USAA Studying How Blockchain Tech Could Decentralize Operations

US insurance giant USAA has reportedly begun investing resources into exploring how to incorporate blockchain technology into its infrastructure.

As reported by Reuters, USAA is in the early stages of seeing how distributed open ledgers could be applied to its business.

The company “has yet to identify how it will implement the technology”, according to the news service. However, USAA managing director of corporate development Alex Marquez said it may examine how blockchains could potentially decentralize its back-office operations.

Marquez told Reuters that the company has a “serious interest” in the technology, noting:

"The fact that we have such a large group of people working on this shows how serious we are about the potential of this technology."

Marquez is said to have stated that the company has no plans to adopt bitcoin as a currency, but that it sees potential avenues for the blockchain to be utilized in some fashion within USAA.

The company’s foray into digital currency began earlier this year when USAA took part in Coinbase’s $75m Series C funding round.

Head of corporate development Vic Pascucci later told CoinDesk in an interview that support for bitcoin grew out of general interest among its customer base.

USAA image via Facebook