Insureblocks Blockchain & Smart Contracts In Insurance

Mariam Al Muhairi is the Head of the UAE’s Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution and  Project Manager at the Dubai Future Foundation. She joins us to discuss the UAE’s blockchain deployment case studies and learnings. She also shares some fascinating results of a survey conducted with over 100 stakeholders from more than 60 various governmental and non-governmental entities across the UAE regarding top blockchain implementation challenges and success factors.   What is blockchain? Mariam likes to see things in the form of physical blocks. For her blockchain are blocks, identifiable by a unique code, that stores information, and stores who is transacting with the information. Each transaction is verified through a process that involves miners on a public blockchain which creates great security. This ultimately also helps to avoid blocks being tampered and used in a fraudulent manner.   Dubai Future Foundation The UAE’s Centre for the 4th Industrial Revolution is an initiative under the Dubai Future Founda

AI loves data, the more data it has the more accurate the models are which leads to better business outcomes and better research outcomes. A lot of the data today is locked behind closed walls. To unlock the digital economy and to train AI models, you need to unlock private data, that is exactly what Ocean’s Compute-to-Data is doing. It’s unlocking private data while preserving privacy. Join us and Trent McConaghy, Co-Founder of Ocean Protocol, as we discuss how to unlock data in privacy manner in order to monetize it. Trent has a background in AI and has been working in the real of blockchains for the last several years with a focus on data.  His initial work was around IP and data, and then on big data with a blockchain database.   What is blockchain? A mundane definition of blockchain is that it is a database with three special characteristics: decentralised immutable assets: Decentralised as in, no single entity owns or controls it. If for example you have tens of thousands of people running it then

Marc Taverner is the executive director of the International Association for Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA) since the middle of January 2020. He has been active in the global blockchain ecosystem for more than five years, working across 20 countries, engaging with organisations from core crypto currency companies to governments and financial institutions, through to large corporates and industry associations. As executive director of INATBA, Marc is committed to positioning INATBA as the only international organization truly equipped to convene public and private industry partners with the credible support of powerful allies like the European Commission and key advisory bodies   What is blockchain? For Marc, blockchain is a type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) where transactions are recorded with an immutable cryptographic signature called a hash. These are added into a chain of blocks, with each block, validating the prior block and creating an immutable audit trail that in turn creates tr

Caroline Malcolm heads the Global Blockchain Policy Centre at the OECD,  assessing its policy implications & building solutions to ensure governments across the world can access and respond to the opportunities and challenges it raises. In this podcast she discusses with us the interesting work the OECD is doing around understanding the potential blockchain can bring to the its members, how they collaborate with other international institutions and she also invites you all to participate in the upcoming OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum 2020 .   What is blockchain? Caroline agrees that there is a wide range of views regarding defining what is blockchain. For the OECD, blockchain is just one type of distributed ledger technology (DLT) and refers itself to a combination of technologies. These technologies create a digital, shared and self-updating ledger of verified transactions or information amongst parties on a network. These blockchains and DLTs more broadly use various types of consensus mechanisms t

For this week’s podcast we had Christina Lomazzo, Blockchain Lead within the Office of Innovation at UNICEF. and Ariana Fowler, Blockchain Strategy within the Office of Innovation at UNICEF, join us to discuss how UNICEF and other UN agencies are using blockchain for social good.   What is blockchain? Christina and Ariana produced a report entitled “A Practical Guide to Using Blockchain within the United Nations”. As per its guide blockchain is a type of software made up of records of digital transactions that are grouped together into “blocks” of information and shared securely across computers on a shared network. When a new block is added, it is connected or “chained” to the previous block, making it difficult to change past information. All computers on the shared network retain a complete record of transactions as they occur, representing the entire blockchain. These computers are called nodes. Transactions submitted to a blockchain can only be added and previous data cannot be removed or modified. This

