The Expected Outcomes of Implementing a Distributed File System in the Construction Industry

The construction industry is often criticized for its delay in adopting new technologies that could contribute to reducing the productivity gap between it and other industries. The solutions currently used in the industry focus largely on the power of cloud storage and computing services to improve the efficiency of the workflow. This might not be suitable for all projects and rises major concerns about data protection and security risks. Inter-planetary file system (IPFS) is a network protocol that aims for immutable content which is addressable peer-to-peer instead of location-addressable centralized content. The purpose of this paper is to explore the main functions provided by IPFS and to conjecture on how the construction industry can benefit from it. The paper focuses particularly on the domain of document management as a field in which the construction industry could benefit from the use of IPFS. Indeed, increased reliability in document exchanges and file immutability are the expected advantages of the use of this technology. The literature review shows a lack of case studies about the adoption of IPFS in the construction industry, although lessons can be learned from its use in other activities.