The Invisible Infrastructure the Insurance Industry Didn’t Know It Needed

How Lloyd’s, PDFs, and a Little Bit of Visa-Inspired Magic Are About to Get Trade Insurance Unstuck


Picture this: You’re an underwriter at a major insurance firm, hunched over a PDF bill of lading from 2017, trying to make sense of a coffee shipment that originated somewhere between Bogotá and “Misc.” Customs declarations are contradictory, and someone named Jorge may or may not have signed something that may or may not matter.

You sigh. You squint. And then you do what any seasoned professional does: you guess.

Welcome to the charmingly analog world of global trade insurance.

But it’s 2025 now. We have AI that paints, texts that write themselves, and a Mars rover with better broadband than your office. Why, then, are we still pricing billion-dollar risks with documents that look like a fax machine got into a bar fight?

The short answer: the rails are broken.

Lloyd’s, Legacy, and the Lessons of an Upgrade
Let’s begin with a name insurance people whisper with both pride and quiet dread: Lloyd’s of London.

Born in a coffeehouse in 1688 and raised on the backs of ships, underwriters, and parchment, Lloyd’s has been trying to shake off 17th-century habits ever since. Their latest shot? An ambitious initiative called Blueprint Two, a digital modernization with Charles Taylor InsureTech.

Blueprint Two’s crown jewel is the Delegated Data Manager (DDM) — think of it as a supercharged Dropbox for cover holder data that promises to free Lloyd’s from the tyranny of spreadsheets.

And it does! Sort of.

Because even as Lloyd’s digitizes, the rest of the world’s trade risk data still lives in a fragmented soup of ERPs, customs portals, port authority PDFs, and good old human memory.

Modernizing one marketplace (even Lloyd’s!) without connecting it to the world is like renovating your kitchen while the rest of the house is underwater.

As Lloyd’s itself noted in a 2024 report:

…firms need to transition "from systems using nearly 30-year-old technology to new solutions"

No kidding.

The Visa Moment for Trade Data
Here’s where things get interesting.

What if, instead of trying to rewire every trade system in the world, we simply created a trusted rail that connects them all? One that lets legacy systems—yes, even Jorge’s Excel sheet—talk to each other securely, verifiably, and without needing to be replaced?

That’s the idea behind Verida.

Think of Verida as the Visa of trade data. You don’t need to change your accounting software to accept a Visa card. You just plug in the rail. Verida does the same for global trade infrastructure—except instead of moving money, it moves verified, encrypted, tamper-evident data.

No rip-and-replace. No expensive “digital transformation.” Just invisible infrastructure that makes your existing tools a whole lot smarter.

And here’s the kicker: Verida is governed by the Verida Charter Foundation, a nonprofit that exists not to lock anyone in—but to keep the whole thing open, auditable, and neutral. Just like Visa, back when it was still a utility, not a tech giant.

What It Actually Does (For the Non-Engineers in the Room)
Let’s translate some of the tech-speak into plain English. Verida has two core components that do the heavy lifting. First, there’s VeridaLink—think of it as a translator for your tech stack. It connects all the scattered, often outdated systems—legacy ERPs, customs databases, port records, even Lloyd’s DDM—and allows them to speak a shared, structured language. Then comes VeridaRails, the system’s notary. Every time a piece of data moves, it gets stamped with a cryptographic signature, like a very nerdy (but incorruptible) customs officer, to confirm it hasn’t been tampered with.

But it doesn’t stop there. Verida also uses something called zero-knowledge proofs, which is a fancy way of saying it can confirm something is true—say, a shipment’s origin or ESG compliance—without exposing all the underlying data. That means it’s secure, privacy-respecting, regulator-approved, and scalable across borders.

The result? Your underwriter no longer has to guess if Jorge signed the right form. The system can confirm it — instantly, verifiably, and without sending an intern to Colombia.

Lloyd’s as First Node, Not Final Destination
Here’s where it gets poetic.

Verida doesn’t compete with Lloyd’s Blueprint Two. It completes it.

By integrating Verida into Lloyd’s Charles Taylor-powered DDM, we suddenly go from a better filing cabinet to a live data network.

Underwriters gain real-time exposure updates. Reinsurers get standardized credential schemas across syndicates. Brokers can finally ditch the email chains and offer clients a sleek dashboard of verified supply-chain risk.

In other words: DDM becomes not just smarter—it becomes connected.

And for Lloyd’s? They’d go from digitized island to anchor node of a global trade-data rail. Not a bad look for the world’s oldest marketplace.

What’s in It for Everyone Else?
If you're in insurance—and you're not Lloyd’s—this still matters. For underwriters, Verida brings cleaner pricing, faster quoting, and far fewer “we’ll circle back” moments. With real-time, already-verified trade data at your fingertips, you can reduce claims leakage, mitigate moral hazard, and start launching next-gen coverages like ESG-linked or parametric products with real confidence.

