Blockchain adoption in insurance follows divergent paths across stakeholders

A qualitative study of insurance professionals finds that blockchain adoption is advancing through limited pilots at incumbent insurers and more direct integration at blockchain-native startups. The interviews suggest that the technology’s importance for insurance may extend beyond efficiency toward changes in how organizations coordinate and govern their activities. The study, published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, draws on semi-structured interviews with senior professionals from incumbent insurers, insurtech startups and industry consortia.

This cross-stakeholder approach was designed to identify adoption conditions and strategic intentions across different parts of the insurance ecosystem. Incumbent insurers were reported to be proceeding cautiously through limited pilots. Blockchain-native startups, by contrast, were described as embedding the technology into decentralized claims management, embedded insurance and parametric products.

The analysis also expands attention from efficiency narratives to the potential role of blockchain in coordination and governance. Industry consortia emerged in the interviews as experimental governance mechanisms that facilitate standardization and collaborative development. Interviewees identified tokenization of financial assets, decentralized finance, Web3 digital identity frameworks and decentralized autonomous organizations as wider forces that could shape blockchain’s future role in insurance.

They projected that these configurations could reshape governance structures and risk-sharing mechanisms, but the study presents these effects as contingent possibilities rather than demonstrated outcomes. Their realization would depend on regulatory, technological and organizational changes outside the study’s empirical scope. Overall, the research portrays insurance blockchain adoption as an ecosystem-level process involving different strategies, experimental governance arrangements and unresolved coordination challenges.

Subject of Research: Cross-stakeholder analysis of blockchain adoption and ecosystem implications in insurance

Article Title: Blockchain and the future of insurance: a cross-stakeholder analysis and ecosystem implications

Article References: Dominguez Anguiano, T., & Parte, L. (2026). Blockchain and the future of insurance: a cross-stakeholder analysis and ecosystem implications. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-026-09389-w

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1057/s41599-026-09389-w

Keywords: blockchain, insurance, insurtech, qualitative interviews, decentralized claims, parametric products, industry consortia, tokenization, decentralized finance, digital identity, insurance governance, future