Blockchain, a catalyst for new approaches in insurance: Part 1

Thought up as the underlying architecture for the Bitcoin cryptocurrency in 2008, blockchain technology is currently a hot topic and the subject of numerous studies in sectors outside the payments industry to which it has often been confined in the past.

Blockchain is considered by some to represent the next technological revolution after the Internet. In fact, the idea of a decentralised, secure and transparent ledger distributed among users can be relevant to many different fields. The insurance industry, with its highly complex processes, could be a major beneficiary of the technology. 

By removing intermediaries in a new type of arrangement, blockchain technology could completely upend the insurance value chain:

• Development/acceleration of new products/markets for which business models were difficult to define until now.
• New approaches to underwriting, contracts and claims management, particularly through a combination of smart contracts and the Internet of Things (IoT).
• Overhaul of the modus operandi of insurance agreements.
• New reinsurance approaches, particularly internal reinsurance via smart contracts.
• Transformation of asset management with automated settlement and delivery of intangibles.