For reinsurers, it's all about transparency and portfolio intelligence. Verida gives you visibility into exposure patterns across cedents and jurisdictions, making it easier to align risk models with real-world trade flows. That means better capacity deployment, more strategic retrocession, and smarter portfolio layering—all based on live, standardized data.

And brokers—bless you—you’re probably drowning in email chains, Word docs, and data-entry déjà vu. Verida throws you a lifeline: one-click submissions from client to market, dashboards that actually impress clients (and their compliance teams), and a platform where you can even launch your own branded tools. Finally, the upgrade from insurance middleman to strategic orchestrator is within reach.

The Pilot: Don’t Be Late to the (Rail) Party
The Verida Foundation is launching a pilot, and it’s not your average sandbox.

They’re inviting a small group of underwriters, reinsurers, brokers, and tech platforms to integrate first. Lloyd’s is proposed as the inaugural anchor node.

This isn’t a proof-of-concept. It’s the beginning of the data rail that will underpin global trade compliance, risk underwriting, and ESG verification.

Participants in the Verida pilot aren’t just dipping a toe in—they’re helping shape the rail itself. They’ll gain early access to VeridaLink APIs and direct involvement in schema governance, meaning they can influence how data is structured and exchanged across the ecosystem. Even more importantly, they’ll have co-design authority over the credential standards that power verification—essentially helping write the rulebook for trusted trade data.

And as more trade corridors like coffee, cocoa, soy, and shipping come online, early adopters will enjoy a significant network advantage, positioned at the center of the most important data flows in modern trade.

And when the rails are live, these first movers won’t just be riding them. They’ll be shaping them.

But Wait—Isn’t This Just Another Blockchain Thing?
Nope. No token. No hype.

Verida uses cryptographic tools in service of interoperability and trust—not speculation.

It’s not “Web3.” It’s Webdone-right.

Instead of trying to replace existing systems with a decentralized utopia, Verida meets the real world where it is, then makes it work better. Think less revolution, more rebar.

The Strategic Risk of Shrugging
Let’s say you wait. You give it five years. You want to see how it shakes out.

Fair.

But by then, Verida-connected underwriters will be pricing with verified trade flows. Brokers will be placing coverage from mobile dashboards. Reinsurers will be slicing portfolios like sushi chefs. And you? You’ll still be squinting at Jorge’s PDF.

As DC Velocity put it (with a bit of editorial liberty on our part): in the world of supply-chain insurance, those still stuck in PDF purgatory may soon be left behind by a faster, verifiable, and far more connected future.

There’s nothing wrong with being cautious. But in an ecosystem, first movers don’t just get ahead—they define the rules.

From the Coffee House to the Cloud
Let’s circle back.

In 1688, Lloyd’s began in a coffee shop as a way for merchants and insurers to find trust. That was the original infrastructure.

Today, trust lives in data. And that data needs rails.

Verida builds those rails—not to replace Lloyd’s, or SAP, or the spreadsheets your broker still insists on—but to connect them.

Because the future of trade insurance isn’t a new dashboard. It’s a new backbone.

And the smartest players won’t wait for someone else to build it. They’ll be there from the start.

So if you’re reading this from a corner office—or a corner of a WeWork—consider this your engraved invitation.

The rails are being laid. Lloyd’s has shown the need. Verida provides the infrastructure.

The only question left is: Do you want to ride them—or rent them later from someone who did?



About the Author: Alexander Barrett once designed buildings and now designs global trade infrastructure—because apparently, fixing crumbling foundations is a transferable skill. He is the founder of the Verida Charter Foundation, where he spends his time convincing insurers, governments, and fintechs that PDFs are not a viable risk management strategy. When not evangelizing about invisible data rails, he enjoys specialty coffee, supply chain metaphors, and quoting 17th-century merchant bylaws at parties (which is why he doesn’t get invited to many).

References

Lloyd’s Blueprint Two Progress Report (2024)
Charles Taylor InsureTech. Delegated Data Manager Overview.
Deloitte (2024). Insurance Data as a Strategic Asset.
TCS (2023). Leveraging Data Insights for Supply-Chain Risk Management.
DC Velocity (2024). Supply-Chain Insurance Procurement: Breaking the Chain of Risk.
Quantexa (2024). Transforming Supply-Chain Risk Management with Data and Technology.
Verida Foundation (2025). Confidential Compute Litepaper.
World Economic Forum (2024). The Future of Digital Trade Infrastructure.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official positions of Lloyd’s of London, Charles Taylor InsureTech, or any party still clinging to PDFs as a data strategy. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy at the time of writing, global trade, insurance regulation, and technical acronyms have a tendency to evolve faster than legacy ERP systems. This article is intended for informational and discussion purposes only and should not be construed as legal, financial, or underwriting advice. If you find yourself quoting it in a board meeting, please do so responsibly—and maybe call Verida first.