In recent years, block chain technology to provide credit for the reconstruction of the formation mechanism of a new solution that enables transparent handle large, dispersed, sensitive data is possible, insurance and other financial sectors as well as healthcare, supply chain management, and many other things areas closely related to the insurance industry will have a disruptive influence.
Application Status block chain in the insurance industry
The insurance industry to become key areas of exploration block chain applications
As the core technology of digital encryption support monetary system, block chain technology development has gone through three stages, namely the support of other digital currency bitcoin block chain 1.0 phase, multi-application scenarios for foreign currency support with intelligent digital contract the block chain 2.0 phase, starting from the recently popular "block chain +" is its 3.0 stage . Block chain will be distributed data processing technology integrated security and privacy protection technology, will greatly improve the large-scale, decentralized strong, high sensitivity of the data processing efficiency. Therefore, governments, regulatory bodies and market institutions have attached great importance to and put a lot of resources to block chain technology and its application in-depth study.
Combined with the insurance industry point of view, the essence of insurance is risk transactions, covering all aspects of the socio-economic reality of the operation of the insurance risk achieved through the transfer and dispersion of cases, have the essential attribute of natural service the real economy. With the continuous upgrading the technological capabilities, innovation and the deepening of the insurance, the data increasingly important for the development of the insurance industry, the insurance becomes to achieve the core resources of Pratt & Whitney and the necessary support. These data scattered in various insurance agencies, various Internet platform, the future may be extended to all types of terminal equipment and the Internet of Things. Which led to the insurance industry is currently facing within the industry as well as integration and information sharing between the insurance industry and other industries need massive. This leads to the presence of both technical limitations can not process, share information, and faced with the high cost and is not a commercial scale, there are data leaks and other security issues, which greatly hindered the insurance industry to play the real economy and risk prevention and control capabilities. One large loss for catastrophe insurance, shipping insurance, agriculture insurance and other claims more concentrated amount of insurance products through the co-insurance and re-insurance model spread risk, need more efficient and transparent information interactively ; the second is the insurance industry as a highly sensitive to credit and risk industry to achieve risk data and credit data sharing between agencies demand is very strong, but commercial information security solution to the problem is a prerequisite; Third, medical, health, automobile and other industries to achieve information link, you can greatly enhance the accuracy of the pricing of insurance products , insurance products, enhanced service capabilities. Such information access, transparency and information to address privacy concerns data dissemination is the key.
Since the development of the above-mentioned block chain pain points can solve the problem with the insurance industry, the difficulty with a high degree of fit, such as the use of chain block consensus algorithm to validate the data, using the technology of distributed books to store data, the use of cryptography to ensure that data the way transmission and access security, the use of intelligent contract to automate business processes, and thus become the focus of a number of areas to explore application scenarios and is likely to become one of the industry earlier to achieve a breakthrough. According to incomplete statistics, currently the scene of ongoing global exploration block chain, there are more than 20% of insurance-related.
Application specific block chain in the insurance industry
Although the block chain technology in the insurance industry more than in the technology demonstration phase, but the rapid development of application scenarios already indicates that this technology will give the insurance industry a transformative effect. According to the survey, more than half of insurance company executives worldwide, has recognized the importance of technology for the block chain insurance industry, some IT giants such as Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, Alibaba, Tencent has been in the field of the block chain He began to layout, and some have even launched a product or service based block chain technology.
Traceability characteristic block chain technology, can make the process more transparent insurance services; security capabilities block chain may be a good solution to protect the privacy and security of business information in the data dissemination; and consensus mechanism block chain, from the source further protect the credibility of the transaction. Precisely because of the above characteristics block chain, which can greatly assist the insurance industry to achieve the industry, a lot of information sharing between industry and distributed nodes and connections between users, thus greatly accelerate the innovation of insurance space and speed.
Based on the above features, the current application block chain in the domestic insurance industry are the following categories:
The first case is the use of technology in the data block chain dispersed in multiple points, triggered when certain conditions are completed in accordance with the established rules of the insurance contract, such as flight delay insurance, unemployment insurance and so on;
The second category is the co-insurance and reinsurance field, in the co-insurance and reinsurance business dealmakers and settlement, block trading and settlement chain to enhance the efficiency and transparency;
The third class is used in the production / growth process of tracking goods, using the properties of the traceable block chain used to track during breeding or agricultural production and transfer of valuables. In addition, the block chain in terms of mutual insurance, shipping insurance and integral management also already put into practical application or applications to explore.
