Blockchain in Insurance: Exploratory Analysis of Prospects and Threats

Abstract

Ever since the first generation of blockchain technology became very successful and the FinTech enormously benefited from it with the advent of cryptocurrency, the second and third generations championed by Ethereum and Hyperledger have explored the extension of blockchain in other domains like IoT, supply chain management, healthcare, business, privacy, and data management. A field as huge as the insurance industry has been underrepresented in literature. Therefore, this paper presents how investments in blockchain technology can profit the insurance industry. We discuss the basics of blockchain technology, popular platforms in use today, and provide a simple theoretical explanation of the insurance sub-processes which blockchain can mutate positively. We also discuss hurdles to be crossed to fully implement blockchain solutions in the insurance domain.