Decentralized data management in the AEC industry using NFT: NFT and Digital Twin to promote data sharing in the AEC industry

In the AEC (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) industry, the management of existing built environment represents an increasingly complex challenge. The digitalization of physical assets through technologies such as Building Information Modeling (BIM) and Digital Twin (DT) offers enormous opportunities to improve the efficiency, sustainability and management of built assets. However, the digitalization and adoption of these new tools and technologies involves the generation of a large amount of data to be managed. This brings crucial challenges for the industry, including data intellectual property issues. The potential of this data is enormous, but it is often untapped due to poor sharing, which in turn leads to a lack of data transparency at different stages of the construction process. Furthermore, traditional centralised data management presents risks of manipulation and theft, subjecting the network to a Single Point Of Failure (SPOF). This underlines the need for more secure and decentralised data management solutions. To overcome these challenges, blockchain technology (BCT) can offer an effective solution. Thanks to its immutability and decentralisation features, blockchain can provide greater value and security to crucial data in construction projects. In particular, Solana's blockchain has been used for the realisation of a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) concerning the implementation of a decentralised application (DApp) serving the construction industry that integrates Non-Fungible Token (NFT) and Digital Twin (DT). This application aims to record the most important data of the construction project in the blockchain in the form of NFTs. The adoption of a decentralised data management system in the construction sector eliminates the Single Point Of Failure (SPOF) problem. This means that an attack on a single server is not sufficient to interrupt the operation of the application. Furthermore, the storage of crucial data in the form of NFT offers significant protection of intellectual property. This system ensures that the responsibilities of professionals are clearly assigned in relation to the data uploaded to the NFT and then recorded in the blockchain. The implementation of the BCT for the tokenisation of documents associated with construction processes promotes the evolution of a decentralised data market in the AEC sector. In this market, professionals have the opportunity to share, sell and exchange valuable information. This type of marketplace facilitates the creation of an interconnected metaverse dedicated to the built environment, where DTs can interact and exchange knowledge contributing to a more efficient and sustainable management of the built environment.