This is the second in a series of posts that breaks down our article, “Smart After All: Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Parametric Insurance, and Smart Energy Grids,” recently published in the Georgetown Law Technology Review. We previously discussed the enforceability of blockchain-based smart contracts under ESIGN and UETA and will now look at the application of blockchain-based smart contracts for simple insurance contracts. You can read the full article here.
Even though basic insurance contracts can often be boiled down to an agreement to make payment upon the occurrence of a discrete event, administration can quickly become complex. Claims adjusters are needed to assess a claim and its validity and disagreements can arise if parties later disagree about the interpretation of the terms or relied on representations outside of the policy. In addition, parties are often mistrustful of one another because of the potential for fraud, abuse, or denial of claims. In either event, insurance companies incur costs administering even the simplest of contracts, and those costs are often passed along to consumers in the form of higher premiums. However, reducing basic insurance contracts to “if-then” statements and digitizing administration would reduce the cost of administering these products and help overcome challenges of trust and transparency.Continue Reading Efficiency Gains in the Insurance Industry