Matt Peterman on Social Proof Insurance and Dispute Resolution

Read with full transcript in our blog

InsurePal CEO Matt Peterman presented his project’s approach to reinforcing trust and reducing uncertainty in business transactions through a peer-to-peer insurance platform using blockchain and smart contracts. At the heart of InsurePal’s design is “social proof,” whereby friends and associates can endorse an individual’s credibility, facing reputational or financial penalties if that individual fails to perform. Such a system could be used to increase trust in business deals (endorsing an individual’s trustworthiness), or to lower the cost of motor insurance (endorsing an individual’s driving skills).

Peterman invited Mattereum CEO Vinay Gupta on stage to help provide an overview of the dispute resolution process. A Ricardian contract, a combination of a natural language contract and executable code, forms the basis of a financial agreement over which the parties might come into dispute. A mediator can help the parties resolve the matter amongst themselves in the event of a mere misunderstanding or mistake. If the dispute is not resolved, then the matter goes to binding arbitration. Gupta then elaborated on how a P2P insurance platform would need to scale to keep a sustainable balance between the size of the insurance pool and the cost borne by the individual.