Due to ” unsuccessful funding », the Blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative (B3i) has decided to stop its activities in the field of blockchain. To say that at the start, the concept was able to seduce around fifteen major international insurers such as Allianz, Swiss Re and Generali. The insurance lobby stops development around blockchain technology.
B3i, insurance and blockchain
It is by way of email and a press release on his own website that the consortium of insurers B3i Services AG announced the bad news to its partners. ” [B3i] filed for insolvency following unsuccessful funding rounds. The directors, after consultation with shareholders, have collectively concluded that there is insufficient support to continue the company 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, financial director of the Swiss Re group.
And yet, the idea was important to him.
” Conceptually, I think it 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 didn’t look like 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 bringing together insurance companies capable of offering solutions based on the blockchain was born 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 birth to B3i Services AG, headquartered in Geneva.
Along the way, the consortium has seen other partners jump on the same train. There were IRB Brasil Re, China Pacific Insurance, Africa Re, Deutsche Rück and Mapfre Re. In total, around forty commercial partners gathered behind B3i.
And there was something to seduce them. Because the implementation of a distributed open-source technology infrastructure (DLT) had not left them unmoved. Thanks to it, several possibilities have been attributed:
- Acceptance testing;
- Training of end users;
- Carrying out transactions via the B3i application;
- Creation of applications by third parties from the APIs of the company;
- etc
” B3i’s platform shows possibilities to significantly ease the investment process for all parties involved, and it’s very promising », Explained Dr. Silvio Tschudi (Allianz RE) at the time.
Conclusion
At this end of the adventure for B3i, we can conclude that there is still a long way to go 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 since its creation. And yet, that 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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