To bring the benefits of the digital economy to the growing construction market, the new Builderium project is developing a global platform for making deals and assessing parties. The implementation of blockchain in the service enables what is affirmed to be a secure and reliable payments’ system. The first stage of the startup’s initial coin offering (ICO) will last until September 17.
While many sectors of the economy have benefited from the deep influence of digitalization, the construction industry moves slowly towards technological advancement. Construction companies rely mostly on old-fashioned methods of communication and advertising, gaining reputation, and fulfilling contracts. There is a lack of either regional or global online service that would bring together all those features.
Builderium, a new project based in Switzerland, is aiming to face those issues by developing a platform for the construction deals. The company has something to fight for as it expects the US construction market will reach $773 billion in the near future, the ASEAN segment (countries of Southeastern Asia) will exceed $1 trillion and notes that consulting company Deloitte forecasts European construction market growth as well.
Clients and construction companies can collaborate on Builderium’s platform by making deals using the ‘Dutch auction’ model. It starts with a customer who publishes details of their construction project. Relevant contractors are then informed of the proposal and make a decision whether to participate. All the applicants put bids in a reverse auction, and the lowest bet wins by the decision of the customer. After the project is successful, both sides submit a review of the other.
There are many types of projects available on the platform, including construction of residential or commercial apartments, house renovations, landscaping projects, reconstruction of individual rooms and more.
Another feature of the platform is the opportunity for professional workers to look for a temporary or full-time job, and for contractors to hire appropriate candidates from the database.
The company emphasizes that the model of the reverse auction means clients can get qualified executors for the lower price. The Builderium platform is global, so the customer is not limited to regional or national markets. In its turn, construction companies don’t need to spend on advertising and may increase their reputation by getting positive reviews.
The big part of the platform is the blockchain network that brings a new payment system to the market. Transactions on Builderium are claimed to be “secure, easy, and fast”. To guarantee consistency, a client pays a pledge into a specific holding account before starting a project, while contractors are obligated to put a deposit to back the bid.
“There’s no excuse for delayed or failed transactions. Our secure payment network with unique decentralized features ensure that there’s no chance for fraud or criminal activities”, project states on its official website.
To follow the project’s roadmap, which aims to release the platform by November 2018, Builderium has already engaged a team of 51 developers from AIS Novations, a European software company.
Builderium leverages its own ERC-20 token called BUILD for transactions within the platform. The startup is currently conducting a token sale to fund further development and promotion of the platform, as well as business expansion. The first stage of the sale offers a bonus of 33 percent and 5 percent extra for purchases over 10 ETH and will end on September 17. All participants must pass a know-your-customer procedure in order to participate in the ICO.
Funds raised from the ICO will be used for developing the technology behind the platform, advertising and marketing, expansion to further territories in Europe and North America, and legal costs.
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