Etherisc open sources the Generic Insurance Framework (GIF)

At Etherisc, we are committed to developing the Decentralized Insurance Protocol in order to enable an ecosystem of product builders, risk pools, oracles, claim adjusters, distributors, and underwriters to create insurance applications on the Ethereum blockchain.

One core element of this Protocol is the Generic Insurance Framework (GIF), a combined codebase which includes smart contracts and utility services. Product builders should be able to use this codebase to create full-featured insurance DApps.

The basic idea behind the GIF is to abstract the generic parts which are shared across many different insurance applications, and leave only the product-specific parts like risk model, pricing, and payout configuration to be adjusted. The goal is to enable the quick and easy deployment of working insurance products.

This week, we are starting to release the source code of the GIF. The first part has already been published here: https://github.com/etherisc/GIF

The GIF is distributed under the Apache 2.0 license. Apache 2.0 is a widely used license in the open-source community and approved by the Open Source Initiative. It is a permissive license that allows users to integrate the code into proprietary products. Rather than other “copyleft” licenses (such as the GPL), Apache 2.0 enables distribution of the code under different licenses.

Etherisc has chosen Apache 2.0 because we don’t want to limit the usage of the GIF source code and hinder or slow down commercial adoption of the framework.

Apache 2.0 license summary

For product builders, this choice means that they can freely use, modify, distribute, and sell software built on top of the GIF without worrying about the purpose of their products: personal, internal or commercial. They can redistribute the GIF but they must include a copy of the license and provide modification notes to all the files that they’ve changed.

Product builders can release modified or derived products under other licenses but all the unmodified parts of the GIF must retain the Apache 2.0 license. The modified version cannot be named in a way that implies the product is approved or created by Etherisc.

How you can help

We are looking forward to your feedback and contributions!

Do you like coding? — Take a look at the source code, make improvements and create pull requests.

Do you like writing? — Write a user manual or just describe your experience with the GIF.

Do you like helping people? — Take one of the open issues and answer questions.

If you want to contribute, provide feedback or discuss ideas, please join our Telegram community chat.

When you submit a contribution or question, please:

explain your issue and provide some context.

keep the communication friendly and public.

read the available documentation before asking others for help.

be patient when asking a question, sometimes we can’t answer immediately.

We will deploy an instance of the GIF on testnet very soon, and also follow up with a series of blog posts to cover more aspects of the GIF and how to use it for creating decentralized insurance applications.

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