Insureblocks

Blockchain is one of many new emerging technologies alongside AI, machine learning, robotics and much more. Most insurance companies unfortunately look at these technologies in silos and thus get a limited return on their investment. BlockClaim is an exciting insurtech that had the foresight to design an offering that combines both AI, machine learning and blockchain. In this exciting podcast we had the pleasure of interviewing Niels Thoné, CEO of BlockClaim, who passionately shared his...

For this week’s podcast we continue into our theme at looking at new technologies that constitute the “New Stack”. Dessa is a company that specialises in offering artificial intelligence solutions to enterprises. We had the pleasure of having Paul Brikis, insurance lead at Dessa shares his thoughts on AI & Blockchain. What is blockchain? To define what is blockchain, or even just to conceptualist it, Paul played a little game with Walid. Paul: Let’s pretend that we’re going to assign my...

Susan Joseph has been working in the blockchain area for the past 4 – 5 years. As a lawyer she has consulted with the insurance industry and most recently was the North American representative for B3i, the blockchain for insurance consortium. In this podcast we discuss two of Susan’s passion: “Innovation and diversity in the insurance industry”. What is blockchain? Blockchain is a foundational technology that provides a highly flexible set of tools allowing businesses, governments and others...

Trade associations play a leading role in educating the business community on the opportunities of blockchain. In this podcast we had the pleasure of interviewing Patrick South, Vice President of Development at the Digital Chamber of Commerce in Washington D.C. The Chamber of Digital Commerce is the world’s leading trade association representing the digital asset and blockchain industry. What is blockchain? Blockchain is a combinatorial innovation. Think of it like a Lego bucket in which...

For this week podcast we continue our theme on how to build effective governance solutions in a blockchain ecosystem. This time we had the pleasure of having Mance Harmon, CEO of Hedera join us to share his insights on how to build effective governance. What is blockchain? At a very high level, blockchain is an evolution of database technology. In traditional database technology you can have a multi master database solution, which is essentially like having multiple copies of a same master...

This is a very special podcast for us as it is our first debate format on Insureblocks. We were extremely privileged to have two titans/Jedi Masters from the blockchain community join us for this podcast. On one side we have Richard Brown, Chief Technology Officer from R3, builders of Corda, advocating for enterprises to use private blockchain systems. Whilst on the other side we’ve got John Wolpert, Team Lead at Web 3 Studio at Consensys, builders of Ethereum based blockchains, advocating...

For the uninitiated, governance may seem like a side note. But in this exciting podcast, Thomas Cox, Chief Governance Officer at StrongBlock, is here to talk to us about “Governance 101 in a blockchain ecosystem”. Prior to StrongBlock, Thomas worked at Block.one which raised $4 billion in an ICO and launched the crypto currency EOS. He helped them set up their governance infrastructure. It was the first blockchain technology that allowed for governance to be done on chain in a variety of...

For this week’s episode, we spoke to Kshitij Nangia, Director – COO Strategy at Aon, and Michiel Berende, Inclusive Insurance Lead at Etherisc. Our guests provide us with an introduction to the notion of inclusive insurance along with insights as to how blockchain can help increase insurance penetration in emerging markets such as Sri Lanka. Etherisc has teamed up with Aon and Oxfam in Sri Lanka to offer small hold farmers weather-based crop insurance. About our guests Michiel started out as...

This is a bonus podcast as Insureblocks was invited to attend the All Party Parliamentary Group on Blockchain at the House of Parliament on Monday the 18th of March. It was a fascinating session hosted by MP Damien Moore with opening remarks from MP and Minister for the Digital and Creative Industries Margot James and blockchain advocate MEP Emma McClarkin. Presentations were made by IOTA on Global Trade, by Oracle on the food supply chain, Everledger on the diamond supply chain and finally...

In this exciting podcast, our 50th, we had the great pleasure of having Magda Ramada Sarasola, EMEA Insurtech Innovation Leader, at Willis Towers Watson return to Insureblocks. In this fireside chat we discussed the emergence of a new stack – the convergence of blockchain, AI, IoT, big data, machine learning and robotics. This podcast sits at the epicentre of a pivot we’re doing at Insureblocks for 2019. In addition to reporting stories on blockchain within the insurance industry,...

