A big technology support company is helping to find out whether blockchain technology can improve the nervous system of the world's life insurance industry.
The company, Cognizant, has already developed a blockchain-based data exchange system for a consortium of life insurers in India.
The life insurers are hoping the system will help them speed up and improve many processes, including underwriting, fraud detection and regulatory compliance, Cognizant said Tuesday.
The companies in the consortium are also hoping the system will reduce the risk of data breaches, fraud and money-laundering when they do exchange data, Cognizant said.
A blockchain-based system stores information using a continuously growing, encrypted collection of records, or blocks. To keep anyone from changing the records without being detected, each new block includes a date, and an encrypted version of the previous block. Promoters of blockchain systems say a blockchain system can provide an open, "distributed ledger," or transaction archive, that can be stored on a network of computers.