During his talk at D1Conf 2018, Matt explained why emerging decentralized trading protocols, token standards, and other open finance instruments can be the foundations for a parallel financial infrastructure on Ethereum. He also shared how these findings helped ConsenSys in development of Asekuro, a protocol for facilitating the distribution of insurance products. These slides are courtesy of Matt Tyndall, ConsenSys

1. Exploring insurance
primitives for blockchain.
Matt Tyndall – ConsenSys
D1Conf 2018

2. primitive = foundational building block
• The establishing of primitives enables BUIDLing
and developer experimentation!
• Consider the ERC20 Token Standard💡

3. Cambrian explosion in decentralized finance
Rapidly growing parallel financial ecosystem!
Plus many more!

4. What’s possible in 2018
• Stable coins (DAI, USDT L, TUSD, GUSD, PAX, USDC) = $1
• Non-custodial/decentralized trade (0x, Airswap, Kyber, Bancor)
• Credit/Loans (MakerDAO, Dharma)
• Derivatives (dYdX sETH, Variabl)
• Token baskets (Set)
• Prediction markets (Augur, Gnosis Olympia)
These are all open primitives, can be combined and used within the decentralized insurance space!

5. DeFi movement
• Interoperability & Open Source
• Accessibility & Financial Inclusion
• Financial Transparency
Read more: https://medium.com/defi-network/opening-defi-42a5afdb71e0
Open primitives can be combined, built on, and used within the decentralized
insurance space!

6. Thinking about insurance for web 3.0
With these tools at our disposal how can we reimagine, improve, and
reinvent insurance in a decentralized world?
🤔 What primitives would help to realize that vision?

7. Introducing Asekuro
• Protocol for insurance distribution
• Based on concepts from 0x and Dharma
• Coordination infrastructure + public policy registry
• Utilizes “relay network”
• New primitives: messaging protocol + policy contract

8. Policy Contract
Generic interface that
specifies the features all
insurance policies must
inherit to be compatible with
Asekuro.

9. Policy Contract =
template for a
particular type of
insurance.

10. Application Order
• Insurance seeker creates a signed Application Order
• Data packet that includes information about an applicant that can be
reviewed by an insurance provider
• Allows insurance seeker to signal preferences and conditions to carrier
(premium token, duration of coverage, etc.)
• Can be posted to “relayer” which maintains order book of Applications
• Application order can be created from:
• Answering traditional form questions
• Chat bot (Lemonade, etc.)
• Completing a “profile”

11. Policy Order (Quote)
• Insurance carrier creates a signed Policy Order
• Basically a bindable quote
• Must reference deployed Policy Contract to be used with
• Pre-commitment to provide insurance policy with given terms
• Can be submitted on-chain by applicant to “start” policy

12. Renters Policy – based on
• Example policy type modeled with Asekuro
• Define terms:
• Coverages & limits: Personal Liability, Personal Property, Loss of Use,
Others medical (denoted in claimToken)
• Premium structure: frequency, payment token
• Deductible
• Claim token
• Duration of coverage

13. Alice
Acme
Insurance
1. Alice creates Application order signaling her request
for Insurance, sends to insurer (or posts to relayer)
Off-chain

14. Alice
Acme
Insurance
2. Insurer reviews Application and can return a signed
Policy Order (Quote) defining terms offered
Off-chain

15. Alice
Acme
Insurance
3. Alice can review Quote(s) received and instantly
accept policy by sending to Asekuro smart contracts
Asekuro
smart
contracts
On-chain

16. 4. Asekuro Broker contract validates submitted
PolicyOrder signatures, and if valid creates Entry in
Policy Registry contract
Asekuro
Broker.sol
Policy
Registry.sol
On-chain

17. 5. PolicyRegistry mints NFT token representing newly
bound policy and transfers to Insurer
(bearer of policy token receives Premium payments)
Policy
Registry.
sol
Acme
Insurance
Policy
Token
On-chain

18. Policy Placement on Asekuro
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Applicant
(Insured)
Submit
Application
Review
Expire
Sign Quote
(Private
Key)
Receive
Policy
Docs
Reject
Accept
Carrier
(Insurer)
Review
Revise
Produce
Quote
Sign
(Private
Key)
Issue
Policy
Ignore
Accept
Third Party
Underwriter Review
Produce
Quote
Smart
Contract
(Blockchain)
Bind Policy
On-Chain
APPLICATION
Created Reviewed Accepted
QUOTE
Produced Signed Reviewed Accepted
POLICY
Bound Issued Received

19. Limitless possibilities
• Create nearly limitless types of Policy Contracts
• Term Life, fully collateralized Parameteric/Index, etc.
• Individual implementations specify how the policy operates, just need
to inherit base PolicyContract
• Agnostic to actual claims management– fully decentralized on-chain
or off-chain settlement

20. Supported by relay network
• Relayer =
non-custodial 2-sided
marketplace
• Maintain order books of
Applications & Quotes
• Start your own!

21. Learn more
• https://github.com/ConsenSys/a
sekuro-contracts
• Javascript library for interacting
with protocol and additional
documentation coming very
soon
• Looking for feedback!
• Sound interesting? We’re hiring!
Contact
Matt Tyndall
@Matrick
Matt.tyndall@consensys.net