Etherisc is a decentralized insurance platform and protocol. It addresses issues for expanding the scope of smart contracts in real-world applications.
The role of smart contracts in Insurance
Etherisc is a protocol for building smart contracts for risk monitoring, modeling and decentralized applications (Dapps) for insurance products. A Dapp is formally defined as a piece of software, which includes a user interface and a decentralized back end that makes use of the Ethereum blockchain and smart contracts An Etherisc insurance application, for example Flight Delay, runs on the EVM blockchain and can be used without human interface to automatically, reliably, and securely trade, issue, and settle payouts for flight delay insurance contracts over the internet.
The Etherisc protocol standardizes the syntax for creating insurance products from smart contract-based infrastructure. A necessary external component of such contracts is the use of 3rd party data sources for triggering contracts via APIs, which are called “oracles”. Etherisc applies smart contracts to encode an entire insurance workflow from policy pricing, to issuance, to claims, and settlement.
Decentralized blockchain-based approach to insurance is to decrease the conflict of interests embedded in ordinary insurance contracts, in which insurance firms are profit-maximizing and design overly restrictive contracts because of a financial interest to not pay out claims. The incentive derived from utility for each party in a contractor (i.e. insurance provider) and the insured are completely different. By using the blockchain to automate insurance transactions and record critical data on the blockchain.
Current products built on the Etherisc platform
Flight Delay, HurricaneGuard, Collateral Protection, Crop Insurance, and Social Insurance. Each product uses modified smart contracts with a backend of the Etherisc protocol, Ethereum blockchain and 3rd-party APIs to price, underwrite, monitor, trigger, and payout.
