Blockchain technology joins the Internet insurance battle and may play an innovative role

From 3.2 billion yuan in 2011 to 223.4 billion yuan in 2015 , the scale of Internet insurance premiums has increased nearly 69 times in just four years . This explosive development has attracted the participation of various capitals and brought unprecedented vitality to the field of Internet insurance. In 2016 , Internet giants have entered the field of Internet insurance by relying on their own scenario-based and big data advantages. So far , the number of insurance companies that have opened Internet businesses has exceeded 100. It can be said that the express train of Internet insurance has been accelerating.

Although the development of Internet insurance is currently facing bottlenecks and competition , "scenario-based" has become a development idea generally recognized by the industry. However , risks are ubiquitous in the Internet ecosystem. Therefore , some insurance industry experts have proposed that blockchain technology is a decentralized, trustless underlying architecture technology with good compatibility . It can smoothly integrate the Internet's system architecture and blockchain to form a new technical system to solve the problems of cost, risk and privacy in Internet insurance business.

Since the central bank expressed its intention to actively promote the official issuance of digital currency at the beginning of this year , more and more domestic financial institutions have begun to pay attention to the innovative technology behind digital currency - blockchain . However , people still have many questions about what blockchain is and what impact it will have on the insurance industry . Recently , Li Xuefeng, chief architect of ZhongAn Insurance , introduced to reporters the application of Internet insurance in blockchain and the construction of an open platform.

Blockchain has the advantage of “decentralization”

"A world based on blockchain will establish a trust relationship between multiple parties in a transaction , and this does not require them to have private contact . Each of us can control and track the distribution of our own data." Li Xuefeng said that in the current Internet era , technology is the foundation, scenarios are the soil, and finance is the catalyst . These three aspects are indispensable and must be integrated with each other to advance together.

The reporter learned that ZhongAn Insurance , which is well versed in "scenario-oriented", has currently carried out business cooperation with more than 100 companies based on different industry scenarios , including large Internet companies such as Alibaba, Baidu, and Tencent , Internet financial platforms such as Zhaocaibao and Xiaoying Financial Management , and well-known startups such as DJI Technology, BGI, and Mogujie. It has formed multiple product lines such as auto insurance, health insurance, aviation and business travel insurance, investment insurance, 3C and logistics insurance, credit guarantee insurance, and e-commerce scenario insurance ; it has developed nearly 300 products such as Bububao, Tang Xiaobei, Buybei, Shake It Airline Delay Insurance, Wei Xiaobao, and Jiyoujia Comprehensive Protection Service .

"ZhongAn Insurance's entire architecture system was previously centralized in terms of data , and its deployment was distributed , which led to some problems such as cost, risk and privacy. Moreover , due to the rapid development of ZhongAn Insurance's business , new products are launched every day , with more and more data , greater computing requirements , more and more servers , and greater management difficulties." According to Li Xuefeng , the data structure of blockchain technology is very easy and does not require centralized unified management . If one point is broken , other points can quickly switch to support it. From a practical point of view , blockchain also has a good feature , that is, it does not negate existing technologies.

"The Internet of Everything is a trend . By then, the main body of transactions will no longer be between people , but between machines, equipment, and systems." According to his understanding of blockchain applications , in simple terms , if the credit cost in certain fields is high or there is a lack of trust , blockchain will have room to play , such as medical care, auditing, notarization, logistics , and some supply chain finance and insurance industries. From a technical perspective , it is like municipal infrastructure , and after buying a house, you don't need to worry about infrastructure such as coal, water, and electricity. For example, in the insurance industry , all key data such as business, policy information, user information, and claims can be migrated to the developed distributed application system platform .

Blockchain may play an innovative role

If blockchain technology can solve the leakage and loss of key data , then how can the technology be further expanded at the insurance business level ? According to Li Xuefeng , in the insurance field , blockchain can play an innovative role , such as points system, points alliance, mutual aid economy, mutual aid insurance , and insurance claims and so on.

Since the beginning of this year , the Internet of Vehicles has developed very rapidly . Some car manufacturers have installed sensors on their cars to sense human breathing, collect carbon dioxide, sound shells and other indicators. Li Xuefeng said : "The Internet of Vehicles is a very large direction for future research , mainly in some car models, car insurance model pricing, claim model pricing , and even the entire transportation and logistics process, which extends to payment and refueling, as well as temporary financial lending scenarios."

"Use ZhongAn Open Platform as a connector to embed insurance into Internet scenarios. The goals include linking various scenarios , allowing Internet applications to quickly add insurance service capabilities , serving small and medium-sized start-up companies, supporting innovation , and making the threshold for insurance products lower and the cost lower." Zheng Gang, head of ZhongAn Insurance Open Platform, said.

"Of course , blockchain technology is still in its early stages . This is an emerging market , and it may be relatively difficult for traditional finance to break through , especially for the very traditional insurance industry , which still has a long way to go." Li Xuefeng admitted that starting from the Internet finance industry , one must first have some courage to innovate , start with the easy and then the difficult , accumulate more cases , and then break through more scenarios.

Blockchain also faces limitations and challenges

The reporter learned that once the blockchain information is written , no country or individual in the world will be able to change it in the foreseeable future. It is called "the most unbreakable self-certification method at present" in the technical field. Currently , the world 's 25 largest banks are studying the use of blockchain technology to achieve global unified standards for cross-border clearing.

However , Li Xuefeng believes that the development of blockchain technology in China is still in its infancy and faces many opportunities and challenges. The first challenge is the characteristic limitation of the technology itself. The current blockchain is still in a relatively primitive state , because the transaction speed of blockchain is very slow , and the transaction volume per second is one of the technical challenges faced by current blockchain applications. The second challenge is the entry threshold of technology. Blockchain technology involves many cross-disciplinary and cross-domain cutting-edge technologies such as cryptography, computational mathematics, and artificial intelligence . It may be difficult for ordinary engineers to master and develop applications in the short term. Therefore, the first step in the next blockchain application is to develop some relatively easy-to-use technical platforms based on the underlying foundation. The third challenge is the challenge of traditional business. The traditional digital ledger is actually a database , and it has existed in various fields for many years . If you want to change it, it takes a process. The fourth challenge is the expansion of scenario applications. Some blockchain application scenarios currently developed on the market can generally be divided into virtual currency, record notarization, smart contracts, securities, social affairs , etc. These scenarios are actually good , but there is still a lack of down-to-earth scenario applications.

Huachuang Securities' analysis report pointed out that at present , with the gradual involvement and promotion of capital , the speed of blockchain technology upgrade has been significantly improved , and many practical applications have entered the commercial model verification stage. Although in the long run , blockchain technology will have an impact on the existing financial market structure , the industry and institutions are still actively embracing new technologies. At present , the banking industry, payment and transfer, equity trading and other fields are at the forefront of the market in terms of blockchain applications. Ping An of China recently joined the global R3 blockchain alliance as the first Chinese member ; 11 institutions including China Securities Quotation System also launched the China Distributed Ledger Basic Protocol Alliance.

Some people say that Internet finance is a tree that is "full of possibilities". In the future , Internet finance will play an important role in competition and cooperation on the financial stage. Driven by new technologies such as blockchain , and with the strengthening of cross-border cooperation , it will play a greater role in the allocation of financial resources , breed more new models , and ultimately make these "possibilities" a reality.