RiskBlock Alliance taps R3’s Corda for risk management and insurance industry’s first blockchain platform

The Institutes RiskBlock Alliance, a blockchain consortium for the risk management and insurance industry, has announced the launch of the industry’s first end-to-end reusable blockchain framework, using the Corda, R3’s blockchain platform.

R3 and the RiskBlock Alliance have signed an agreement to support the new platform, dubbed “Canopy”, as a set of standardized blockchains to be used for all use cases and applications. Upon its launch, the platform will feature claims and policy blockchains that will serve as the foundation for most use cases.

RiskBlock explained that creating core underlying blockchains to power future applications will help streamline the production of future blockchain applications, strengthen core blockchains as more applications are built on top of them, enable applications developed for use by all members to be built faster and more efficiently, and enable third parties to leverage the permissioned environment to develop proprietary applications and share data with select other parties.

“Partnering with Corda and creating this core set of standardized blockchains on Canopy is a blockchain game-changer for the insurance and risk management industry,” said Christopher McDaniel, executive director of the RiskBlock Alliance. “Blockchain will be most transformative for our industry if everyone is on one platform. It’s for that reason that we’re building an open, secure ecosystem that any and every insurance and risk management company can plug into.”

RiskBlock said that it chose Corda due to its strong infrastructure and private data-storage capabilities. Importantly, the platform offers member companies with an additional level of security and privacy as a company’s node will only store data with which they are involved.

According to the official release, the RiskBlock Alliance plans to build 15 to 20 blockchain applications for the property-casualty, life and annuity sectors over the next year. The first two applications, focused on proof of insurance and first notice of loss, have been launched for member testing, integration with member systems, and intensive information security review. Applications for subrogation and parametric insurance will launch in early 2019.