Stratumn, Deloitte and Lemonway unveil LenderBot, the first micro-insurance proof of concept for the sharing economy. This partnership demonstrates the potential of new applications and services for the insurance market.
LenderBot allows people to easily enroll in customized “microinsurance” simply by chatting through Facebook Messenger. The goal is to insure high-value items (e.g. cameras, smartphones, tablets) between individuals.
When one person lends an item to another, the bitcoin blockchain serves as the trusted third party in the loan contract. Stratumn provides the tools which establish a Trusted Workflow, where each participant (lender, borrower, insurance company, payment provider) can append signed information to the process. Steps in the process are cryptographically linked together, notarized to the Blockchain, and visible to all parties involved. The blockchain, independent of central authorities, guarantees a stability and immutability of information which to this day had never been attained.
“In the short term, blockchains won't fully disrupt all trusted third parties. To the contrary, in some cases it will facilitate their work around data validation and processing. The blockchain simplifies the transfer of confidence from one service to another. Here we rely on the identification provided by Facebook and LemonWay to create a three-way contract between insured parties and the insurer. This transfer of confidence is reinforced by the use of cryptography and timestamped data in the blockchain. This guarantees data protection and traceability of every step in the subscription of the insurance contract.” says Richard Caetano, CEO of Stratumn.
Through a bot available on Facebook Messenger, the lender and borrower will be able to agree on the terms of a loan and digitally sign the agreement directly by interacting with the bot.
LenderBot also integrates a payment solution by LemonWay. Each step which defines the conditions of the loan and the payment of the insurance contract are notarized in the bitcoin blockchain, and are thus verifiable by all parties in the contract.
Open innovation: a collaboration between startups, consultancy firms, and enterprise
In this partnership, Stratumn brings to Deloitte its technical know-how and blockchain application development platform, while Deloitte brings its knowledge of the world of financial services to make way for a wave of new services for this industry. "Innovation cycles around blockchain technology for players in the financial industry is currently around 24 months, from the initial prototype to applications being put into production. This idea of open innovation between enterprise and startups is to provide a catalyst for blockchain technology infrastructure to enter the market. This partnership will allow us to accelerate our pace of innovation as we bring our platform to market," cadds Richard Caetano.