Auto Insurer Metromile To Allow Bitcoin Payments, Payouts

Digital insurance platform and pay-per-mile auto insurer Metromile will be allowing policyholders to pay premiums and receive claim payouts in bitcoin, according to a press release emailed to PYMNTS.

The company will buy $10 million in bitcoin in the second quarter of this year in order to adopt the cryptocurrency option, the release stated.

“Metromile gives drivers control over how they want to pay for insurance,” said Metromile CEO Dan Preston in the release. “We started by giving drivers an opportunity to save 47 percent a year by paying per mile, and now we want to offer people the flexibility to pay and be paid how they want. Supporting decentralized finance and adding bitcoin as a new payment option is the next logical step for our digital insurance platform and end-to-end [artificial intelligence (AI)] claims automation. The result is fairer insurance for all.”

Metromile “believes allowing cryptocurrency payments will support its commitment to fairer insurance and promote financial resilience for policyholders as cryptocurrency becomes mainstream and a more significant portion of consumers’ assets,” the release stated, adding that the idea gives power back to the drivers.

Drivers will only be paying for what they use through the company’s real-time and personalized insurance policies priced and billed by the mile, according to the release. The claims will be handled using automated data science and machine learning.

Crypto has evolved over the years to be used for specific purposes, with blockchain serving as the underpinning infrastructure for the tokens.

PYMNTS reported that the token economy is taking shape to include all consumers, and public ledgers have also taken on more personalized and specific modes. Blockchains are now being used for creating and issuing other digital currencies and for making supply chains more efficient.

A total of 40 percent of survey respondents from technology companies around the world have a blockchain development in the works, while 90 percent of executives said blockchain will increase in importance the future.