[robdigibuild]

Hi, we’re Rob, April and Ivan, cofounders of DigiBuild (https://digibuild.com/). We build construction software powered by blockchain. Our tools help large companies, like VCC Construction, improve the schedule and budget on projects and save over a million dollars annually.

I grew up in construction with my dad and saw first hand the issues companies face everyday. The building process involves 50-100 stakeholders (ie. suppliers, contractors, architects) who suffer from low margins and work on projects that fail 70% of the time. Large builds create upwards of 750,000 documents. It is very complex and costly to manage them.

For every physical construction process that occurs, an “intangible asset” like a workflow or piece of data is created as well. Current software solutions offer some efficiency but fall short because they’re centralized databases or data silos with no transparency. From a risk management perspective, each construction stakeholder needs to review, verify, or otherwise build trust manually to make sure they’re protected (i.e. let me double check that document so I know you didn’t screw me over). The trust established with blockchain allows us to codify many of those processes and touch points, making them automated and giving more line of sight to construction teams. This is possible because unlike a centralized database, the blockchain is not owned/monopolized by any party and it is auditable so transactions can be verified by all the stakeholders. This meets their risk management requirements to do business.

We have multiple tools solving customer pain, including a construction management platform for managing any project workflow; a procurement product to find, order, and track building material; and a payment product to streamline the collection of payment documentation and disbursements. Without blockchain, these workflows involve suppliers, subcontractors, general contractors all sending contracts, invoices, and data sheets back and forth. This is manual trust-building which adds time, costs, and risk. Using smart contracts allows us to codify these processes, automating 90% of them for all of the parties and providing more transparency.

Our team has managed over $5B in construction projects. I’m also the former CEO of a nationwide construction company and our engineering team has worked on projects alongside Coinbase, IBM, Iota, and Linux.

We would love to hear from you and hear feedback. We’re especially excited to be challenged and to brainstorm around our use of blockchain in this market - we know HN has a wide spectrum of views on that, on both sides of the ledger!

[seibelj]

Which blockchain did you use? If it's privately run, wouldn't this be the same as a centralized DB? And if a public chain, how did you encrypt the data? Thank you

[robdigibuild]

Right now, our products are built using Hyperledger Fabric or R3 Corda. In the future, as public blockchains like Ethereum and Avalanche scale and become proven in business use cases, we will migrate over to them, becoming fully decentralized and utilizing a consensus mechanism like Proof of Stake or Gossip Networks. Short term, we needed to use enterprise blockchain that was proven in a business setting and doesn’t have scaling issues; our customers risk management needs dictated our decisions. Hyperledger Fabric and similar blockchains use a consensus called PBFT that serves our purpose of “trust minimization” needed to provide benefits to construction end users that can't be done in a system that has no trust.

A centralized database wouldn't work here because: 1)It is owned by 1 company, there is no transparency into what is happening with the data. Lack of immutability and provenance of data matters here. 2)Not auditable. No way to prove or verify the transactions without the database owner approving.

These issues prevent that centralized database from giving end users from both a behavioral and technical perspective.

[verdverm]

+1 for chosing fabric

Consensus can be called Proof of Authority, established through negotiations. Highly scalable. This could be achieved without Fabric, or Blockchain, but Fabric has a lot of the common features needed for such a system anyhow.

[41209]

This seems like a great idea.

I assume a forward looking city could hook directly into your apis to process things faster.

By fair housing will become the biggest issue in the next 50 years or so.

Would love to see case studies where your shown to reduce costs by a significant amount. Good luck !

[robdigibuild]

Thanks!

Yes we definitely see a major use case in public projects which are notoriously wasteful and (sometimes) corrupt. Blockchain allows provenance of the data and the ability to have a better view of where the money goes. The audit capabilities are major benefit in situations like the one you describe....We're putting together some official case studies and we will share them. One of our clients is a billion dollar construction company that is using 2 of our products. They anticipate we will save them $1M+ this year as well as improving the budget and schedule outcome on their projects. Construction has over 150 typical workflows so the results here are significant.

[Grustaf]

What is the purpose of putting the documents "in the blockchain"? If customers trust you, why not just build a normal database and put it there?

[robdigibuild]

Customers put trust in us to run the front end, but the verification layer of the blockchain is still maintained by a distributed consensus and we won't be able to tamper withthat. So there is still a small amount of trust with DigiBuild, but much less than any normal database....If DigiBuild died tomorrow, customers would lose the front end functionality but still have the previous data and protections around that data in place on the blockchain and they could interact with it via a block explorer. In the future we will look to fully decentralize once the market and technology (ETH, AVA,etc..) So not fully trustless but trust minimized which allows more efficient transactions between these parties.

[dylanz]

That’s a great explanation. It’s why the DMV uses AWS QLDB to track vehicle ownership. I think data that is highly valuable and transactional, and/or highly contestable, is a great fit for blockchain/ledger storage. There’s business continuity elements at play as well. It will get more popular over time.

