Introduction
The real estate and construction sector is in the midst of a profound digital transformation. Building Information Modeling (BIM), blockchain-enabled supply chain solutions, and Digital Product Passports (DPPs) are rapidly moving from research to real-world application. Governments, regulators, and industry consortia are all pushing toward greater transparency, circularity, and lifecycle data management.
Yet despite this progress, the industry risks repeating an old mistake: solving silo problems at the data level while creating new ones at the infrastructure level. Divergent national regulations, proprietary systems, and fragmented pilots may improve efficiency locally but leave global interoperability unresolved.
The European Union’s Digital Product Passport initiative, pilot projects by technology consortia, and BIM-driven lifecycle frameworks point toward a future where building data is more accessible, traceable, and reusable. Yet fragmentation still prevails. Multiple platforms, varying national standards, and proprietary technologies undermine the vision of a truly interoperable, holistic, agnostic and universal applicable circular construction data ecosystem.
To unlock the full potential of digitalization, the built environment needs a common, neutral backbone for information exchange — one that enables the Golden Thread of building data to flow seamlessly across systems, geographies, and decades.
This is precisely where the various international data-interoperability initiatives FIBREE is connected to step in: C-BEDS (Center for Building Environment Data Standards), an international network of building data experts co-founded by FIBREE and University College London (UCL), and the Test & Launch Project for an open source Internet of Buildings (IoB)-data exchange protocol as a tangible solution for enhanced data-interoperability, based on years of in depth-research.
Against this backdrop, and in anticipation of the launch of the FIBREE Product Database on the 16th of October 2025, this article explores the latest developments shaping blockchain’s role in plan & build for real estate worldwide. Click here to register for this online release event on October 16th, starting at 4:30pm CET.
From BIM Models to Lifecycle Continuity
BIM has been the foundation of the industry’s digital journey. It allows architects, engineers, and contractors to plan and simulate with precision. But as numerous studies in Automation in Construction and ASCE Journals highlight, the value of BIM data often diminishes once buildings move from design via permitting and construction into operation, renovation, or reuse. Information gets duplicated, distorted, or lost entirely.
Blockchain has been proposed as a complementary solution. Pilot projects show how distributed ledgers can enhance accountability in construction workflows, secure digital twins, and improve supply chain reliability. Still, many of these applications remain limited to project-specific use cases.
Here, the open source Internet of Buildings (IoB)-protocol provides a promising framework, designed to deal with a building’s complex spatial decomposition, as well as the hierarchic and historic interrelations between various datapoints. By assigning globally unique identifiers (UUIDs) to every building and component, and by enabling a DNS-style lookup service to connect with any existing datasets or application, IoB strengthens BIM’s and other relevant lifecycle-data continuity and exchangeability. Access control mechanisms will allow controlled data-sharing via the IoB-protocol. Instead of creating new isolated repositories, it makes existing systems interoperable, ensuring that the Golden Thread of building information remains intact from conception to deconstruction. In practice, this means a window manufacturer in Spain, a contractor in Germany, and an asset manager in Canada can all reference and update the same building data without losing context or creating isolated datasets.
Digital Product Passports: Momentum and Challenges
Few regulatory initiatives are as pivotal as the European Commission’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) framework. From glass and steel producers to digital twin providers, the construction ecosystem is preparing for new obligations on traceability, embedded carbon, and material reuse. Reports from Glass for Europe, GS1 Europe, and recent European Commission consultations show how far industry and policymakers have advanced.
Technology providers are also moving quickly. The Atos/IOTA Foundation has launched blockchain-based passport pilots, while Singapore-based Orobo Tech and GLC Recycle are testing solutions for battery and material recycling. These projects demonstrate the feasibility of DPPs as enablers of circular construction.
The challenge lies in ensuring that these systems do not become siloed passports. Without a shared interoperability layer, a glass passport in France might not be usable in Germany, or a material passport for steel might not connect with one for insulation.
This is where enhanced international and cross sectoral data-interoperability, like the IoB-protocol, plays a vital role: it is actively exploring how different passports and lifecycle data systems can connect through an open, neutral protocol. Rather than competing with emerging DPP initiatives, IoB provides the infrastructure that lets them scale globally.
