitcoin’s Potential
Ghana’s parliament made headlines at the end of last year as it passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) bill, which establishes a legal framework for regulating bitcoin and crypto assets as well as crypto service providers. According to a press release from the Bank of Ghana, the Bank in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will issue regulatory instruments and directives in the coming months as part of their mission to “create a safe, transparent, and innovative virtual asset ecosystem.”
Research & Development Digest
This monthly Research Digest features some notable papers produced or suggested by our academic and industry Members and Partners that we hope will be of interest.
Blockchain & Integrate Project Delivery (IPD)
Integrated project delivery with blockchain: An automated financial system
Elghaish F; Abrishami S; Hosseini M R, 2020.
This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled financial platform to address a persistent barrier to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD): transparent, tamper-resistant administration of reimbursable costs, profit, and shared savings, where profit is typically deferred until project completion. The authors develop a framework that encodes the three core IPD financial transactions as smart-contract functions, aiming to reduce ambiguity, prevent unauthorised changes, and give all parties a common, auditable view of entitlements. A proof of concept is implemented and validated using an IPD case project on a Hyperledger Fabric environment (IBM Blockchain Cloud), and the study reports on practicality, usability, and the completeness of required blockchain components. The contribution is positioned as moving beyond conceptual discussion towards empirical feasibility, while recognising that deeper BIM data integration and fully operational prototypes remain future work.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103182
Construction Payment Automation Through Scan-to-BIM and Blockchain-Enabled Smart Contract
Elsharkawi H; Elbeltagi E; Eid M S; Alattyih W; Wefki H, 2025
This study develops and tests a payment automation workflow that links verifiable site progress to automatic payment execution. It integrates scan-to-BIM (reality capture to produce near-real-time as-built information) with blockchain-enabled smart contracts, using a “chain-link” mechanism to securely relay off-chain progress data on-chain. The goal is to reduce payment delays and disputes that arise from manual measurement, documentation, and approval cycles. The approach is implemented on a real case study using periodic site scans captured with a 360° photogrammetry/3D scanning camera, converted into BIM outputs (e.g., Revit), and then translated into quantities and completion states that trigger contract conditions in an Ethereum-based smart contract. The authors argue that tying payments to independently verifiable progress provides a more transparent basis for valuation, improves trust, and accelerates release of funds, while also enabling granular progress tracking.
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15020213
Idrissi Gartoumi K, 2024
This review maps how blockchain technology (BCT) research has developed in construction management from 2017 to 2023, treating the field as relatively young but fast-expanding. Using a mixed-methods approach, it analyses 237 documents through scientometric techniques (to characterise publication trends, influence, and diffusion) and thematic analysis (to classify application themes and track their evolution). The results organise construction-related blockchain applications into eight thematic categories, and the paper highlights recurring implementation challenges alongside “critical success factors” and related enabling technologies. A key emphasis is that many proposed applications focus on automation and dispute-related problems (including the handling of claims and trust deficits), yet deployment barriers remain substantial. The review is mainly valuable as a structured research map: it consolidates what has been studied, where the concentration of effort sits, and which gaps—technical, organisational, and governance—still constrain practical adoption.
Events Agenda
Crypto Expo Europe 2026
Dates: 1–2 March 2026 (Bucharest, Romania)
A large Eastern European crypto and blockchain expo-style conference aimed at practitioners, startups, investors, and service providers. The programme typically mixes market commentary, product showcases, and partner networking rather than deep technical workshops. The organisers position it as a regional hub event, with a substantial exhibition floor and a broad “Web3” scope (trading, exchanges, infrastructure, and applications). If your objective is business development in CEE, lead generation, or surveying vendors, it is plausibly useful; if you want rigorous research content, you should expect a lighter academic footprint and more commercial signalling than peer-reviewed substance
London Blockchain Finance Summit: Payments & Digital Currencies
12 March 2026 (London, UK)
A finance-led, one-day summit focused on the real deployment of digital money: stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenised cash, treasury and settlement, and the regulatory perimeter around these instruments. It is pitched at the intersection of banks, fintech/PSPs, enterprise users, and regulators, so the framing is more “market structure and compliance” than “ideology”. Expect sessions on how tokenised liabilities and stablecoins affect payment rails, liquidity management, and operational risk, with an emphasis on what is implementable under current rules rather than speculative roadmaps. For enterprise architects, it can be useful for understanding integration patterns and governance constraints.
Digital Asset Summit (Blockworks) — New York 2026
24–26 March 2026 (New York City, USA)
Blockworks’ flagship institutional event targets allocators, market infrastructure, and policy—think ETFs, custody, trading venues, stablecoins, and how legislation or agency positions shape investability. The event is explicitly framed around “public market activity” and institutional adoption rather than grassroots crypto culture. In practice, you should expect senior buy-side and sell-side voices, plus compliance and legal perspectives, alongside large industry sponsors. It is typically strong for mapping narratives (what institutions claim they are doing) and for networking, but you should be cautious about mistaking panel confidence for empirical evidence of adoption at scale.
