ICO Review — InsureX
Overview
Symbol — IXT
Crowdsale closing date — 31. Jul 2017
Country of origin — London, UK
Technology — Blockchain,Ethereum
My View
This ICO seems to be targeted more towards Institutional Investors rather than retail and it is with good reason, their target audience are insurers, re-insurers and brokers and I am sure in their pre-sale and crowd sale they will target these clients. There are many Insurance Industry players who have been working how to use Blockchain in Insurance but InsureX is a DAPP that can disrupt this market and I am sure with this product there will be a more transparent market for Insurance Brokerage & Re-Insurance backed by Ethereum Blockchain.
But I have some concerns for which I hope they address in future:
- If their product is Alpha ready will it be an open SASS / DAPP platform or will it be a closed B2B platform, if so then going via VC route for funding would have been a better step.
- Their page is more like a landing page to attract a crowd sale than really a company to really build a real startup. And as a website and as a platform from their whitepaper much seems to be done and their roadmap seemed very aggressive. Which I am not sure seemed achievable.
- In their Website and in their whitepaper the architecture explanation for me was not extensive and as they are planning to use Ethereum, in what capacity they will use Ethereum and in what capacity Orient DB will be used is not clear.
- 70% of the ICO will go into team expansion which is a significant cost rather than developing the product and that is something investors and ICO participants should keep in mind.
- Finally which segments of the Insurance are going to be supported by the platform is very high level and given that Insurance Industry is known for creating complex financial products and instruments it remains to be seen up to what extent this platform can support it.
The good thing about this team is that it has the right mix of Talents from Insurance Industry and Blockchain Technology in their core team and the Advisory Board boats some good names in Insurance & Cryptocurrency Industry.
Problem Statement
I feel ICO has lot of promise and based on the team and the target industry, this ICO has a great potential to disrupt the industry and open opportunities. Hence it should be a great asset in anyone’s ICO portfolio.
Analysis
The insurance industry as whole has not yet adopted or embraced new technology to meet the demand of new products and the increasing concerns about data privacy. Increased competition and changes in consumer behavior are moving them in this direction.
Insurance processes that manage risk, premiums and claims typically involve a significant exchange of data between multiple parties. Currently, the different parties would store their own copies of data, and process it individually. This makes it difficult to synchronize and collaborate through a shared process
The Solution
InsureX is a marketplace for insurers, reinsurers and brokers to trade insurance products directly. Their use of blockchain technology streamlines the downstream processes for programs, policies, premiums and claims.
Value Proposition
Buy and Sell Insurance
Bringing these participants together directly results in an efficient, cost-effective and transparent marketplace. Smart contracts provide support for streamlined processes between multiple parties.
Portfolio Management
Platform Features
Transaction Execution
Companies who have insurance products they wish to sell would list them on the market. Companies who wish to buy insurance would use the search or get notified of the listing.
Market Insights
In order to organise your transactions they can be structured as portfolios. High-level, aggregated information for the transactions is available.
When a suitable insurance product is found the participants begin the process of exchanging the required information. Each step is tracked in the platform.
In order to see what is on offer, and gain an understanding of the market, a rich and powerful dashboard gives you a real-time view.
Target Audience
Current
B2B =>
- Reinsurer. Buy insurance programs or selling i.e. retrocession
- insurance. Insurers. Sell insurance products to reinsurers i.e. risk
- transfer. Brokers. Provide tailormade structures and other services.
- General Companies. Companies who wish to insure their goods,
- property or people will be able to join the platform.
Future
There are many areas they aim to expand into once the initial platform is rolled out:
- Independent risk and valuation services.
- Direct consumer products.
- Automated brokering service.
Key Components
Technology
Their platform leverages the Ethereum blockchain and its smart contracts which provide a comprehensive development environment and a large community
The InsureX architecture is a cutting edge stack consisting of React, NodeJS, Ethereum Blockchain and OrientDB.
- Private, High-Performance Storage: In order to process certain transactions, private and confidential information is required to be stored and exchanged. Their storage is a secured NoSQL data fabric. It compliments the blockchain network by providing fast access to data such as medical records or other confidential information. Multiple levels of security,external authentication and strong usage profiling are included.
- Application Stack: The UI is implemented using React which is fast and responsive. they use a Node.js backend which handles most of the business logic. The React and Node.js combination has proven to be a very fast, lightweight and
- robust approach.
