In emerging countries’ populations, access to inclusive insurance is limited due to a number of reasons, ranging from too few providers offering inclusive insurance to the difficulties in providing insurance coverage to very remote locations.

During the recent Decentralized Insurance Developer Conference (D1Conf), several insurance and blockchain experts from around the world spoke of blockchain technology and how it can provide a solution to the low coverage of microinsurance in emerging markets.

Blockchain-based insurance is here

With the help of blockchain technology and more specifically, smart contracts, insurance providers can create automated inclusive insurance products, which:

are easy to underwrite and adjust

have small premiums and claim amounts

deal with high volume transactions

In his presentation, Michiel Berende of Etherisc announced a joint partnership between Etherisc, Aon, and Oxfam in Sri Lanka to provide affordable blockchain-based risk protection to thousands of Sri Lankan farmers. Through smart contracts, parametric insurance products are simplified and automated to the point that farmers don’t need to file a claim to receive their payouts.