The word blockchain can create a whole range of emotions ranging from excitement to fear. In this podcast we had the pleasure to have Mark Simpson, Head of Consultancy at Armour Risk, take us through the Psychology of Blockchain. What is blockchain? Mark prefer to lift it to describe what Distributed Ledger Technology is (of which blockchain is a type of DLT) Simply - Digital and decentralised books of record A bit more complex - DLT is a database held and updated independently by each...

Welcome to another episode in ours News Flash series, where we share the latest developments in the blockchain space, straight off the press. Today we are joined again by David Edwards, CEO of ChainThat, who previously featured in Ep.8 – Building a Blockchain PoC/Pilot, and we welcome Rebecca Oliver, business development director at ChainThat, to Insureblocks for the first time. About ChainThat David Edwards formed ChaintThat in 2015 with the sole focus to see how blockchain distributed...

For most firms getting a good understanding of what is blockchain and its possible use is a challenging exercise. Once that has been established a further decision has to be made regarding whether or not to build their blockchain solution on a public or private blockchain system. Within the first two weeks of January 2019, both the public and private blockchain proponents expressed their views on the merits of their systems. For this podcast we had the pleasure of having Richard Brown, Chief...

Often not considered as “sexy” in the blockchain world, but building effective governance is probably one of the most important tasks in building a resilient blockchain ecosystem. For this podcast we were very privileged to have James Carlyle, Head of Network and Operations at R3. What is blockchain? Blockchain is a distributed ledger system that makes a fundamental promise which is “what I see, is what you see”. The idea being that although people share a common view, they actually have...

For this episode we were fortuitous to reconnect with Dante Disparte Founder and CEO of Risk Cooperative to look back on how blockchain has evolved in the insurance industry in 2018 and what we can expect for 2019. What is blockchain? For the insurance industry, Dante describes blockchain as a bordereau or a ledger that exists simultaneously in an exact form across multiple distributed computer systems. From the outset this creates a level of resilience, a level of tamper proofing that you...

In this week’s episode we explore how can we automate the claims process with blockchain. Our guest for this topic is Bobbie Shrivastav, Co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Benekiva. Bobbie has 15 years experience in the technology field. In 2015, in addition to becoming a parent Bobbie started working on Benekiva after realising all the inefficiencies in the insurance industry. What is Blockchain? Blockchain is magic? That magic pill that we have all been waiting for? Bobbie describes...

Last week we had the pleasure of talking to Dr. Markus Kaulartz, lawyer at CMS Germany, discuss with us the very hot topic of Blockchain & GDPR. We will try to answer the question of how does GDPR, drafted in a world in which centralised and identifiable actors control personal data, sit within a decentralised world like blockchain? Markus is the co-author of "The tension between GDPR and the rise of blockchain technologies". Markus works in the IT law department of CMS Germany with a focus...

Last week we had the pleasure to talk to Hugh Karp, founder of Nexus Mutual, about their insights on how blockchain and smart contracts can be used for building effective insurance mutual. This is Hugh’s second appearance on Insureblocks as he was a guest blogger last September where he penned a post on “Public Blockchains in Insurance: Do incumbents need to worry?” What is Blockchain? Hugh believes it is more interesting to focus on what the technology enables instead on focusing on the...

For this week’s episode, we are joined by Olivier Rikken, Director of blockchain and smart contracts at Axveco– a consultancy firm based out of the Netherlands focusing on sustainable innovation. Olivier last spoke to us in April regarding smart contracts – this episode focuses on the legal aspects of blockchain and smart contracts. Since April last year, Olivier has been involved in a wide range of blockchain related projects which include being part of the ISO World Standards working group...

For this week’s episode, we spoke to Steve Pomfret, CEO at Cygnetise. Steve describes himself as a “process guy” with over 18 years of experience in bringing about operational change (efficiency and de-risking) at reputed banks and brokerage firms. After learning about blockchain, Steve spotted an opportunity to apply his skills and learnings together with blockchain to streamline processes within the financial ecosystem. Presently, Cygnetise has one blockchain application used for...