In April of 2017, my father had a stroke, his first, while at my house in Texas. I rushed him to the hospital where he received good care. After the initial shock settled down, my father asked that I drive him, in his motor home, to my grandparents house in Arizona. My sister was to fly in and drive him to California where many of his brothers and sisters live. I organized everything and drove him to Arizona.
While at my grandparents home, my grandfather told me about the frustrations he was encountering with the recent passing of his brother. His brother, my great uncle, has passed several months earlier. He related that my great uncle had purchased a life insurance policy and despite my grandfathers best efforts, the company would not payout on the policy. My grandfather was named the executor to his brothers estate and was responsible for settling all of his late brothers affairs, including the insurance policy. He told me he had called the insurance company many times over several months. He had sent two certified and notarized death certificates and the insurance company was now asking for a third. He related how each time he called, the agents would transfer him from person to person without a clear answer. While all of this was going on, the insurance company insisted that the monthly premiums continue to be paid to prevent the policy from lapsing. My grandfather could not understand why the insurance company was being so difficult, I also could not understand. It’s important to note that even though my grandfather is in his 80’s, he remains sharp.
Years ago, I was a licenced insurance agent. I had received a licence to sell Life, Health and Disability insurance, I also held securities licences to sell mutual funds and variable annuities. This insurance company was clearly in the wrong from a moral standpoint and possibly from a legal standpoint. It was also clear that the agents at the insurance company had provided incorrect information, seemingly on purpose. Even so, there was little my grandfather could do. The policy was so small that hiring a lawyer was a poor solution but the value of the policy was still significant enough to make a difference and should be paid.
While traveling back to my home in Texas, I continued to think about the situation my grandfather was encountering. Why was the process so broken? How could it be fixed? In the United States there are large regulatory and enforcement structures in place to prevent these types of situations. Why was the process not working?
In early April 2017, a long time friend and now co-founder posted a message on social media, “Send me your wallet address and I will send you .5 Light coin.” It had been several years since I had thought about cryptocurrencies. The last time I had, I signed up for a CoinBase account and received $10 in free Bitcoin. It had grown to $135, wow! I was interested again. I started reading whitepaper after whitepaper and watched YouTube videos when I was tired of reading. As fate would have it, I had a problem and a potential solution in blockchain technology. What if the solution to my grandfathers problem could be solved by a blockchain?
I spent many more hours, over several weeks, designing smart contract structures in my head, thinking through how to balance the self interests of each party in an insurance contract. Thinking through how to limit fraud and how to create interest in the solution. This has all come together in the Ethereum based project BitLifeAndTrust.
Our aim is to switch the incentives of the insurance industry from being a sells organization to a self-interested community service organization. To do this we have re-engineered how insurance related companies make money. Our whitepaper at bitlifeandtrust.com goes into more detail as to how this will work and I encourage you to read it.
Beginning September 12, 2017, we will begin a Pre-Sale of our project’s utility token. The purpose of creating the token is to generate revenue that can be used to more quickly build out the project, to create awareness and recognition of the project, and to create a foundation for the community to participate.
I am happy to report that my dad is doing great. He has made some healthy changes in his life and most would never know he had a stroke just a few months ago.
Michael Howton Lead Founder — BitLifeAndTrust Project
