#Ep. 29: Assessing blockchain for insurance with Takaful Emarat and Addenda
03/12/19 • 39 min
Episode 29 is here! Ahmed sits down with Walid Daniel Dib from Addenda and Vivek Bhalla from Takaful Emarat.
What is insurance and what challenges does the industry face?
Ahmed starts off by questioning the two guests about what we mean by insurance and the challenges that the industry faces. Vivek touches on the concept of how sharing should be closely related to this industry and how it is a social responsibility to share risk, a principle held at Takaful Emarat.
Being described as an industry still with a stone age mentality, main challenges include: very low digital processes, engagement with customers is low, and fundamentally it’s all manual process orientated.
Collaboration is also a key challenge that Walid pointed citing that insurance companies find It harder to come together and would rather sit on their heaps of data and not doing anything with it.
Can blockchain help? And if so, how?
Well of course blockchain would be able to help, and Walid and Vivek cite many examples, both theoretical and practical applications that are currently being deployed. Do tune in to find out more!
Going corporate!
Walid cites the importance of private chains and what they offer over public blockchains, particularly in a corporate environment. Fun fact, Walid used to be a bitcoin maximalist before going corporate!
Part of this conversation entertained many questions such as: how to maintain trust in networks operated by, let’s say, a group of insurance companies? Another question is then, who is responsible for authenticating all this data and how is it structured? Do insurance companies have to remove all their old systems away? Ah yes, the burning questions needed for innovation to really happen are explored too!
Ok, but why does this all matter? How will I, as an end user, see any change?
Ahmed then steers the conversation to see why this all really matters and what the implications are for both end users and insurance companies.
Walid and Vivek cite further examples, both within a typical insurance transaction (that is usually coordinated between many parties), and also enterprises currently developing proof of concepts in industries like trade finance.
With authenticated data processed seamlessly and less reliance on manual processes, the biggest implication for end users are the cost of premiums should significantly drop.
B3I
B3I is a blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative that provides insurance solutions on a blockchain platform offering opportunities for efficiency, growth and quality across the value chain to benefit all participants including end customers.
This industry initiative is what Takaful Emarat is a part of to help realise the innovation blockchain brings to the insurance industry.
Lets talk convergence
Ahmed asks how AI, IoT and blockchain are able to come together to be able to provide far better value than what each technology can provide on its own. Yes, there will be an inflection point soon! Listen in on what the guests had to say.
The relationship between a start-up and a traditional player
We can see how amazed Ahmed is to see how a traditional player within this stone age like insurance industry is working closely with Walid’s start-up, and helping to drive innovation.
Walid first starts off talking about his experience in the Fintech Hive, a leading fintech accelerator in Dubai, and how their talks with traditional insurance players surprised them as they saw local players being a bit more open compared to the international insurance firms with regional offices. Vivek and Walid both talk about their experiences working with and engaging the regulators and ultimately describing how their partnership formed and how their work is evolving!
Well what an episode that was, do make sure to tune in as we talked about the above and much more!
If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!
Special Guests: Vivek Bhalla and Walid Daniel Dib.
Episode 29 is here! Ahmed sits down with Walid Daniel Dib from Addenda and Vivek Bhalla from Takaful Emarat.
What is insurance and what challenges does the industry face?
Ahmed starts off by questioning the two guests about what we mean by insurance and the challenges that the industry faces. Vivek touches on the concept of how sharing should be closely related to this industry and how it is a social responsibility to share risk, a principle held at Takaful Emarat.
Being described as an industry still with a stone age mentality, main challenges include: very low digital processes, engagement with customers is low, and fundamentally it’s all manual process orientated.
Collaboration is also a key challenge that Walid pointed citing that insurance companies find It harder to come together and would rather sit on their heaps of data and not doing anything with it.
Can blockchain help? And if so, how?
Well of course blockchain would be able to help, and Walid and Vivek cite many examples, both theoretical and practical applications that are currently being deployed. Do tune in to find out more!
Going corporate!
Walid cites the importance of private chains and what they offer over public blockchains, particularly in a corporate environment. Fun fact, Walid used to be a bitcoin maximalist before going corporate!
Part of this conversation entertained many questions such as: how to maintain trust in networks operated by, let’s say, a group of insurance companies? Another question is then, who is responsible for authenticating all this data and how is it structured? Do insurance companies have to remove all their old systems away? Ah yes, the burning questions needed for innovation to really happen are explored too!
Ok, but why does this all matter? How will I, as an end user, see any change?
Ahmed then steers the conversation to see why this all really matters and what the implications are for both end users and insurance companies.
Walid and Vivek cite further examples, both within a typical insurance transaction (that is usually coordinated between many parties), and also enterprises currently developing proof of concepts in industries like trade finance.
With authenticated data processed seamlessly and less reliance on manual processes, the biggest implication for end users are the cost of premiums should significantly drop.
B3I
B3I is a blockchain Insurance Industry Initiative that provides insurance solutions on a blockchain platform offering opportunities for efficiency, growth and quality across the value chain to benefit all participants including end customers.
This industry initiative is what Takaful Emarat is a part of to help realise the innovation blockchain brings to the insurance industry.