Blockchain in Construction Supply Chains
The construction supply chain has long been plagued by inefficiencies and mistrust. Multiple studies, including recent work by UCL, TU Delft, or Cardiff University and multiple publications in ScienceDirect, highlight blockchain’s potential to address these issues by enabling immutable records of deliveries, certifications, and compliance.
However, as the Construction Blockchain Consortium (CBC) has emphasized, blockchain alone is not enough. The data feeding these systems must be standardized, accessible, and interoperable. Otherwise, blockchain risks becoming just another silo.
By embedding supply chain transactions into an IoB-enabled framework, stakeholders can not only verify material provenance but also ensure that this data remains connected across the building lifecycle. This linkage is critical for sustainability reporting, regulatory compliance, and—looking ahead—for financial applications like real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.
RWA Tokenization: Bridging the Financial and Built Worlds
Tokenization of real estate assets is gaining traction as platforms experiment with fractional ownership and blockchain-enabled liquidity. Yet, as recent analyses in Forbes and industry reports underscore, tokenized assets still struggle with credibility. Investors and regulators demand real-time, verifiable disclosures on the condition, performance, and compliance of the underlying buildings.
This is where IoB’s universal building data exchange layer offers a breakthrough. By anchoring lifecycle data into an open protocol, IoB creates a trusted disclosure infrastructure that supports both regulators and investors. The result: tokenized buildings backed by transparent, tamper-proof information flows rather than fragmented, unverifiable data silos.
Challenges: Regulation, Data Overload, and Adoption
Despite promising pilots, challenges remain.
- Regulatory uncertainty: The EU is leading globally, but regulatory frameworks for digital passports in other regions remain underdeveloped.
- Data complexity: Construction projects involve thousands of products; managing their passports without overburdening stakeholders is a key concern.
- Adoption barriers: SMEs in construction often lack the resources to implement advanced blockchain and DPP solutions.
- Balancing transparency with confidentiality: As highlighted in Intereconomics 2025, there is a delicate balance between sharing data for circularity and protecting competitive business information.
Addressing these barriers will require collaboration between regulators, standard-setting bodies, blockchain developers, and construction industry stakeholders.
Conclusion and Outlook: From Pilots to Market-Ready Solutions
The trajectory is clear: blockchain is set to play a defining role in how real estate is planned and built.
BIM-blockchain integration promises lifecycle traceability and smart legal contract automation.
Supply chain pilots show blockchain’s potential to guarantee sustainable sourcing and regulatory compliance.
Digital Product Passports will soon become mandatory across the EU, with blockchain offering the most secure and interoperable backbone for implementation.
Global momentum is building: the industry is moving from experimentation toward scalable, regulatory-compliant solutions.
Across BIM, DPPs, and tokenization, one message is clear: digitalization cannot succeed if every solution creates its own infrastructure silo. The risk is not just inefficiency, but systemic incompatibility that undermines sustainability, innovation, and market transparency. In a future world where buildings are an interconnected part of an urban system, it will only become more important to have a neutral holistic system-infrastructure. An open protocol approach, like IoB, ensures that new solutions remain interoperable by design, strengthening the Golden Thread rather than fragmenting it.
The next decade of real estate and construction will be defined by how successfully the sector can integrate digital tools into a coherent, interoperable ecosystem. BIM has proven its value, blockchain is accelerating trust and accountability, and digital product passports are set to transform regulatory compliance and circularity. But without global interoperability, these innovations risk stalling at the pilot stage.
The Internet of Buildings offers a pragmatic, open solution to this challenge. By preventing new silos and enabling universal data exchange, IoB ensures that the industry can fully leverage the benefits of transparency, circularity, and financial innovation.
As the IoB Test & Launch Project continues to expand, in small and orchestrated stages, now is the time for stakeholders across construction, technology, finance, and policy to engage. If you are curious and would like to join testing the IoB with your own applications, contact us via: IoB@fibree.org
The opportunity is clear: to shape a future where the built environment is not fragmented but connected — delivering sustainability, resilience, and trust for decades to come.
On 16 October 2025 at 4:30pm CET, FIBREE will launch its Product Database, providing the first global platform to compare and analyze blockchain-based solutions across the built environment. This will include cutting-edge initiatives in Plan & Build, BIM, supply chain, and digital product passports.
We invite professionals across construction, real estate, and technology to join the online launch event and explore how blockchain is reshaping the very foundations of how we build. Click here to register for this online event starting on October 16th at 4:30pm CET.