SilverBridge software developer Jonathan Jardim has won the recent 24-hour Blockchain Hackathon run by Santam in conjunction with IBM and the Blockchain Academy. The event was designed to highlight the impact of insurance fraud in the country.
“With insurance fraud costing local businesses billions of Rands annually, events such as these are critical to find innovative ways of addressing security and other issues facing the financial services industry. From our side, SilverBridge is committed to assisting the industry to solve real business problems, like combatting fraud, using new and innovative technologies. Having someone from the company win this competition is an incredible achievement and testament to the skillset in the organisation,” says Lee Kuyper, Group COO at SilverBridge.
The event took place on Friday, September 23 and formed part of the SA Innovation Summit in Ekurhuleni. Approximately 80 hackers, comprising entrepreneurs, software and web developers, and blockchain enthusiasts entered the competition. The hackers used blockchain and other technologies to identify solutions to four challenges predetermined by Santam.
IBM trained participants on the use of its Bluemix technology and sponsored a custom-developed training course by the Blockchain Academy on Blockchain technology. Once the hackers were equipped with the tools and information they needed, they got down to the business of finding innovative and workable ways to combat fraud in the insurance industry.
“Hackathons form an integral component of getting like-minded individuals together and receive invaluable insights into broader industry challenges. Combating insurance fraud is something financial services providers take very seriously. The solution which Jonathan proposed combined the use of blockchain-based smart contracts, the Internet of Things, and analytics. These are some of the innovative technologies that we as SilverBridge are exploring within our own business models, as we see that these start to influence and disrupt the way that many financial services companies work within their own businesses,” adds Kuyper.
The key now is to take the learnings from the event and apply them to solutions in the South African insurance industry.
“The Hackathon is a great platform to stimulate further development and innovation and one SilverBridge will continue driving from its side,” he concludes.
