Blockchain-enabled tokenization for sustainable and inclusive infrastructure investment

Abstract

Infrastructure is critical for enabling society to function and the economy to thrive, but there is an increasing mismatch between the need for infrastructure investments and available capital, which is in consequence of constraints on public resources and limited capacity to leverage the private sector co-financing under the current system. With the emergence of distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain-enabled tokenization, there is a significant potential to improve investment liquidity, transparency, efficiency and create new economic models to integrate non-financial values to promote sustainability and inclusiveness. This research analyzed 21 projects to investigate how tokenization is implemented in energy infrastructure projects. Exploratory case study analyses were conducted, which shows the diversity of tokenization arrangements. The state of the art, potential benefits, implications, and obstacles associated with the application of tokenization in infrastructure investment and development are discussed. The purpose of this research is to understand tokenization within the context of the energy sector but also to forecast its application in a broad spectrum of infrastructure projects (e.g., transportation, telecommunication, healthcare, education).