Shanghai Bao Exchange actively explore and promote the application of the block chain technology in the insurance industry. Has set up a specialized research team block chain, and industry-oriented social protection Exchange issued a block chain technology platform and underlying technology white papers, share insurance Exchange on the "block chain + insurance" that the outside experts in the industry the new format of the research and understanding, efforts to promote the block chain technology is mature and fall in the insurance industry.
Prospects block chain technology in the insurance industry
In the long run, block chain in the insurance industry due to the application has broad prospects for development and numerous business meeting point, most likely bring revolutionary, disruptive change, but still need to address the current problem of technology, may soon launch Business scene of large-scale commercial applications.
Future large-scale commercial series of technical problems to be solved
Most of the current block chain applications is still in the technical validation phase, yet large-scale business promotion, which block chain technology is not fully mature not unrelated, such as processing of high-frequency trading performance issues, lack of privacy and security, software development, operation and maintenance may lack the ability and so on. Future, block chain to adapt to the insurance industry, large-scale commercial, technical problems need to be addressed as follows:
First, security privacy protection. Block chain technology is a transaction recorded in the whole network broadcast, to ensure its tamper-proof. But the way the whole network broadcast also increases the possibility of information leakage, which produces a balance between information security and information can not be tampered with, the need for concerted research institutions to jointly research and exploration.
Second, in combination with the mobile physical interconnection technology. Block chain technology itself does not generate data, the data used in the main transitive trust. And mobile applications and physical networking progresses, will bring more and more demand for transparency in handling large-scale dispersion of sensitive data. Block chain technology requires a combination of technical and physical networking and mobile Internet technology depth, interactive help achieve credible industry and intelligent terminal.
The third is to enhance the performance and security. Block chain technology is essentially distributed books, i.e., to reduce friction in the cost commercial transactions generated by increasing the untrusted storage, network transmission redundancy. The redundant nature will cause performance problems of large-scale commercial block chain technology, while the core solution to this problem is to optimize the consensus algorithm.
Industry application prospects
Prior to the development of the Internet, making the information transfer cost is almost zero; the current technology and the development of the concept of block chains can gradually realize the value of almost zero cost of delivery, thereby significantly reducing transaction costs. Block chain technology will gradually become part of the future value delivery network indispensable.
In the insurance industry, even among related industries, under the premise of compliance requires major efforts to strengthen data sharing to help insurers understand the insurance needs of the people, develop people to solve problems and meet the product needs of the community. In these respects, block chain technology promising. According to Gartner (Gartner Inc.) predicts that the market value of the block chain technology in 2025 will reach $ 176 billion by 2030 will reach 3.1 trillion US dollars in size. Block chain technology was also listed as the next 5--10 years to bring transformational impact of science and technology.
Binding block chain in the insurance industry practice to explore the application point of view, the block chain can bring greater value to the insurance industry in the following areas in the near and medium term.
One way to change customer perception (KYC) is. Based on customer information digital management block chain, it can simplify the user's insurance processes, improve insurance risk control ability. Estonia With block chain technology has achieved "e residents" enjoy the marriage certificate, birth certificate, business contracts and other services, and plans to block chain technology to the citizens of electronic health record systems in the block chain.
Second, the role of health insurance reform. With the emergence of wearable devices, consumers are beginning to realize the importance of actively managing their health, and medical insurance. The use of block chain technology will combine sports, fitness, health, medical and insurance data, under the premise of the full protection of user privacy, pricing, claims and other processes of the existing health insurance brings significant impact.
The third is to promote the role of reinsurance change. There are still a lot of manual reinsurance, the traditional way of mail processing. PricewaterhouseCoopers study results show that the use of reinsurance block chain technology can automate most business processes, reduce human error, saving labor costs and save 15% to 20% of operating expenses reinsurance industry. Fourth, mutual insurance role in promoting change. An important topic is the mutual insurance mutual trust issues with members of mutual insurance institutions and technical characteristics of the block chain can play an important role in addressing the multi-party transaction trust issues. With regulatory policy can promote the development of mutual insurance with a block chain technology.
Shanghai Bao Exchange feasibility study and practical exploration has begun and some insurance agencies. But this is not enough, more and more companies need holistic sharing mechanism for industry to think, look, get in on the basis of full protection of the privacy and security of data, the ability to integrate their own data, as industry and their own development and change to create more opportunities.
