Fusion of Building Information Modeling and Blockchain for Metaverse: A Survey

Metaverse and blockchain, as the latest buzzwords, have attracted great attention from industry and academia. They will inevitably promote technological innovation in the field of building information modeling (BIM) in the future. BIM organizes various building information into a whole by establishing a virtual three-dimensional model of architectural engineering using digital technology. The metaverse seamlessly integrates the real world and the virtual world, and conducts rich activities such as creation, display, and trading. Therefore, through the exploration of the metaverse, it will be possible to build an exciting digital world and transform the physical world better. Meanwhile, introducing the blockchain technology could ensure the fairness and security of resource transactions, data storage, and other activities. In this survey, we delve into the metaverse and blockchain empowerment by studying BIM components, metaverse applications in virtual world construction, and the latest research on blockchain. We also discuss how BIM technology and blockchain can be integrated with metaverse. The collaborations between academia and industry would be certainly required for further development and interdisciplinary research on the metaverse and the integration of blockchain into BIM. We hope to see our survey help researchers, engineers and educators build an open, fair and rational future BIM ecosystem.