Why I Advise Etherisc: Interview with Daniel Zakrisson, Co-Founder of Cofound.it

Insurance is needed in order to build trust in the growing blockchain ecosystem.

Recently, we caught up with Daniel Zakrisson, one of the founders of Cofound.it, a platform for enabling startups to connect with experts and early adopters. He is also an advisor at Etherisc, and in this interview, he spoke about the significance of insurance in the developing blockchain space. You may also check out an interview with Ron Bernstein, another advisor at Etherisc.

How did you get interested in blockchain?

I’m one of the creators behind Cofound.it. My journey into the crypto-blockchain space started quite early.

I’ve worked with startups all my life in different positions and in different stages. Seeing a new space like this grow up, be created from scratch, and seeing all the startups come in, that’s what really started my deep interest.

I became active in the blockchain community when the first wave of ICOs came. I started a blog and created a structured evaluation process around blockchain and blockchain financing, which was something that really didn’t exist at the time.

Daniel Zakrisson (Image credit)

This led to what Cofound.it is today, where we work with blockchain startups, help them before and after they get funding, and help them to become successful companies or projects.

How did you learn about Etherisc?

Etherisc came out quite early. They were one of the first projects to actually launch a working DApp.

I’ve been following them from the very early days. It was actually very interesting to watch the space evolve by following Etherisc. We knew about each other for a very long time, even before we began working together, simply because we both were the early entrants into the blockchain system.

Why did you become an advisor at Etherisc?

I want to see the entire blockchain crypto-economy developed. We need infrastructure to develop these economies. There’s a technical infrastructure, but there’s also a services infrastructure, and you need this basic infrastructure in order to have a platform to build on.

In a developed economy, a certain part of that is insurance. In a developed economy today, about 6–9% is insurance. In the blockchain space today, the insurance coverage is comparable to the least developed countries in the world.

In order to make a viable economic system in the crypto-space, we need insurance. This is what Etherisc will be able to provide.

How is Etherisc’s token generating event different?

Right now, we see a lot of experimentation, because this is still a very immature space. We need to have experimentation, but at the same time, we also live in a world where you need to abide by regulations that exist and be compliant. That’s very important, and we need to be serious about it.

Etherisc is trying to be a role model for using state-of-the-art technology and being compliant. They should be given lot of credit for taking the extra effort in what they’re trying to do.

What makes Etherisc relevant right now?

All developed economies need to have insurance. Insurance is what helps to make economies efficient. It also increases trust. What Etherisc is building right now provides a way to enable those important elements in crypto-economies, because this does not exist today.

What would you like to see in the next two years?

This space evolves so quickly, and looking ahead is very hard. For Etherisc, I hope to see two things.

First, I want to see them helping to develop the crypto-economy and realize many of the things that are still needed. We need insurance to have a well-functioning economy. I hope Etherisc becomes one of the standard protocols that enable a decentralized insurance layer on top of the crypto-economy.

Second, I want to see the creation of new types of insurance products for the real world that are possible now because of increased efficiencies and lower costs. There’s penetration into markets where you have digitalization with mobile phones, but you don’t have the built-out infrastructure that exists in more developed economies.

I hope, this also brings benefits to parts of the world that don’t have access to insurance as it is today.

Want details? Watch the video!