Knowledge Upgrade
Oxford Fintech Programme (Saïd Business School)
Online: A 7-week executive programme that includes digital assets/tokenisation within the broader fintech landscape (payments, market structure, strategy). It’s not a “hands-on Solidity” course, but it’s credible if you want institutional/strategic grounding.
# January 2026
Welcome to the CBC Newsletter and the first edition of 2026, opening the year with a clear signal that blockchain is settling into its role as critical digital infrastructure rather than speculative novelty. This issue highlights an emerging convergence between traditional finance and blockchain platforms, as regulated institutions quietly adopt distributed ledger technologies while blockchains adapt to compliance, governance, and enterprise demands.
In Europe, the regulatory environment tightens as UK crypto users are now required to disclose account details to HMRC, marking a decisive shift towards tax enforcement and institutional oversight. Asia showcases industrial-scale innovation, with Fujitsu launching a blockchain-based pilot to trace green steel value flows across complex supply chains, aligning sustainability goals with verifiable data. North America reflects political uncertainty, as tensions between the White House and Coinbase threaten momentum behind crypto market legislation. Africa offers a more constructive trajectory, with Ghana legalising crypto through its VASP bill and signalling ambitions for a transparent and innovation-friendly digital asset ecosystem.
Research features underline blockchain’s growing maturity in construction, spanning governance, ESG reporting, and adaptive smart-contract automation. Upcoming highlights include the Digital Assets Forum in London and Consensus 2026 in Hong Kong.
Construction Blockchain Newsletter
Welcome to the CBC Newsletter and the first edition of 2026, opening the year with a clear signal that blockchain is settling into its role as critical digital infrastructure rather than speculative novelty. This issue highlights an emerging convergence between traditional finance and blockchain platforms, as regulated institutions quietly adopt distributed ledger technologies while blockchains adapt to compliance, governance, and enterprise demands.
In Europe, the regulatory environment tightens as UK crypto users are now required to disclose account details to HMRC, marking a decisive shift towards tax enforcement and institutional oversight. Asia showcases industrial-scale innovation, with Fujitsu launching a blockchain-based pilot to trace green steel value flows across complex supply chains, aligning sustainability goals with verifiable data. North America reflects political uncertainty, as tensions between the White House and Coinbase threaten momentum behind crypto market legislation. Africa offers a more constructive trajectory, with Ghana legalising crypto through its VASP bill and signalling ambitions for a transparent and innovation-friendly digital asset ecosystem.
Research features underline blockchain’s growing maturity in construction, spanning governance, ESG reporting, and adaptive smart-contract automation. Upcoming highlights include the Digital Assets Forum in London and Consensus 2026 in Hong Kong.
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Construction Blockchain
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World & Blockchain
Worldwide
The new foundation of global finance: a dialogue between banks and blockchains
A convergence in the financial system is taking shape. It’s quieter than the hype cycles and far more durable: banks are adopting blockchain infrastructure, and blockchains are evolving to the needs of regulated institutions and global enterprises. The result isn’t a replacement for the old system or a wild leap into a new one – it’s a convergence.
Europe
Crypto users forced to share account details with tax officials
People buying cryptocurrency in the UK now need to share their account details or face penalties, in changes that came into effect on 1 January. The move by the UK's tax body is designed to ensure they pay all relevant tax on buying and selling crypto, including capital gains tax. HMRC will begin automatically collecting information on all users of cryptocurrency exchanges - which are effectively the industry's banks - in a bid to start collecting tens of millions in unpaid tax.
Asia
Fujitsu announced that it has commanced a demonstration experiment into the value flow of green steel [1] in the steel industry starting in December 2025. This project was previously selected by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) as part of its FY2025 Industrial Research Project under the theme Survey Project on the Transmission of Green Steel Information Linked to Steel Materials Across Supply Chains in November 2025.
North America
White House threatens to pull support for crypto bill after Coinbase standoff
The White House is considering withdrawing its support for crypto market structure bill following a similar move from crypto exchange Coinbase, according to Fox Business reporter Eleanor Terrett, citing a source close to the Trump administration. In a Sunday post on X, Terrett reported that the White House is furious over Coinbase’s decision to pull its backing for the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, describing the move as a “unilateral” action that blindsided administration officials.
Africa
Ghana Legalizes Crypto While Ghanaian Village Shows Bitcoin’s Potential
Ghana’s parliament made headlines at the end of last year as it passed the Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASP) bill, which establishes a legal framework for regulating bitcoin and crypto assets as well as crypto service providers. According to a press release from the Bank of Ghana, the Bank in conjunction with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will issue regulatory instruments and directives in the coming months as part of their mission to “create a safe, transparent, and innovative virtual asset ecosystem.”
Research & Development Digest
This monthly Research Digest features some notable papers produced or suggested by our academic and industry Members and Partners that we hope will be of interest.
