Bitcoin Expertise Is ‘Exploding’ Among Insurance Professionals In 2019: Study

A new study highlights the Bitcoin and blockchain expertise in the insurance industry, mentioning how it “exploded” over the past two years. The insurers who ignore blockchain technology, according to it, do so at their own peril.

The report made the crypto news today. Created by Aite Group which is a global research and advisory firm, it showed that Bitcoin is among the strong sides of professionals in the insurance industry.

As it showed in detail, individuals with technical expertise in both Bitcoin and insurance soared from 102 in April 2017 to 5,418 this January 2019. The ones with expertise in blockchain and insurance, on the other hand, rose even more dramatically – going from 96 in 2017 to 29,355 in January this year.

Even though blockchain is not a completely immature technology in the insurance industry, there is still a lot of development ahead. More specifically, many different platforms are coming to market in the past two years as the report shows.

Named “Blockchain in Insurance, 2019: A Market Overview,” this report was based on 40 phone interviews with blockchain experts, innovation directors, C-level executives, insurers, reinsurers, consulting firms and venture capitalists between October 2018 and January 2019.

“If you are not already involved in a blockchain project, you need to start looking for opportunities to test the waters with a limited use case or low-impact proof of concept,” is what Greg Donaldson said in the report, namely a senior analyst at Aite Group.

When it comes to the actual growth and the need for blockchain experts, it is constantly increasing. ‘Talent growth’ is a category that we can see in the report which shows dramatic results. For example, only seven individuals showed their Bitcoin expertise in April 2017 – but 390 of them did in January 2019. Similarly, only two claimed both insurance and blockchain in their expertise – but 2,260 were skilled in both in January 2019.

“The interest in this technology has created an extreme need for more experts who can help the insurance industry develop solutions using blockchain,” the report notes.

To sum things up, the report says that there is one system that is already implemented by some companies – which actually makes the insurance process more transparent and efficient. It keeps all of the customer information on a ‘permissioned’ blockchain – starting from the moment when a customer is offered a price quotation for a policy.

“Then once the customer purchases the policy, the customer knows the status and receives a policy and proof of insurance almost instantly,” explains Aite.