Evaluating blockchain platforms for trustworthy procurement and management of building services

Many blockchain platforms have emerged with the widespread adoption of blockchain technology across many industries. Developers often use a blockchain platform (BP) they encounter, which may not be the most suitable for their specific project. Selecting suitable BP is further complicated because existing BPs exhibit different capabilities and features, particularly when applied to specific domains. Thus, choosing the most appropriate BP has become challenging. This research aims to identify criteria for BP selection and provide guidelines to select a suitable BP for procurement and management of building services (PM of BS). A critical literature review was conducted to identify existing BPs and criteria for their selection. Multi-Attribute Rating Technique (SMART) was used to select the suitable BP. Weights for the selection criteria were assigned based on the features of the desired application (PM of BS). Each BP was then evaluated against the selected criteria and given a rank from 1 to 3 where 1 denotes the lowest suitability while 3 denotes the highest suitability. The study identified 16 prominent BPs, including Hyperledger, Ethereum, IBM, and R3 Corda. The three most heavily weighted criteria in the selection process were learning materials, the presence of permissioned networks and the cost of running/storing data. Findings revealed that Hyperledger fabric supported by Firefly, achieved high scores and could be a suitable BP for developing applications in the PM of BS domain. The results will assist developers in selecting the most appropriate BPs for their blockchain project.