The Analysis of Application, Key Issues and the Future Development Trend of Blockchain Technology in the Insurance Industry

Abstract

Blockchain, as an emerging technology, is essentially a shared database in which data or information is stored with features of "unforgeable", "whole-process traceable", "transparent" and "collective maintenance". Based on these characteristics, blockchain technology has a broad prospect of application in the insurance industry because it has laid a solid foundation of "trust", and created a reliable cooperation mechanism. At present, blockchain technology has been widely used in the fields of transportation, logistics, trade and charity. It has also attracted the attention of banking, insurance and other financial industries. The application of blockchain in other industries has been discussed in many other publications already, but it has not been systematically discussed in the insurance industry. This paper will make people have a deeper understanding of "blockchain + insurance" by introducing the basic concepts and technological advantages of blockchain technology, reviewing the researches and applications of blockchain by the insurance companies, and pointing out several key problems of applying blockchain technology to the insurance industry. Finally, the article will make predictions about the trend of development of applying blockchain technology in the insurance industry.

Blockchain in Insurance: Exploratory Analysis of Prospects and Threats

“…Cyberinsurance has not been widely accepted by insurers and coverage is restricted to business interruption, stolen of digital assets, and data breach, mainly because of the unavailability of accurate data, legal and procedural approaches for auditing, and assessment of organizational security strength [135; 136]. The comprehensive and palpable benefits of employing blockchain to share insurance-related data will comprise accountability, ledger immutability and transparency, data decentralization, and security [137,138,139,140]. A group of insurers can team up to initiate a Blockchain network for the system, to host enormous distributed processes on the network, with no single proprietor [118].…”

A Blockchain‐Based Auto Insurance Data Sharing Scheme

“…At present, since the development of blockchain technology itself is not particularly mature, and the application of blockchain in the insurance field has only been proposed with the construction of the smart city in recent years, the research on "blockchain +insurance" is still in its infancy. The existing research in this area has the following shortcomings [4,5]: (1) The vast majority of studies only discuss whether it is feasible to apply blockchain to the insurance industry and did not give a specific plan. (2) A small number of studies have given specific application schemes such as data sharing, but there are many disadvantages, such as high cost.…”

“…where the reencryption key rk i↔n = x i /x n mod p. Otherwise, the stage will be terminated (4) The server of 4S j sends the encrypted m 1 to SM…”

“…The insurance industry also began to join the "blockchain+" model in 2015 and actively try and explore the application of blockchain technology in its own business. As the third largest application scenario in blockchain applications, insurance is usually combined with other fields, such as the insurance and financial fields, auto insurance and maintenance services, and medical insurance and medical fields [4,5]. Zhao [4] described the current research and application of the insurance industry to blockchain and predicted the trends of "blockchain+insurance."…”

“…As the third largest application scenario in blockchain applications, insurance is usually combined with other fields, such as the insurance and financial fields, auto insurance and maintenance services, and medical insurance and medical fields [4,5]. Zhao [4] described the current research and application of the insurance industry to blockchain and predicted the trends of "blockchain+insurance." Popovic et al [5] summarized and gave the issues to be considered when using blockchain technology to solve insurance business problems.…”