On-Chain Insurance meets Privacy

Nsure Network and the Oasis Protocol Foundation join forces to allow for the first privacy-enabled decentralized insurance protocol.

Nsure.Network
Oasis Foundation
Published in
4 min readDec 17, 2020

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Nsure Network and the Oasis Protocol Foundation join forces to allow for the first privacy-enabled decentralized insurance protocol. Thanks to the Oasis Network’s privacy-as-a-service infrastructure, Nsure will be able to deploy its insurance protocol on a privacy-friendly environment, where concepts such as claim processing and participation can take place without leaving user’s privacy exposed, while allowing for sensitive data sets to be queried.

On the verge of a boom in innovation towards a new segment of financial products, DeFi has proven so far its potential on disrupting existing financial structures. Nsure Network is set to grant access and raise insurance standards with a sophisticated risk marketplace, derived from the model of Lloyd’s of London. Premiums are determined by an innovative Dynamic Pricing Model approach, while Capital Mining is implemented to secure capital required to optimize MCR ratio and capital efficiency at any point of time.

The DeFi vertical has seen rapid development over the past year. The level of sophistication in products related to Decentralized Finance is increasing, and so is the code these are built on. New concepts and approaches are being taken in regards to smart contract applications, and the amount of capital deployed on them is on the rise (e.g. DeFi TVL data). These complex structures at a protocol level together with rising capital engagement represent a clear risk for participants to suffer from incidents like exploits, whether intentional or not. While traditional insurance providers have not entered this market providing coverage, users are left with the alternative of decentralized insurance protocols, which currently suffer from undersupply, with less than 1% of Total Value Locked in DeFi eligible for insurance coverage at the time of writing.

Nsure, a platform with its beta launch on Ethereum, certainly encounters the pros and cons of public blockchain transparency. Thanks to the Oasis Network’s native privacy, Nsure will be able to provide on-chain insurance, with the added feature of preserving user-privacy.

On the Oasis Network, users will no longer expose their cover amount and address when purchasing cover, preserving privacy on their engagement and financial data.

“Oasis is very excited to partner with the fast growing insurance player Nsure”, said Luca Cosentino, DeFi Product Lead at Oasis. “Respecting the privacy of users is not only a matter of fairness but also an enabler of a new set of incentives that create much stronger collaboration between users, protocols, and applications”.

Bringing independent research results to Underwriting

Nsure’s underwriting model is based on the concept of game theory, as the capacity of each insurance product relies on staked Nsure tokens from risk-takers. We expect underwriters and the sophistication of their strategies to increase as competition increases, taking exposure based on their own perception and evaluation of risks in comparison to estimated returns. Successful strategies can be deciphered on Ethereum-like public chains, by looking at staked token amounts. These reflect the research and strategy of an Underwriter. With the Oasis Network’s privacy technology is yet another example of how sensitive data can be preserved.

“When it comes to building a risk marketplace offering insurance solutions for decentralised protocols, its accessibility should be discretionary for users among different blockchains. After considering implementation on different layer one protocols, the Oasis Network and its on-demand privacy feature is one of the best structures we have come across with. Privacy opens up a new spectrum of opportunities and features, allowing insurance to be purchased/underwritten in a game-changing environment”, commented Alvaro Fernandez, Head of Strategy at Nsure Network.

Fair & privacy-preserving claim assessment

Nsure’s claim assessments include a section where claim assessors can access the filed claim and broadcast their decision related to a given claim submission. This being a key step influencing the final result during claim assessments, it would enhance neutralism of the process, e.g. having voting results kept private while the voting is on-going.

Over the long term, Oasis & Nsure are committed to working together and exploring alternative ways to offer dedicated insurance for different verticals, moving beyond smart-contract exploitability.

By allowing for data to be utilized by Nsure for risk assessment purposes while preserving privacy, users could be able to benefit from accurately priced on-chain insurance coverage for external events.

About Oasis Network

The Oasis Foundation is an organization supporting the development and ecosystem surrounding the Oasis Network. The Oasis Network is the first privacy-enabled blockchain platform for open finance and a responsible data economy. Designed to give users back control and ownership of their data and financial sovereignty, the Foundation’s mission is to enable projects, developers and community members who seek to realize this vision. To learn more about the Oasis Network go to oasisprotocol.org or follow the Foundation on Twitter or Telegram.

To learn more, visit: ​https://www​.oasisprotocol.org

About Nsure

Nsure is an open insurance platform for Open Finance (DeFi). The project is inspired by Lloyd’s of London, a market place to trade insurance risks, where premiums are determined by a dynamic pricing model. Capital mining is implemented to secure the capital required to back the risks at any point of time. To learn more about Nsure Network go to Nsure.Network or follow us on: Medium | Github | Discord | Twitter | Telegram | 中文群

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