One of the questions I'm often asked, as co-founder of
Rubicon Crypto, is how did I get interested in blockchain and digital assets
and cryptocurrencies? The short answer…blame it on the blockchain. But, in order to tell you the full story, we
have to take a trip in the "wayback machine" and travel all the way to 2013 and
2014 when I was a new executive in the insurance claims industry.
Disruption Awakens
Ironically, considering the well-deserved reputation for
innovation that Insurtech has earned and now enjoys today, at that time, the
broader insurance industry (property & casualty, life, auto and
reinsurance, etc.) was not necessarily known for being a bastion of
innovation. More accurately, for decades
it had the contrary reputation as one of the most stagnant, staid and
bureaucratic industries in the world where change happened at a glacial pace,
if at all. At a major claims conference in Chicago back in 2013, I sat in the
audience during a general session presentation and would hear the words
blockchain and smart contracts for the first time. One of the things that immediately piqued my
interest was the sheer volume and diversity of research and investment that was
taking place just behind the scenes. Yes, there was a broad focus on technology
as a whole, but for me, this is where my curiosity was lit and as evidenced by
the poor speaker that I ambushed and interrogated for far too long at the end of
the session. And, what I was to quickly learn was just how much the fear of
imminent disruption had awakened the insurance sleeping giants and ushered in
the error of insurtech.
It Was about the Blockchains, Not the Bitcoins
As I have already confessed, at that time, I am fairly sure
that I had never heard of blockchain technology, and, if I had, I certainly did
not pay any attention to it. And, while I am still in the confessional, I can
also tell you that although I had heard of Bitcoin back then, I also wasn't
paying much attention to it either. As a matter of fact, if I am being
perfectly honest, as somebody coming from the traditional CFP and wealth
management worlds, I was probably dismissive to the notions of crypto and
Bitcoin. Yet, when I started really diving in and performing the due diligence
necessary to begin one's understanding of the principles, and, more
importantly, when I started to comprehend the volume of practical business use
cases for blockchain and smart contract technologies, my personal lightbulb
officially turned on.
Tales of Institutional Hypocrisy…
The other phenomenon that really stimulated and cemented my
personal interest was watching more closely how some of the biggest brands in
the global banking and financial services industry were reacting to the
potential disruption that the emergence of blockchain and cryptocurrency could
generate. And what I found was nothing
short of hypocrisy, institutional hypocrisy at the grandest scale. While the CEOs of many financial and banking
titans were delivering dismissive and disparaging public remarks at every
opportunity, their corporate treasuries were being emptied to invest in these
same technologies being derided. Not to mention, they were also developing and
hoarding patents in blockchain and aggressively recruiting and attracting the
best and brightest minds in computer science to their ranks. So, when you have
a prolonged scenario where we have insurance companies and big banks, arguably
two of the most established and conservative industries in the world, paying
attention to blockchains and digital assets, in both word and in deed, I am
then inclined to pay attention too! And,
with that, you now have a deeper insight into some of the influences and early
experiences that would ultimately lead me down the path as a co-founder of
Rubicon Crypto.
Remember whether or not you're crossing the digital divide
with Rubicon Crypto…do so with common sense and with rational exuberance.