Deloitte to accelerate the development of blockchain in the United States and Canada

Deloitte was selected by the RiskBlock Alliance Institute, a US-based blockchain consortium representing 31 risk management and insurance companies, to help advance its blockchain application and product development efforts in the North America.

While this project focuses on insurance technology, Deloitte's continued investment in blockchain development will ultimately have an impact on the accounting profession, as Deloitte's main concern is accounting. For example, in this project, the RiskBlock Alliance is preparing to launch blockchain-based applications, including an insurance claim test, an initial sharing data loss alert, and an intelligent contract-enabled surrogate tool. The subrogation tool will be built by Deloitte and will use smart contracts to facilitate clearing of member payments and improve the efficiency of payments and accounting for processing requests. Deloitte has already presented a smart contract proof of concept in its blockchain lab in New York, and smart contracts are of great interest to accountants as they facilitate a series of interactions with customers.

Deloitte has partnered with the RiskBlock Alliance since its launch in July 2017. This new announcement significantly expands the partnership, says the Alliance.

According to the plan, Deloitte will use its digital capabilities to help RiskBlock Alliance implement and test multiple products that will be placed on the market by the end of 2018.

Deloitte will also help the RiskBlock Alliance to expand the consortium in Canada, the first piece of a planned international expansion. In the coming months, and with Deloitte's strategic support, the Alliance RiskBlock intends to establish a legal entity in Canada and start working with Canadian real estate insurers and life insurance / annuities. Expansion will help the RiskBlock Alliance provide blockchain solutions across the global insurance industry.

The company will be responsible for the methodology, prioritization and development of a series of blockchain applications for members of the RiskBlock Alliance. Applications will address different aspects of insurance transactions, ranging from subscription to processing requests. Each new app will be provided through Canopy, a company that is creating a reusable blockchain framework and will focus on increasing efficiency and reducing transaction costs for contractors. Canopy was built exclusively for the RiskBlock Alliance on a different R3 platform – blockchain of the company called Corda.

"Deloitte has established itself as a leader in distributed blockchain and ledger technology and has strong global relationships with blockchain and insurance organizations," said Christopher G. McDaniel, president of Institutes RiskBlock Alliance. "… The RiskBlock Alliance does not deal with theoretical experiments.We are completely focused on the rapid delivery of real production applications to the sector.With the help of Deloitte, we are building a virtual blockchain factory that members they can use immediately for real business needs ".

"Our goal is up to the expectations of the institutions – the platform will act as the basis for all that insurtech for the global insurance industry in the coming years," added Linda Pawczuk, leading financial services blockchain at Deloitte Consulting LLP. "In Deloitte, we have 1,500 blockchain professionals in 33 countries in 23 sectors dedicated to discover how distributed ledger technology can improve different areas of the economy.We are thrilled to have the opportunity to expand our role at the level global and start creating concrete applications for the market ".