[nikanj]

Instant valuation multiplier for the startup.

[robdigibuild]

Quite the opposite in the current venture world. Proving blockchain is a key element because there have been so many bad use cases that slapped blockchain on and tried to raise (hello many ICOs). Might've been true a few years ago but now blockchain makes many skeptical.

[frakkingcylons]

> From a risk management perspective, each construction stakeholder needs to review, verify, or otherwise build trust manually to make sure they’re protected (i.e. let me double check that document so I know you didn’t screw me over).

Is fraud a common problem in construction?

[hanniabu]

General rule of thumb is that if there's high cash then there will be fraud.

[robdigibuild]

Yes fraud or bad information is a $1 trillion dollar problem in construction globally.

[diskzero]

I am excited to see this. I have been involved in both the physical and software side of large construction projects. This is an actual good use of a blockchain.

How will you respond when another vendor wants to participate in transactions? Is there a 3rd party API?

[robdigibuild]

Yes we currently offer integrations into some of the current major software vendors out there so our tools can be utilized along side a customer's existing stack.... Our long term goal is that customers use DigiBuild across the board. But we needed a low friction way to let them try us on a smaller scale first. APIs like that do dilute the effectiveness of the blockchain a little bit, but the tech is still effective in removing uncertainty around information so it works.

[alexeyshurygin]

Congrats on the launch! The idea is very attractive. Btw how do you solve the confidentiality problem where you have to put private data into public blockchain?

[robdigibuild]

Thanks! And great question.... So we're currently built on Hyperledger Fabric which allows us to insert permissions to the data. So certain parties can't see the private data of others on a construction project that they shouldn't. When needed, we can guarantee the accuracy of data without exposing a customers. This means you know the data comes straight from the source and isn't tampered with but not the identity of the user.

In the future, if/when me migrate to a public chain, that functionality will be there as well with implementations like ZK Snarks and other zero knowledge proof solutions.

[spencerXsmith]

From what I understand about blockchain, these databases are append-only, right? Meaning someone can't go back and alter the past entries? That kind of assurance could be really useful in this space.

[robdigibuild]

Yes correct. The immutability and provenance of data are key characteristics that make blockchain useful here.

[verdverm]

What happens if someone adds incorrect entries by accident or intentionally?

How do you ensure parity between the real world and the Blockchain?

[MrStonedOne]

> What happens if someone adds incorrect entries by accident or intentionally?

If you think about it, git is itself a block chain, and doesn't suffer from that issue.

[beaconstudios]

you can build document versioning into a blockchain-backed protocol - I would assume that Digibuild have done this as documents can be both corrected and extended over time. The important factor being that the old version is not erased and thus you can see the history of the document, which could be beneficial.

[verdverm]

But how do you know that what is on the Blockchain matches the real world?

This is the core to if a Blockchain can be trusted for anything which does not originate on the Blockchain.

[beaconstudios]

By uploading said information you are claiming it is true. Whether other people believe it to be true depends on whether they trust you or otherwise have verified for themselves (which can also be asserted cryptographically).

No digital technology can solve epistemology and tell you what is true - but that's not the point, and blockchain applications are not unique in this.

[spencerXsmith]

Thank you!

[quirk]

DigiProcure seems like it would be useful outside of the construction industry - really any manufacturer that has multiple stakeholders. Do you have any competitors in that product market?

[robdigibuild]

We've heard that a few times. In the future, there definitely could be usage in other markets. Right now we're lazer focused on our construction customers though:)

Competitor wise there are 2 types: -Companies who still use pen and paper, email, spreadsheets or otherwise paper laden processes. -A few "generation 1" software solutions exist that are basically material market places that pair suppliers and contractors (Joyne, Agora, etc.).

We're different than those in that we do most of the work for the user.

Without blockchain, these workflows involve multiple companies all sending contracts, invoices, and data sheets back and forth. This is manual trust-building which adds cost and risk. Using smart contracts streamlines many of these processes and provides more transparency.

[quadcore]

I think this is revolutionary though my guess is it will not please everyone.

[robdigibuild]

Thanks! Yes we believe it is revolutionary as well. However, blockchain + construction is not the first use case you think of here and we know lots of companies have tried to slap blockchain on any use case.

It makes sense here though because The building process involves 50 dis-trusting stakeholders who suffer from low margins and work on projects that fail 70% of the time. They also create upwards of 750,000 documents which is complex and costly to manage. Companies on these projects send a lot of important information, and data to each other; blockchain creates a trusted digital environment that these companies can collaborate in.

[timbargo]

Congrats Ivan and team! Awesome to see.

-Tim from UIC

[avernon]

Is the chain open source with permission-less validators?

[robdigibuild]

We built on Hyperledger Fabric. I'll explain that piece in the question below......Users in our network can seamlessly become validators and also verify transactions or interact with the blockchain using a block explorer we've built out.