Meet LenderBot: Stratumn & Deloitte's Blockchain Insurance Bot

Paris-based blockchain application firm Stratumn, in collaboration with Deloitte and Lemonway, has recently unveiled its micro-insurance proof of concept: LenderBot. The LenderBot project enables custom insurance through social media in order to insure lent items between individuals.

Also read: 4 Ways to Buy Weed with Bitcoin, Legally

LenderBot: A Micro-Insurance Proof of Concept by Stratumn

Stratumn was founded by Sebastien Couture, Francois Dorleans, Stephan Florquin, and Richard Caetano in 2015, providing tools to create a trusted workflow without the need for third-parties — other than the Bitcoin blockchain.

Back in March, the company raised $670,000 USD from businesses such as Otium Venture and individuals like Ledger Wallet CEO Eric Larchevêque.

LenderBot allows users to establish the Bitcoin blockchain as the trusted third-party in a loan contract. High-value items can be insured with the bot, such as laptops, cameras, mobile phones and tablets. Users append signed information to the process, which in turn links the items lent cryptographically with timestamps from the blockchain, providing guaranteed immutability. The concept also provides better transparency due to the public nature of the Bitcoin blockchain.

Richard Caetano, CEO of Stratumn, explains:

“In the short term, blockchains won’t fully disrupt all trusted third parties. To the contrary, in some cases, it will facilitate their work around data validation and processing. The blockchain simplifies the transfer of confidence from one service to another. Here we rely on the identification provided by Facebook and LemonWay to create a three-way contract between insured parties and the insurer. This transfer of confidence is reinforced by the use of cryptography and timestamped data in the blockchain. This guarantees data protection and traceability of every step in the subscription of the insurance contract.”

The Paris-based startup wants to push for more interest in platform-as-a-service applications that are tethered to the Bitcoin blockchain.

The company’s platform allows developers to build, run and deploy a wide array of apps that can use the most trusted blockchain within the financial technology environment. Through its newly-conceived bot, available through Facebook’s Messenger app, the parties involved collaborate the terms of a digitally signed agreement. The payment process is handled by Lemonway, which initiates the end payment solution after the contract and notarization finalizes within the Bitcoin blockchain.

The company is also partnering with multinational financial firm Deloitte. Stratumn explains that Deloitte has quite the expertise in the financial landscape and has become a leader in blockchain innovations as well.

Richard Caetano adds, “This partnership will allow us to accelerate our pace of innovation as we bring our platform to market.”

Caetano states that the idea of open innovation between enterprise and startups will be the “catalyst for blockchain technology infrastructure to enter the market.”

Blockchain-based insurance has motivated much interest in this particular field from other agencies, such as EY, PwC, and smaller, legacy institutions.

Traditional insurance depends on a chain of trust between clients and insurers, but Stratumn’s open specification, called “Chainscript,” could change the paradigm in this sector. Utilization of the Bitcoin blockchain allows the service to deploy a trustless environment that benefits both insurers and customers. LenderBot’s micro-insurance concept will be one of the first of its kind to initiate these types of exchanges.

What do you think about Stratumn and Deloitte’s Lenderbot proof-of-concept? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Stratumn, Deloitte, Lemonway, and Pixabay.