Emmanuelle Ganne is the Senior Analyst at the World Trade Organisations’ Economic Research Department. She is an international trade expert with over 15 years of experience in international trade, trade policy, global governance, and diplomacy. In this podcast we discuss whether or not blockchain can revolutionize international trade. via GIPHY Her blockchain adventure started at the WTO in 2017 and it was ‘love at first sight”. Because her direct colleagues at the WTO didn’t quite understand the technology and its transformational opportunities for international trade, she decided to author the book "Can blockchain revolutionise international trade?". The book tried to build a bridge between the private sector and the IT community on the one hand and trade officials on the other. Emmanuelle’s journey over the last two or three years has been to help people understand this unique technology and to create an enabling environment that allows it to be deployed on a large scale to make a difference for interna

Dr. Jemma Green is the co-founder and chairman of Power Ledger. Power Ledger is a four year old technology company, with 20 power projects in over nine countries, that facilitate two things - the trading of electricity and the trading of environmental commodities using blockchain technology. In this podcast we discuss with Jemma how their platform is revolutionising the power industry and how it is being used to democratise power.   What is blockchain? Blockchain is a like a database that can be used in many different ways. It is a common record keeping system which creates more efficiencies in the transaction process between counterparties who in the past would have had their own record keeping system. Using a blockchain enables an entry in a ledger to contain both the payment and the physical statement of a digital asset. This reduces the settlement risk or the need to reconcile and settle payments which can be very costly for the transacting parties. With smart contracts, which sit on the blockchain, you

  Welcome to the Insureblocks first Blockchain Bistro. Blockchain Bistro is a new show that we are adding to our range of podcasts. It's a live webinar on Linkedin Live where we aim to discuss interesting subjects with a panel of experts. For this first show we had the pleasure of having Patrick Schmid, Vice President of RiskStream Collaborative. Patrick was recently on the podcast to discuss "COVID19 and the economic downturn’s effect on P&C insurance: An opportunity for technology?". For this first Blockchain Bistro, Patrick was joined with two Insureblocks partners: Mark Simpson and Rory Unsworth. Together we discussed whether or not if COVID19 and the economic downturn’s effect on P&C insurance is an opportunity for technology? We also took a number of questions from the community live in the webinar. We hope you’ll enjoy this new format and feel free to reach out to us on Linkedin or on Twitter or just add a comment below to give us some feedback or suggest some themes you’d like for us to discuss.

Patrick Schmid is the Vice President of The Institute's RiskStream Collaborative a risk management insurance blockchain consortium. In this podcast Patrick discusses with us the impact of COVID19 and the economic downturn’s effect on P&C insurance and whether or not this represents an opportunity for technology. What is blockchain? Blockchain is a distributed ledger that maintains a constantly growing list of chronologically added records in the form of blocks. Blocks contain data such as transactions or smart contracts. They’re verified and confirmed through a decentralised consensus process. This process is why blockchain is often seen as providing the decentralisation of trust without the need for an intermediary or a centralised party. In this period of economic downturn, due to COVID19, Patrick believes that blockchain can provide the much-needed operational efficiency at a time when privacy and security are of high concern.   Medium article: COVID-19 and the economic downturn’s effect on P&C insurance

Peteris Zilgalvis is the Head of Unit, Digital Innovation and Blockchain, Digital Single Market Directorate at the European Commission. In this podcast he walks us through the European Commission’s approach to blockchain by listing out a number of the key bodies and initiatives that are furthering the development of blockchain across the EU. Peteris is a lawyer by background having a JD degree from the University of Southern California. Since Latvia, Peteris’ home country, joined the European Union in 2005, he has been the Head of Unit at the European Commission working on blockchain and digital innovation. Peteris has a strong passion for blockchain since 2012. He is the original co-chair of the Fintech Task Force. From both the financial services side and the digital single market, Peteris has been working in legislation, policy, funding infrastructure, research as well as working with stakeholders and international cooperation.   What is blockchain? From a technical standpoint blockchain is ledger compo

