This article was produced in partnership with LifeHash
Surina Nath of Insurance Business sat down with Stuart Menzies, CEO of Lifehash and CTO Gary McKee to discuss how blockchain technology is enhancing the claims process.
Cyber criminals had an undeniable advantage this year. With relentless waves of ransomware attacks, data privacy is top of mind for the insurance industry.
Enter LifeHash—a company that’s leveraging technology to improve the claims lifecycle. Founded in 2021, CEO Stuart Menzies and CTO Gary McKee created a platform using blockchain technology that provides both clients and insurers with a seamless and secure method of real-time claims processing.
For many, understanding blockchain technology is a foreign concept, but LifeHash takes that strain away from the industry, helping integrate blockchain into their business model using their live-claim app.
Protecting insureds data is much easier with the adoption of blockchain. LifeHash’s app not only provides an additional layer of security, but it also speeds up the claims process as insureds can immediately document as much information as possible at the time of a loss.
“The current claims process is incredibly time consuming,” said Menzies. “Our app is fast and secure.”
LifeHash’s solution captures important data early on, such as collision information from a mobile device or proof of ownership records, links them together, and stores them in a secure and transparent way using public blockchain networks. These records are fully auditable and can be used to verify steps in the insurance process.
“There’s two types of blockchains,” Menzies explained. “There is the public side where anyone can take part of the verification process, then there’s the private side where IT products that are centralized entities, where blockchain can be switched on and off when they see fit.”
The strength of a public solution is that it can take advantage of immense security and transparency of big blockchain networks, like Bitcoin. These networks are time-tested and are likely to exist for decades to come. Private networks on the other hand, rely heavily on central control, and in that respect, are not much different from a regular database.
The interesting nature of public blockchain technology and how LifeHash is implementing it into their platform, is that the company cannot see the data being sent from clients to insurance companies due to double encryption.
“We essentially use blockchain technology to facilitate information exchange. We receive an encrypted file and encrypt it again so the end user can access and store the data safely. We can improve the verification of sensitive data through smart solutions that blockchain technology enables,” Menzies noted. “We’re essentially trying to improve data processing and data privacy.”
McKee added: “One of the big benefits of blockchain is encryption, and we’ll be using blockchain based encryption to save assets, images, and video files so only the client and the insurer can access that information.
“I’m a big believer in the immutability of blockchain and combining that with insurance claims and the data collected during that process is a no brainer. We’re improving the privacy for the user as well as making the claims process as easy as it can be.”
LifeHash’s app improves the efficiency of collecting witness statements, proof of ownership or periodic inspections, digitally filling in the gaps of the insurance claims process with blockchain as it solidifies a single point of truth for all information.
“When information is tied in one cohesive database, it’s easier to prove to insurers,” said Menzies. “The benefits of blockchain for insurers is that it’s definitive. The photo that is uploaded in LifeHash can be verified through our solutions to confirm that it’s from the client that is tied to the policy and any other information submitted through the app. Structuring the claims process with such a solution also decreases the risk for fraud.”
Blockchain provides the tools to enable the security of decentralized data. “We’ve combined the best of having a public blockchain with privatized assets, so you’re easily able to verify if information is legitimate,” McKee added.
“I still think we’re in the early days of blockchain adoption,” McKee noted. “And even though the technology has outpaced many others in term of development speed, if we take a step back, we’re able to use existing blockchain technology in a manner that is efficient, cost friendly and doesn’t come with the issues other legacy platforms may have.”
According to Menzies, if insurance companies invest in a live-claims app, they’re essentially going to insure themselves. The transparent and auditable data that can be provided with a blockchain solution, provides an extremely reliable and objective way to store information and gives both insurers and the insured something to fall back on.
“We’re using every part of blockchain technology in a fundamental way to the insurance claims process,” said McKee.
In an industry heavily weighted by legacy processing, blockchain mitigates cyber security risks and provides clients with a more secure way to file a claim.
LifeHash’s innovative, customizable app provides a seamless transition of information between the insurer and policy holder. Insurance companies can integrate their own APIs to the platform so businesses can easily take the first step in the evolution of claims processing and data security.
For more information visit www.lifehash.com.
Co-founders Stuart Menzies and Gary McKee have worked together to create a platform that enables both efficiency and security using blockchain technology. Menzies, CEO has a robust background in military and protective services. McKee, CTO has over seven years of experience working with DigiByte Global Blockchain as a full stack engineer.
