Technical Roundtable: Breaking the Bank with Blockchain

Breaking the Bank with Blockchain:
An introduction to blockchain and how it could impact the architecture/construction industry.

At its core, a blockchain is a reliable ledger of data entries. Existing blockchain implementations use the ledger to list currency transactions. Upcoming blockchain implementations may use the ledger to (i) record significant events in a structure’s life cycle (e.g., blueprints, part numbers, repair details, land titles) and (ii) automatically execute “smart contracts” between counterparties (e.g., a client and contractor). We will address how these upcoming blockchain implementations may function in, and what changes they may bring to the architecture/construction industry.


Presented by: 

Continuing Education: 1.0 AIA/CES LU

Learning Objectives:

1. Review the core features of a blockchain including the ledger and authentication mechanisms such as digital signatures.
2. Examine how the construction industry can apply the core features to maintain an accurate and authentic list significant events in a structure’s life cycle.
3. Examine how the core features enable automatic executing/self-executing smart contracts and how these smart contracts may affect the relationships between clients and contractors.
4. Discuss why blockchain’s current weaknesses have limited (so-far) its widespread adoption in the construction industry.

Registration: Required by Friday, March 8.  Limited seating available on a first come basis. Complimentary to members and non-members.

Max Snow practices intellectual property law, including litigation, product clearance, and patent prosecution. Max has drafted patent applications directed to autonomous vehicles, image sensors, neural networks, food manufacturing, and gas turbine engines. He used to be a patent examiner for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.  Max attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was a Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Scholar. He received a degree in mechanical engineering, with high honors, from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kyle T. Molidor practices in the area of corporate law. Mr. Molidor’s practice includes the representation of commercial banks, private equity funds, corporate borrowers and other participants in the financial services industry in a wide variety of corporate and finance transactions including secured financings, asset-based and cash flow financings, acquisition financings, bridge debt facilities, corporate restructurings, with a particular focus in healthcare finance. Mr. Molidor also represents private equity firms and private and public companies in structuring and negotiating complex business transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, restructurings and other general corporate matters. Mr. Molidor has assisted clients in multiple industry sectors such as real estate, financial institutions, technology and consumer products.  Mr. Molidor is a 2014 summa cum laude graduate of DePaul University College of Law, where he was Business Manager and Associate Editor of the DePaul Law Review and elected to the Order of the Coif.

Blockchain picture courtesy of Intelliwave Technologies.



CSI Chicago is a AIA CES Registered Provider (Provider Number S001).