Nadia Hewett is the project lead at the World Economic Forum (WEF), in blockchain and digital currency. In this exciting podcast she takes us through her very comprehensive report entitled the “World Economic Forum’s Blockchain Development Toolkit – Supply Chain Focus” that was recently published on the 28th of April 2020. WEF is the international organization for public and private sector cooperation with a mission to improve the state of the world. It is well known for its Davos event in Switzerland that happens every January. Nadia is based in the San Francisco at the World Economic Forum Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution where her colleagues and her work on the foundational technologies that will change the world from blockchain, artificial intelligence and internet of things to address governance gaps in those technologies. What is blockchain? To answer this question, Nadia takes a supply chain focus. A typical supply chain normally involves thousands of business transactions on a daily bas

Areiel Wolanow is the CTO of Blok BioScience and Managing Director of Finserv Experts. In this podcast we get to learn about the exciting work Areiel and his team are doing in developing end to end solutions against COVID-19. You’ll hear insights about how they developed a self-sovereign “immunity passport”, population testing protocols, supply chain capabilities, and a sophisticated analytical and insights dashboard for governments and enterprises to better appreciate and combat this pandemic. You’ll also hear about the conundrum on how to work with contact and trace applications in a manner that protects the principles of self-sovereignty.   What is blockchain? Blockchain is a technology that allows multiple companies or people to share a single version of the truth without having to spend any time, effort or money on reconciliation, messaging and synchronization to name a few. The benefit from sharing allows the opportunity for completely new business models and new ways of solving problems to arise. Are

Stephanie Hurder is the Founding Economist and Partner at Prysm Group. She’s also a CoinDesk columnist and an academic contributor to the World Economic Forum. In this podcast she joins us to discuss a recent article she published in CoinDesk entitled “Why Enterprise Blockchains Fail: No Economic Incentives”.   What is blockchain? Blockchain is a type of distributed ledger. A ledger is a database, which is usually maintained by a single organisation like a bank to track the ins and outs of our bank account. The bank is responsible for maintaining and updating that ledger. A distributed ledger is a shared ledger where multiple different stakeholders, such as banks or insurance companies, collectively control and update the ledger. They have a process called the consensus process, where in order to make a change or an update to this shared database, there needs to be a certain level of agreement among the different stakeholders. This ensures that not a single organisation or entity controls this shared databa

Maria Mateo Iborra is the co-founder of the IBISA Network. Maria has a background in telecommunication engineering and has been working for 15 years in satellite communications in the space industry. In parallel to that she has also co-founded several companies and start-ups and experienced both successes and failures. Since 2015 she discovered blockchain and was excited by its transformational capabilities. In 2019 she co-founded IBISA which stands for (Inclusive Blockchain Insurance using Space Assets), a platform that enables micro insurance for weather related risks in agriculture in developing countries.   What is blockchain? For Maria the fundamental point of blockchain is that it solves the double spending dilemma for peer to peer transaction. In an internet world you can send data more than once but you can’t send money more than once in a blockchain world. With blockchain we can evolve from the internet of data to the internet of value. This enables two trust less parties to be able to perform a tra

Lisa Butters, is the General Manager at GoDirect Trade, a marketplace for used aerospace parts, part of Honeywell . Used aerospace parts is a $5 billion a year industry of which almost none of it is done online. Numerous emails and phone calls along with paper work is used to close a transaction. Blockchain was felt to be an applicable technology to manufacture digital trust between buyers and sellers in the used aerospace parts industry.   What is blockchain? Honeywell uses blockchain technology in an enterprise manner. Lisa defines blockchain as a highly secure way to crowdsource a decentralised database. Traditional enterprises will have a centralised databased with a walled garden approach to data collection. With blockchain technology you’re using the technology so that you can get the data from various enterprises and parties in a secure manner.   Who is Honeywell? Honeywell is a $40 billion company that operates in numerous industries. Lisa’s particular area is focused within aerospace. Within the a

