- Autodesk CEO has hinted that the use of blockchain technology can help curb corruption in the construction industry
- He also said that Autodesk is working on a number of blockchain projects such as an escrow service for the industry
Corruption is one of the most hard-hitting issues in the construction sector and tends to cause friction between players in the industry.
However, it seems blockchain technology could be the key to solving this problem, at least according to Andrew Anagnost, the CEO of global design software giant Autodesk.
Autodesk specializes in creating technology and software for a number of industries such as manufacturing, architectural, engineering and construction industries.
This statement was made during the 2018 Autodesk University event in Las Vegas where he was asked why Autodesk hasn’t begun considering using blockchain technology yet.
“Oh, we are,” said Anagnost. “We just don’t have a point of view we have stated publicly.”
Industry Shifts
Some of Autodesk’s best-known offerings are their architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) software suite. This suite has evolved over the years and has created an industry trend of data being shared between participants in a project across cloud services.
The industry has certainly embraced greater use of software in event years and Anagnost feels that the next step is using blockchain technology to create trust in an industry that desperately needs it.
“What is blockchain good at? It’s a distributed, trusted ledger that cannot be altered and allows traceability and accountability,” he said. “A technology like that in an environment like construction where various people involved in the process don’t trust each other is going to find some kind of application.
For now, he says, Autodesk is working on a form of escrow services for the construction industry.
The Root of the Problem
The embezzling of funds is quite common in construction and the due of blockchain can create a system of accountability.
“When people are paying hundreds of millions of dollars on large projects, something is always happening somewhere that isn’t quite right. There’s always someone bleeding off resources or money in some inappropriate way,” Anagnost feels.
However, one major issue that has been anticipated is that some who work on construction projects don’t want their practices being recorded at all, though Anagnost believes that with the right amount of enforcement, this can be curbed.
“They don’t actually want a clear record of who did what, when and how. It’s going to take a lot of us enforcing this and making it not optional to trace who did what and when.” He said.
