World's first blockchain marine insurance platform rolled out

‘Insurwave’ can help manage risk for more than 1000 commercial vessels in its first year.

The world’s first marine insurance blockchain platform, Insurwave, is available for commercial use in a move that can support nearly half a million automated ledger transactions and manage risk for over 1000 vessels in its first year alone.

Insurwave can connect participants in a secure, private network with an audit trail and services to execute processes, effectively establishing a digital insurance value chain.

Also read: FWD to offer insurance products on blockchain platform

The platform was launched with the participation of EY, Guardtime, A.P. Møller-Maersk, Microsoft and insurance industry leaders Willis Towers Watson, XL Catlin, MS Amlin and ACORD.

It is built on a joint venture between EY and Guardtime and leverages on the distributed ledger technologies of of Microsoft Azure and ACORD data standards.A.P. Moller - Maersk has on-boarded the platform as as a pilot client and is continuing on the platform with its marine hull portfolio.

“It is a proud moment for a number of heavy weight industry participants to be live with a genuine end-to-end blockchain platform in the specialty insurance market. All parties have worked extraordinarily hard, as a closely knit team, to get to this exciting milestone,” said EY global insurance leader Shaun Crawford.

The first phase of Insurwave rollout is focused on marine insurance, and EY, Guardtime and Microsoft plan to roll it out to other types of business insurance for the marine cargo, global logistics, aviation and energy sectors.

“We are delighted to be at the forefront of blockchain technology which has the potential to revolutionize the insurance industry. This is the first insurance transaction that has been undertaken through blockchain, simplifying and streamlining the transactional process and creating added value for our clients,” said Willis Tower Watson GB CEO Alastair Swift.