Canadian insurance giant Manulife has begun experimenting with proof-of-concepts based on blockchain technology. The insurance company’s US brand, John Hancock, has been working on applying the technology to a KYC (know-your-customer) prototype, according to statements made by Ace Moghimi:

“Usually we’ll start with a customer need or a business problem we’re trying to solve. But for blockchain, we were looking at the impact of what this tech could have on our operational efficiency and effectiveness.”

The experimental designs are put together by LOFT (Lab of Forward Thinking), which was established in July of 2015 in Boston, to help the company leverage new innovations in the insurance industry.

Moghimi, head of innovation at John Hancock, explained that LOFT’s experimentation lead to a meeting with two blockchain developer firms: ConsenSys Enterprise and BlockApps. Kieren James-Lubin, BlockApps’ chief product officer, told the FinancialPost that LOFT’s blockchain trials have laid the groundwork for “building the technical know-how and internal stakeholder support that will allow John Hancock to be a disruptor rather than a disruptee as the blockchain revolution materializes.”

Igor Lilic, lead technical engineer at ConsenSys Enterprise, explained that the collaboration with LOFT was very fruitful, “They are a team that has a mandate toward innovation so they have spent time understanding the blockchain technology, mapping out various use cases that made sense to them. And then as a team, we worked together closely to move through those use cases.”

While Moghimi has not provided specific details regarding the designs, he said that LOFT’s 4-person blockchain team will be working closely with ConsenSys Enterprise and BlockApps, to come up with more uses case for the technology in the insurance industry.

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