Blockchain + insurance = ? Empty technology, blockchain is a dead word!

Recently, LumenLab, the Asian innovation center of the insurance giant Metropolitan Group, used blockchain technology to simplify the life insurance claims process. The project name “Life Chain” will be open for testing in June.

When the insurance encounters the blockchain, what kind of tricks can you play?

Recently, LumenLab, the Asian innovation center of the insurance giant Metropolitan Group, used blockchain technology to simplify the life insurance claims process. The project name “Life Chain” will be open for testing in June.

For the insurance industry, blockchain technology can be useful, affecting the efficiency and business model of insurance companies in terms of risk control, operations, and reinsurance. In fact, many insurance giants have taken steps in the world, fearing that they will be shot down on the beach by the wave of technology.

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However, analysts interviewed by the International Finance News reporter bluntly said that there is still a long way to go to truly realize the application of the blockchain in the insurance field. Data security, computing power, cost, and interest segmentation are all issues that need to be addressed.

Simplify the process

How to apply blockchain technology to the insurance industry to simplify the claims insurance end?

Taking life insurance as an example, if the relatives and friends unfortunately passed away, all kinds of after-effects have been dealt with. It is very cumbersome to confirm whether the deceased has a policy or apply for a claim.

In some countries and regions, it is necessary to advertise. The user information involved in the obituary content roughly coincides with the information required for the claim.

The US metropolitan area cooperated with relevant newspapers to use the "Lifechain" technology developed by Lumen Lab. The identity information of the deceased involved in the obituary and claims was securely encrypted and shared with all parties to achieve insurance coverage. Quick confirmation of information and timely initiation of the claims process.

During the test phase, the families of the deceased who posted the obituary in the newspaper will receive an introduction to the “Life Chain” project. Authorized by the family, the identity information of the deceased will be uploaded to the “Life Chain” after being encrypted, triggering a matching search for the life insurance policy, and the family can be informed of the policy matching result within one working day; once the matching is successful, the “Life Chain” The claims process start notification will be sent to the insurance agency by email.

The entire process does not require family members to provide policy information or submit claims applications, all automatically run. If the policy fails to match, the newspaper will promptly notify the family members of the deceased, and the insurance company that the family and the deceased insure will check and apply for a claim.

There is no "alliance" in the chain

Of course, it is not easy to make a blockchain in the insurance industry.

In fact, the "chain of life" application chain is still very short, limited to an insurance company and the newspapers that advertised. "The application logic of the blockchain is decentralized, suitable for cooperation between multiple agencies, rather than C-side interaction. If it is only a collaboration between several separate organizations, it is more appropriate to call it a 'private domain chain'. "The people in the blockchain field talked about it.

An insurance industry person told reporters that although the objective conditions are still not mature, it is still an innovative attempt.

On the technical level, we must solve data security, privacy, governance and other issues.

Xu Xian, director of the Department of Risk Management and Insurance at Fudan University, told the International Finance News reporter that the future use of the blockchain in the claims section would involve some insurance claims indexation or coding. Because the blockchain has a feature, the code is the law. In other words, as long as it is in line with the code, it will be executed immediately. Therefore, if the future insurance claims reach certain conditions, the blockchain can help better and quickly compensate for the geography, and it will also reduce some disputes arising from the claims process.

At the same time, Xu Xian also pointed out that the biggest difficulty at present is the problem of computing power and cost. "Insufficient computing power may lead to some computational problems in blockchain applications, and the storage cost of blockchains will be relatively high."

In addition, the reporter learned that the delivery of interests between agencies is a difficult problem that cannot be solved by technology.

Under normal circumstances, for the insurance claims process established on the blockchain technology, we will discuss more about how to use the data to get through all the medical institutions, insurance companies and other links after receiving the claim.

However, the industry chain involved in insurance companies is very short. Every insurance company wants to get data from all industries, but does not want to share its own data. They are independent and their business cannot interact.

Without data, there is no precise model, and insurance products and pricing can only be blacked out. But if the data is shared, who will divide the cake? Who is the data?

In other words, without the most basic consensus alliance, the mutually beneficial and win-win business model, the technology is empty, and the blockchain is also empty talk.

(International Finance News reporter Tang Wei)

Source: International Finance News

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