Blockchain crowdsourced arbitration in construction project delay resolution

Abstract

A major matter in any industry, especially one with complicated stakeholder relationships like the construction industry, is dispute resolution. Blockchain technology, in the form of crowdsourced arbitration, may assist project stakeholders to conclude a verdict for any conflict including an argument over delay damage responsibility. This paper aims to propose a Blockchain-based methodology to facilitate small and medium project delay resolution demands on a timely and transparent basis. The methodology consists of two implementation stages: (i) A Blockchain-powered crowdsourced arbitration jury to analyze and determine the responsible party and subsequent affairs following predefined conditions of the contract and (ii) Blockchain-based smart contracts to enable automatic implementation of said events including automatic payment of penalty and/or compensation cost. The introduced method is validated by a case study of crowdsourced arbitration using the Rhubarb plat-form to resolve disputes over who should be responsible for the delay of a garage construction project taken from an academic study on delay analysis techniques. The final verdict was that the contractor must reimburse the client’s financial loss following established terms and conditions on liquidated ascertained damages via smart contract operation. The research also underlines the pros and cons of both current decentralized dispute resolution practice and this research proposed model in the construction field for future studies.