The Blockchain initiative B3i, run by several international insurance companies, has announced the formation of the startup B3i Service AG in Zurich, Cointelegraph auf Deutsch reported on Monday, March 26.

The consortium aims to create a blockchain trading platform for a value-added chain of the entire insurance industry.

The B3i initiative and the newly founded B3i service AG are both backed by the major reinsurers Munich Re and Swiss Re as well as other major insurance companies, such as Zurick, Allianz and Aegon. While the research initiative initially focused on a pilot project to explore the potential use cases of Blockchain technology in the insurance industry, B3i Services AG will now implement the results in a functioning block-based trading system.

The previous pilot project by B3i for the international insurance coverage for natural disasters involved all in all 38 insurance companies and brokers. According to the blockchain initiative B3i the absolute efficiency gain from a full implementation of Blockchain is 30 percent, as stated in a press release on the project.

The formation of B3i Serve AG is no the first use of Blockchain technologies in the insurance industry. Companies such as Deloitte and a group of other insurers had also successfully tested the Blockchain for their customer management during a change of provider in November of last year. Also in September 2017, shipping giant Maersk, along with Microsoft, Ernst & Young and a number of insurers, completed a 20-week trial on Blockchain data management for cargo insurance.