Web3 Insurtech Project Showcase

We’re still processing all the alpha that was gathered at the Avalanche Summit. It was amazing to feel the explosive development of this community that makes you realize that the future is already old. Yes, the center of attention revolved around the growth of subnets and the opportunities this brings to the GameFi realm, interoperability-focused protocols, DeFi, e-wallets & more. However, we detected that some key insights are going unnoticed by the majority.

There’s a massive opportunity in an industry ready to explode: The power of Insurance products in DeFi and how this not only protects degens from volatility & exploits but also impacts people’s lives outside of crypto.

Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition

During the Summit, the Lemonade Foundation announced its first web3 experiment: Lemonade Crypto Climate Coalition, a newly formed DAO in the Avalanche ecosystem.

The goal is to build & distribute at-cost, instantaneous, parametric weather insurance to subsistence farmers and livestock keepers in emerging markets leveraging smart contracts in a proof-of-stake blockchain while maintaining accessibility as settlement can happen both in crypto or fiat.

Translated into real-life use cases, the protocol will roll out permissionless weather insurance to farmers and they will be able to make and receive payments with ease from their phone using stablecoins or local currencies, much as they do for banking and payments today. An initial rollout in Africa is expected within the year.

As Coindesk states (and we’ve written about this in the past), insurance protocols represent a relatively nascent niche application in the crypto space, but it’s evident that it can revolutionize a trillion-dollar industry that is often plagued by slow payouts and disputes between counterparties. Not to mention that in emerging markets, the small transaction size of microinsurance doesn’t make it financially attractive to TradFi, so locals can’t even find these products in circulation. In low-income countries, less than 3% of the farmer population ends up obtaining agricultural insurance.

This initiative brings together industry-leading partners with expertise in Blockchain, Insurtech, AI & DAO’s infrastructure. This is great news as DeFi Insurance is bringing awareness and we are talking about the biggest players out there; alongside the Lemonade Foundation, founding coalition members include Avalanche, Chainlink, DAOstack, Etherisc, Pula and Tomorrow.io.

“By using a DAO instead of a traditional insurance company, smart contracts instead of insurance policies and oracles instead of claims professionals, we expect to harness the communal and decentralized aspects of Web 3 and real-time weather data to deliver affordable and instantaneous climate insurance to the people who need it most” Daniel Schreiber, Lemonade Foundation Director

Web3 will change the world as we know it and scaling DeFi solutions to TradFi will be one of the main steps. Doesn’t this sound familiar? We are building a distribution gateway in multiple layers that will connect financial products with crypto & fiat Audiences. We recently launched our marketplace where DeFi token holders get to purchase real-world financial products.

Other high impact insurance protocols:

InSure DeFi

inSure DeFi, one of the biggest crypto insurance projects by community growth, announced last year their cross-chain expansion to Avalanche with the launch of a community covered insurance plan.

inSure Defi Roadmap snapshot, Q1 2023 looks promising for TradFi revolution

It’s about time we start looking at protocols like that with real-world connectivity. Luckily we already have some infrastructure makers that can help us build & scale these products fast enough.

Degis

Project Degis is an “all-in-one” insurance market striving to protect users against various risks and it’s considered to be the first native protection project built on Avalanche. Apart from degen coverage (price volatility of crypto assets, impermanent loss, wallet hazards), the project has long-term goals of on-chain real world asset insurance issuance, including life insurance, home insurance, flight delay insurance, and more. In fact, Miserable Flight is one of their first products where buyers will be compensated (instant payout) if a real-world flight is delayed.

“Degis brings several innovative ideas. One is to move traditional insurance product on-chain, which is something that other insurance protocols haven’t done yet” Pero, Degis CMO

The project just launched their mainnet some days ago and Discord moderators commented that they’re collecting data and doing research to make other off-chain products in the future.

Etherisc

Etherisc is building a platform for decentralized insurance applications. It’s a protocol to collectively build insurance products. Common infrastructure, product templates and insurance license-as-a-service make this platform unique, allowing anyone to create their own insurance products and by that, making insurance fair and accessible. Corporates, large and small, not-for-profit groups and insurtech startups can all come together to provide better financial products.

Here’s a snapshot of some of their products. Again, it’s amazing to see how DeFi has the potential to drive financial inclusion in developing countries and projects like Verso will make it happen.

Verso

Verso facilitates the scaling of financial products that are created by the likes of Degis, inSure DeFi and Lemonade.

Instead of having every product provider implement each of their products to each eWallet or eCommerce platform, Verso does it for them.

Our Marketplace is the first place where users can purchase such products, but it does not necessarily display all products that will ever be distributed by Verso. Some might only be distributed to a specific eWallet or eCommerce platform.

The ultimate goal, however, is to offer the maximum amount of embedded products into the maximum number of channels, bringing easy access to financial products to everyone.

Our main focus right now is on microfinance products, and we plan to take financial inclusion to scale by eliminating intermediaries & taking care of the current complexity and cost of integrations. Q1 has been great and we are excited to enter Phase 3 of our development.

For more insights on the insurtech industry, follow our Fintech Expert & Ecosystem Development Lead, Pascal Kurzawa. You will find awesome threads on the future of Insurtech & how blockchain is revolutionizing this industry.