Joan Zerkovich, Senior Vice President, Operations at American Association of Insurance Services (AAIS) walks us through how AAIS have expanded their OpenIDL blockchain application beyond streamlining regulatory reporting for carriers. In this episode she explains to us how OpenIDL helps insurers develop a network data strategy that provides data standards and a secure, scalable and cost-effective platform for carriers.   What is blockchain? Blockchain is a distributed ledger of which a copy of the ledger is available to all the participants of the network. Blockchain solves a key problem that other data technologies didn’t provide which was an immutable record. It provides a secure way to store data, transparency in how the data is being used and an immutable record that is so critical to trusting any activity that happens on the network. It enables to create systems networks for a wide variety of solutions such as transactional networks or in the case of OpenIDL as an analytics platform.   What is the Ame

Krystal Webber is the Global Design & Strategy Leader at IBM Blockchain Services. She helps her clients understand how blockchain might solve their business problems in a way that maximises benefits in the shortest amount of time. In this podcast she shares her deep experience in blockchain network design from a governance, business value and technology design. A must listen for anyone looking to launch and scale a blockchain network.   What is blockchain? Krystal calls answering that question her “blockchain party pitch”. In today’s world we do business with each other. Where two companies, who have a business relationship, will each keep a record of the work they do together. From time to time records don’t match up. This can create disputes which are both time consuming and frustrating. Blockchain is about having a shared set of records where both parties agree on the correctness of records before they get written onto that shared ledger. Once you have a trusted shared set of records you can start to au

Humayun Sheikh is the CEO & co-Founder of Fetch.ai. Fetch.ai is an 18 months old company that develops solutions around multi agent systems that utilises the principles of the technology behind blockchain. In this podcast we discuss Fetch.ai and how autonomous economic agents can transact and settle transactions autonomously in an economic manner to facilitate the exchange of insights and inferences without the sharing of data sets. ***Image taken on the 27th of February prior to social distancing***   What is blockchain? For Humayun, blockchain is just a record keeping mechanism that has the unique feature that enables people to interact with it in a decentralised manner without the need for a centralised entity to control it. Its other interesting feature is that you can exchange economic value on it which makes it a key differentiator from a centralised database.   Challenges of today’s suboptimal digital world In today’s digital world we use a lot of technology. Unfortunately, it is done in different

Silvia Attanasio, is the Head of Innovation at ABI (Italian Banking Association). Previously to that role she worked for 17 years at ABI Labs, the centre of research and innovation at ABI. Her present mission is to support the innovation amongst the banks within the Italian Banking Association. In this podcast she shares with us the exciting journey ABI has taken in launching a blockchain for Italian interbank reconciliation. We are also very grateful for her to be recording this podcast with us from her home in Milan during the Coronavirus Pandemic.   What is blockchain? From Silvia’s point of view, blockchain is a way to organise a history of events and guarantee the integrity of the data in order to make it easy for a group of people or companies to agree on it. However, Silvia also wants to say that blockchain isn’t a cost cutting technology. She agrees that the technology has the potential to bring efficiency gains but from her point of view we have yet reached that point.   What is Spunta? Spunta is

Dante Disparte, is the Vice Chair and Head of Policy and Communications at the Libra Association. Dante returns to Insureblocks to share his experience of being at Libra and what the insurance industry can learn from that experience. It is worth nothing that Dante is the Chairman of the Risk Cooperative, a member of the FEMA National Advisory Council and a Forbes contributor. He has also participated in two podcasts on Insureblocks: Blockchain vs. the insurance trust deficit in April 2018 and A retrospective look on blockchain for 2018 in Feb 2019. We are absolutely delighted to have Dante back on our show in 2020.   Insureblocks’s 100th episode! I’m Walid Al Saqqaf, your host. Since the 19th of March 2018 we’ve produced weekly podcasts on blockchain in the insurance, pharmaceutical, supply chain, banking and many other industries from case studies, PoCs, pilots and production grade roll outs. We’ve also covered topics around the convergence economy, how AI, IoT and blockchain converge. We’ve covered the s