Insureblocks Blockchain & Smart Contracts In Insurance

Since 2016 we have seen a plethora of Proof of Concepts (PoC) in the insurance space. Some of these PoCs have moved up to the stage of becoming a Pilot. For this week’s episode I had the great pleasure of chatting to David Edwards, CEO at ChainThat and Ranvir Saggu, CEO at Blocksure to discuss building a blockchain PoC and/or pilot in the insurance industry. Both of their respective companies provide enterprise solutions using blockchain, DLT and smart contract to insurance companies.   2 Minute Definition of Blockchain David - Blockchain in insurance is a group of technologies that enables us to transact between parties without having a centralised service provider. Promise of a shared process and what you see, I see. For Ranvir, it’s a scalable technology that allows insurance partners to build network ecosystems. That can remove up to 30 – 50%of back-office costs, speed up processes and drastically improve the customer experience.   Why hasn’t blockchain happened yet? The insurance industry is slow to a

It is widely recognised that there is a growing trust deficit in our societies’ institutions, particularly in insurance. This isn’t confined solely to the question of claims on whether or not an insurance company will pay out or whether the insured is trying to defraud the insurance company. To help guide us through those issues and explain how blockchain can help restore trust we were privileged to have Dante Disparte Founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative, live from Washington DC on our show.   2 Minute Definition of Blockchain If the internet created a world of low friction communication, blockchain is creating a world of low friction transfer. How it works is by storing and decentralising information on anything from transactions to supply chain interactions. Blockchain is a way of scaling trust without having to have a centralised authority and providing transparency with high levels of confidence in those types of exchanges.   The Blockchain Journey Through a friend and colleague, Dr. Tomicah Tillemann,

R3 – the blockchain banking consortium For this 6th episode we are going to move a little away from insurance by visiting R3 – the blockchain banking consortium, to hear about their blockchain journey. For this episode I was privileged to have Ryann Rugg, Head of North America at R3, chat to me straight from New York. Ryan is spearheading North American Business Development and Insurance for R3, focused on building and empowering blockchain solution for her clients.   2 minute definition of blockchain For Ryan, there is no formal agreed definition which what makes it difficult to define in 2 minutes. In its most simplest form, blockchain is about getting to reach consensus on a replicated shared database across multiple sites / entities / institutions with no central institution. To be able to bring untrusted entities within a trusted environment. The difference between DLT (distributed digital ledger) and blockchain. Blockchain is a data structure which is a form of DLT and it is comprised of immutable dig

Legal & regulatory framework of blockchain & smart contracts Over the last few weeks I’ve often been asked questions regarding legal or regulatory issues regarding smart contracts and blockchain. To help me answer these questions I am priviledged to have had the participation of Nick Pester from Capital Law and Lee Bacon from Clyde&Co for this 5th episode on Insureblocks.   2 minute definition of blockchain Lee – blockchain is a form of distributed ledger, built on encryption, which allows each person or entity to have access to the same information at the same time and allows the transfer of information and possible assets between the participants. Nick tackled this challenge by using an example to illustrate what is blockchain. For example, if you were to share an excel spreadsheet between ten different participants you often will end up with multiple copies of the same spreadsheet which may lead to errors in terms of reconciliation. With blockchain that spreadsheet is automatically updated, reconciled, a

Smart contracts 101 In this exciting episode I was very pleased to conduct my first remote podcast with Olivier Rikken, Director of Blockchain and Smart Contracts at Axveco, in Holland. Olivier has been working in this space for the last few years and will give us an introduction to smart contracts.   2 minute definition of blockchain Blockchain in its purest form is a shared database where everyone can read and write on it. Where the integrity of its content is always guarded through cryptography thus removing the need for trusted third parties.   The blockchain journey Olivier’s journey to blockchain started a few years ago when he was working on a concept for a peer to peer insurance company. Through the course of that work he wrote a white paper that illustrated that you could build an insurance company based on blockchain and smart contracts. He presented that white paper to the Dutch National Bank and authority for the financial markets. What intrigued the regulators was his point that technically spe

Blockchain in the London Market For this 3rd episode I had the pleasure of chatting to Steve Webb, Partner at PWC and UK Financial Services lead for blockchain. Steve has been leading PWC's financial service practice around blockchain for over two and a half years now. In this episode we explore some of the work Steve has done with the London Market Target Operating Model (TOM) and some of the other blockchain work PWC has done in the insurance space.   2 minute definition of blockchain Essentially at its heart blockchain is a mechanism for distributing data amongst multiple parties and where all parties have their own copy of the data and can see the same information. Updates to the data are managed through cryptographic computer driven consensus between computers on the network rather than through any individual parties acting as a central authority for managing and updating the data. In addition, it has elements of audit history, so you can see all of the updates that have happened on the chain. It works

B3i the blockchain insurance industry initiative In our 2nd episode I had the pleasure of chatting to Greg Crow, Global Head of Architecture at XL Catlin. Greg, is XL Catlin’s representative at B3i which stands for Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative. For this episode we explore what is B3i, its journey in discovering the potential of blockchain for the insurance industry and we also discussed the choices insurers who haven’t joined B3i can make.   2 minute definition of blockchain The Greg Crow version of blockchain is all about the ability for everyone to see the same data and to have a copy of it in a certifiable and immutable way. Having a copy of that data is a real game changer as are smart contracts. For Greg, smart contracts are here to replace contractual paper documents into code. The code sits on the data on the blockchain and is triggered by a certain set of rules which can mean executing a claims payment or collecting a premium for example.   The blockchain journey What prompted XL Catlin

Welcome to the first Insureblocks episode! In this "genesis" episode (a punt to the blockchain community, regarding the first block of a chain often referred to as the genesis block) we have a chat with Gary Nuttall, managing director of Distlytics., who explains to us the basics of blockchain. Have a listen to our podcast above or read some of the show notes below. 2 minute definition of blockchain A good starting point is to try and define what is blockchain? Gary takes a very pragmatic approach which recognises that there isn't a formally agreed definition on what is blockchain as there are many different types of blockchains. He tends to describe blockchain in two ways: A protocol - essentially an agreed way of doing business or transactions. So blockchain is a protocol as much as TCP/IP is a technology protocol for the World Wide Web The second and probably easier one to digest, is that blockchain is a write only database which is decentralised, distributed, time-stamped and cryptographically secure