sun 14 August 2022 ▪ 21:00 ▪
4
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Because of ” unsuccessful financing “, the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) has decided to stop its activities in the field of blockchain. To say that initially, the concept was able to seduce about fifteen major international insurers such as Allianz, Swiss Re or Generali. The insurance lobby is stopping the development around blockchain technology.
B3i, insurance and blockchain
It is by way of email and a press release on its own website that the consortium of insurers B3i Services AG has announced the bad news to its partners. « [B3i] filed for insolvency following unsuccessful financing rounds. The directors, after consulting with the shareholders, collectively concluded that there was insufficient support to continue the business at this stage ».
« I think it was a very high-quality effort, but at the end of the day, we didn’t see the volumes of demand “, regrets John Dacey, chief financial officer of the Swiss Re Group.
And yet the idea mattered to him.
« Conceptually, I think this remains a very interesting opportunity for the sector. It may be that at some point someone will break the code, but at this point, with this platform, it did not seem that it was going to progress profitably “, he added during a press conference focused on the results of the first half of the reinsurer.
6 years of adventure for insurance
The idea of creating a consortium of insurance companies capable of offering blockchain-based solutions has emerged in 2016. At the time, 5 heavyweights integrated B3I, meaning The Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative. These are Zurich, Swiss Re, Allianz, Munich Re and Aegon.
A year later, 10 other companies decided to join the team: Tokio Marine, Achmea, XL Catlin (now AXA XL), Ageas, Hannover RE, Generali, Liberty Mutual, RGA and Sompo. This gave rise to the company B3i Services AG, whose headquarters are located in Geneva.
Along the way, the consortium has seen other partners take the same train. There were IRB Brasil Re, China Pacific Insurance, Africa Re, Deutsche Rück and Mapfre Re. In total, about forty business partners are behind B3i.
And there was something to seduce them. Because the implementation of an infrastructure of distributed ledger technology (DLT) had not left them in stone. Thanks to her, several possibilities have been allocated :
- Acceptance tests ;
- End-user training ;
- Completion of transactions via the B3i application ;
- Creation of applications by third parties from the company’s APIs ;
- etc.
« The B3i platform shows possibilities aimed at significantly facilitating the placement process for all parties involved, and this is very promising “, explained Dr. Silvio Tschudi (Allianz RE) at the time.
Conclusion
At this end of the adventure for B3i, we can conclude that a long way remains to be done in the appropriation of blockchain technology. However, it is not because the rounds of tables bring in millions of euros that we can say that a project is solid. The consortium has amassed some since its inception. And yet, this did not prevent its end. Nevertheless, we could put forward the idea that we must always move forward, propose innovative ideas in order to justify this need for transparency that the blockchain promised us from the start.
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