- Data and API Services: InsureX will generate large amounts of data which will be of huge value to their customers. The data will provide a market insight which does not exist today. External companies are able to utilise this data as part of their solutions, even if they are not directly using the InsureX marketplace. Parts of their software will be open source, available to other insurance solution vendors to use. By doing this they aim to create a strong ecosystem and with an active community of adopters
IXT — The InsureX Token
The IXT Token is used to power the InsureX platform and works as a mean to reward or get rewarded for participation in the marketplace. Each activity on the platform has an associated cost specified in IXT. As activities are carried out on the platform, IXT is transferred from one participant to another. As a result of executing these activities, the platform will be rewarded a fee.
The tokens serve several functions in their environment:
- Transaction execution reward
- Reward for providing data
- Platform access
- API licences
Getting IXT IXT can be bought from the InsureX platform or from most token exchanges. IXT Crowdsale
IXT Token Burn
Of all fees collected by the platform, a portion is burnt. This introduces a predictable and effective reward structure for using IXT. The remainder is reinvested in the operation and growth of the platform.
IXT will be issued during their crowdsale. Once completed, no further tokens will be generated. The sale will last three weeks from the 11th of July to the 31th of July.
Note: Ownership of IXT carries no rights other than the right to exchange and claim over the platform. IXT does not represent or confer any ownership right or stake, share or security or equivalent rights, intellectual property rights or any other form of participation relating to the InsureX Platform. IXT Bonus Model
- A maximum of 130,000,000 IXT tokens will be generated, of those
- 30,000,000 tokens will be kept as reserve.
- A maximum of 100,000,000 IXT will be sold during the crowdsale, any
- remaining tokens will be burned.
- This would result in a total pool of 70,000,000 which equals to the
- number of sold tokens plus the InsureX reserve of 30,000,000.
Tokens will be issued in 5 tiers, each with an associated bonus model.
The base price of IXT is 1,125 per ETH. The price for each tier is calculated on a bonus model and the distribution of the tiers is based on a first-come-first-serve basis. Early investment will benefit from the highest bonus, which will diminish down to 0% bonus at the last tier.
Tier Ether Amount Number of Tokens Bonus IXT Per ETH
1 1,634 2,500,000 36% 1 ETH — 1,530 IXT
2 1,852 2,500,000 20% 1 ETH — 1,350 IXT
3 15,456 20,000,000 15% 1 ETH — 1,294 IXT
4 20,392 25,000,000 9% 1 ETH — 1,226 IXT
IXT Distribution
5 — Remaining IXT 0% 1 ETH — 1,125 IXT
If by the end of the crowdsale the initial goal is not reached then all funds are returned to their respective owners. InsureX reserves the right to change the number of tokens in the tiers before the crowdsale begins.
- Crowdsale Pool: maximum of 100,000,000 IXT.
- InsureX Reserve: 20,000,000 IXT. This portion will be allocated to reward early adopters and provide liquidity to the market if required.
- InsureX Team: 10,000,000 IXT. This will be allocated as rewards for advisors and team.
Roadmap
Budget Allocation
The funding raised through the crowdsale will be used to accelerate the building of the InsureX platform to move it from Beta into Production in partnership with a number of insurance and reinsurance partners during Q4–2017.Pending on the success of the crowdsale, the distribution of funds will mainly go towards development, infrastructure and key hires such as senior actuaries, underwriters and brokers.
- R&D . Research into blockchain technology and insurance markets.
- Prototype . The development team starts to work on a first prototype of the product.
- Establish partnerships . Establish relationships with people from the insurance and blockchain industry.
- Funding . Launching of the crowdsale campaign.
- Team expansion . Insurex will expand the development team and hire experts in the insurance and development sectors.
- MVP . Fully functional version of the platform with minimal functionality.
- Sign up 10 clients . Having 10 clients using the platform in daily operation.
- Extend downstream processes .
- Service organisation . Set up a support team to help clients.
- General availability . Initial version available for all the client.
Go to market . Establish a sales and support organisation. Scale the platform . Ensure the platform can scale up.
Team Members
Ingemar Svensson — Founder & CEO/CTO
Cristina Dolan — Co-founder & COO
Mikael Olofsson — Co-founder & Entrepreneur in Residence
Valdi Kamenarov — Architect
Nicolas Cherence — Lead Ethereum Developer
Charlotte Holmen — Lead UX Developer
Advisory Board:
Ross Campbell — Chief Underwriter General Re, London
Nick Pester — Partner, Head Of Insurance & InsurTech at Capital Law LLP, London
Timo Schlaefer — Co-founder / CEO Crypto Facilities Ltd, London
Ransu Salovaara — Senior Adviser & CEO TokenMarket
Part of the core-team is from Finserve which provides Blockchain solutions, Insurance Risk and a Data & Analytics product for Financial Sector which is a really good for the platform as it is backed by a veteran in Blockchian Industry and Insurance Industry.
Reference:
Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com on June 27, 2017.