Blockchain & Integrate Project Delivery (IPD)
Integrated project delivery with blockchain: An automated financial system
Elghaish F; Abrishami S; Hosseini M R, 2020.
This paper proposes a blockchain-enabled financial platform to address a persistent barrier to Integrated Project Delivery (IPD): transparent, tamper-resistant administration of reimbursable costs, profit, and shared savings, where profit is typically deferred until project completion. The authors develop a framework that encodes the three core IPD financial transactions as smart-contract functions, aiming to reduce ambiguity, prevent unauthorised changes, and give all parties a common, auditable view of entitlements. A proof of concept is implemented and validated using an IPD case project on a Hyperledger Fabric environment (IBM Blockchain Cloud), and the study reports on practicality, usability, and the completeness of required blockchain components. The contribution is positioned as moving beyond conceptual discussion towards empirical feasibility, while recognising that deeper BIM data integration and fully operational prototypes remain future work.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103182
Construction Payment Automation Through Scan-to-BIM and Blockchain-Enabled Smart Contract
Elsharkawi H; Elbeltagi E; Eid M S; Alattyih W; Wefki H, 2025
This study develops and tests a payment automation workflow that links verifiable site progress to automatic payment execution. It integrates scan-to-BIM (reality capture to produce near-real-time as-built information) with blockchain-enabled smart contracts, using a “chain-link” mechanism to securely relay off-chain progress data on-chain. The goal is to reduce payment delays and disputes that arise from manual measurement, documentation, and approval cycles. The approach is implemented on a real case study using periodic site scans captured with a 360° photogrammetry/3D scanning camera, converted into BIM outputs (e.g., Revit), and then translated into quantities and completion states that trigger contract conditions in an Ethereum-based smart contract. The authors argue that tying payments to independently verifiable progress provides a more transparent basis for valuation, improves trust, and accelerates release of funds, while also enabling granular progress tracking.
https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15020213
Idrissi Gartoumi K, 2024
This review maps how blockchain technology (BCT) research has developed in construction management from 2017 to 2023, treating the field as relatively young but fast-expanding. Using a mixed-methods approach, it analyses 237 documents through scientometric techniques (to characterise publication trends, influence, and diffusion) and thematic analysis (to classify application themes and track their evolution). The results organise construction-related blockchain applications into eight thematic categories, and the paper highlights recurring implementation challenges alongside “critical success factors” and related enabling technologies. A key emphasis is that many proposed applications focus on automation and dispute-related problems (including the handling of claims and trust deficits), yet deployment barriers remain substantial. The review is mainly valuable as a structured research map: it consolidates what has been studied, where the concentration of effort sits, and which gaps—technical, organisational, and governance—still constrain practical adoption.
Events Agenda
Crypto Expo Europe 2026
1–2 March 2026 (Bucharest, Romania)
A large Eastern European crypto and blockchain expo-style conference aimed at practitioners, startups, investors, and service providers. The programme typically mixes market commentary, product showcases, and partner networking rather than deep technical workshops. The organisers position it as a regional hub event, with a substantial exhibition floor and a broad “Web3” scope (trading, exchanges, infrastructure, and applications). If your objective is business development in CEE, lead generation, or surveying vendors, it is plausibly useful; if you want rigorous research content, you should expect a lighter academic footprint and more commercial signalling than peer-reviewed substance
London Blockchain Finance Summit: Payments & Digital Currencies
12 March 2026 (London, UK)
A finance-led, one-day summit focused on the real deployment of digital money: stablecoins, CBDCs, tokenised cash, treasury and settlement, and the regulatory perimeter around these instruments. It is pitched at the intersection of banks, fintech/PSPs, enterprise users, and regulators, so the framing is more “market structure and compliance” than “ideology”. Expect sessions on how tokenised liabilities and stablecoins affect payment rails, liquidity management, and operational risk, with an emphasis on what is implementable under current rules rather than speculative roadmaps. For enterprise architects, it can be useful for understanding integration patterns and governance constraints.
Digital Asset Summit (Blockworks) — New York 2026
24–26 March 2026 (New York City, USA)
Blockworks’ flagship institutional event targets allocators, market infrastructure, and policy—think ETFs, custody, trading venues, stablecoins, and how legislation or agency positions shape investability. The event is explicitly framed around “public market activity” and institutional adoption rather than grassroots crypto culture. In practice, you should expect senior buy-side and sell-side voices, plus compliance and legal perspectives, alongside large industry sponsors. It is typically strong for mapping narratives (what institutions claim they are doing) and for networking, but you should be cautious about mistaking panel confidence for empirical evidence of adoption at scale.
Knowledge Upgrade
Oxford Fintech Programme (Saïd Business School)
Online: 4 February 2026 (online). A 7-week executive programme that includes digital assets/tokenisation within the broader fintech landscape (payments, market structure, strategy). It’s not a “hands-on Solidity” course, but it’s credible if you want institutional/strategic grounding.