Lets talk convergence
Ahmed asks how AI, IoT and blockchain are able to come together to be able to provide far better value than what each technology can provide on its own. Yes, there will be an inflection point soon! Listen in on what the guests had to say.
The relationship between a start-up and a traditional player
We can see how amazed Ahmed is to see how a traditional player within this stone age like insurance industry is working closely with Walid’s start-up, and helping to drive innovation.
Walid first starts off talking about his experience in the Fintech Hive, a leading fintech accelerator in Dubai, and how their talks with traditional insurance players surprised them as they saw local players being a bit more open compared to the international insurance firms with regional offices. Vivek and Walid both talk about their experiences working with and engaging the regulators and ultimately describing how their partnership formed and how their work is evolving!
Well what an episode that was, do make sure to tune in as we talked about the above and much more!
If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!
Special Guests: Vivek Bhalla and Walid Daniel Dib.
Previous Episode
#Ep. 28: Behavioural Science, Transparency, and the role of Governments: A conversation with Maja Vujinovic, the Former CIO of Emerging Tech at GE
In our next instalment of Encrypted, episode 28 brings you an inspiring discussion with Maja Vujinovic, the CEO of OGroup and the former CIO of Emerging Technology at GE.
Maja first talks about the spark that caused her to go full time in blockchain after GE. The topics around deciphering data, what incentivizes behaviours, token economies, to name a few, were the topics that stimulated her interest and has ultimately led her to speak to global corporates about different ways you can incentivize behaviour for better business models.
Data, behavioural science and hype
Ahmed and Faisal start off the discussion with Maja about data to see what role it plays with blockchain networks and how that interacts with behavioural economics and science that is typically embedded in these networks.
Maja explains her story at GE in how she managed to convince upper management about the opportunities that well-built incentive models backed by the right data will help drive business growth and newer business models for the firm.
Transparency in large organisations – Yay or nay?
As Maja explains her experiences, this leads Ahmed to ask why do large corporates not like transparency? Maja spills the beans on what are in the minds of corporates and argues that in the real-world open source, for all its transparency, may actually not work.
Rather, it’s the rise of technology and rising customer expectations, transparency is being forced on the face of corporates and governments. This develops into a very interesting discussion about the philosophy behind transparency.
What is the most important function of the government?
Maja proposes this above question stimulating a discussion on the responsibility that governments have with regards to their functions. There are clear use cases for the government to use blockchain to make their processes more efficient. Great! But now they have more coordinated data – uh oh, can we trust the governments to not abuse this data? Has blockchain brought power to those that it seeks to destroy? Tune in to this episode to hear what is being discussed!
Maja also touches on the topic of surveillance capitalism and explains that we have to think twice before building these tools otherwise we may see the wrong side of technology impacting humanity for the worse.
Touching upon centralisation, Ahmed talks about how decentralisation can only be realised in a slow fashion as we cannot have a full shift from centralisation to decentralisation overnight. Maja did not only agree but also explained her experiences at GE attested to this, explaining how their customers reacted to initial pilot projects that were launched.
Make sure to catch Maja talk about the other pilot projects and use cases she’s been involved with in the past!
Oh – and are the institutions really coming?
The trio deep dive into the aspect of what institutional money coming into crypto really means. Many people talk about it, but it’s never really explained properly. Is it heaps of money buying up bitcoin? Or is money going into specific blockchain funds? Or is it something else?
After Maja gives her thoughts on this, Faisal goes back to ask the question of whether or not we actually need humans to be their own banks, have specific applications, or have multi sig wallets because they are complicated, and humans are not used to it. Make sure to tune in this episode to hear Maja’s thoughts on this!
There is no killer app?!
As Maja toys with the idea that the killer app would be in gaming, she backtracks and says there is no killer app in the market. Faisal then poses the question of what do we need to see before a killer app comes along? Maja argues that Volume, true utility, deep purpose and underlying value are the 4 main traits before we see a real killer app.
Well what an episode that was, do make sure to tune in as we talked about the above and much more!
If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!
Special Guest: Maja Vujinovic.
Next Episode
#Ep. 30: Back to where it all started: Reflecting on 30 episodes
This episode was a real heart to heart.
Ahmed and Faisal reflect over their experience of running the Encrypted podcast covering what they learned when creating a podcast, their favourite episodes, the challenges they faced, revisiting why they are doing a podcast and sharing future plans of Encrypted.
Not your typical episode this time, but a good break and pause from the usual. Reflecting out loud has definitely renewed our purpose for delivering valuable content and making Encrypted what it Is today.
We hope you enjoy!!!
If you liked what you heard, please do leave us a review on Apple Podcasts and the other platforms. Don’t forget to support us by spreading the word!
If you like this episode you’ll love
Episode Comments
Generate a badge
Get a badge for your website that links back to this episode
<a href="https://goodpods.com/podcasts/encrypted-371279/ep-29-assessing-blockchain-for-insurance-with-takaful-emarat-and-adden-53229478"> <img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/goodpods-images-bucket/badges/generic-badge-1.svg" alt="listen to #ep. 29: assessing blockchain for insurance with takaful emarat and addenda on goodpods" style="width: 225px" /> </a>
Copy