Yesterday Aon, the world’s second largest insurance broker, announced it completed a pilot with Nayms, the blockchain insurance protocol that went live last year. Nayms is a Bermuda-regulated insurance marketplace that operates on a similar model to Lloyds, as its name suggests.
Instead of Lloyds syndicates, Nayms has ‘cells’. This involves locking up crypto or stablecoins with a return of between 11% and 17%. Of course if there’s a claim, some (or all) of the money will be lost. Much in the way Lloyds helps with access to capital, Nayms is targeting the same, but not from retail investors. It also helps to cut administrative costs. In many ways, it’s like a tokenized syndicate, with the advantage that the tokens can potentially be sold before the end of the insurance cover term.
Currently, there are six cells on the marketplace, ranging from industry loss warranty to cyber insurance and property catastrophe. However, only three cells have more than $1,000 in capital, with the marketplace total at just over $1 million.
As part of the pilot, Aon quoted insurances on-chain and earned commissions in crypto. It also used a custodial wallet from custody tech firm Copper.
“The potential benefits of blockchain are compelling, including lower transaction costs, which can lead to greater access and participation in financial services,” said Jillian Slyfield, chief innovation officer at Aon. The broker first discussed pilots with Nayms back in 2021 when the blockchain firm was still in a Bermuda sandbox.
Reinsurance broker Guy Carpenter was involved in advising on another cell last year.
Nayms runs on the Ethereum public blockchain as well as Coinbase’s Base blockchain.
