Dan Robles

Fire protection engineers can design a thousand buildings that will never burn -- but how do you assign a value to a fire that didn't happen?

Blockchain promises exponential efficiencies or exponential deficiencies. But we have the knowledge to get it right this time.

Blockchain represents new risk opportunities that may not pool appropriately with those upon which today’s insurance products are based.

If bitcoins are not money and bitcoins are not property, what are they? How does one prove ownership?

Blockchain technology is like a three-trick pony -- but can perform the tricks with great speed, accuracy and scalability.

One driver of blockchain technology could be great for insurance; the other may be systemically toxic to everything insurance stands for.

It is crucial to understand when a blockchain can be useful -- and when it cannot. Here is a primer.

Centralized databases scale at the speed of bureaucracy. Blockchain can easily scale way up to huge transactions or down to tiny ones at no cost.

While electrons move at the speed of light, many systems remain limited to the speed of bureaucracy. Blockchain will change that.

There is good news and bad news. The solution is to align insurance with engineering on a shared database.

Insurers must reorganize -- before someone else does it for them.

Decentralization is the future. Insurers can innovate -- or watch as individuals form risk pools without any corporate intermediaries.

The technology behind the crypto-currency can be applied in ways that mean just about anyone with the title "broker" should be concerned.

Without a Reserve Funding Analysis, the insurer becomes the de facto reserve fund.

Engineers can help insurers spot pitfalls and mitigate the risks of CPVC systems before issuing a policy and inviting disaster.

PEX is a great material, but insurers must protect themselves and their clients.