{"id":4687,"date":"2018-01-19T11:00:41","date_gmt":"2018-01-19T05:30:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/?p=4687"},"modified":"2022-01-25T13:56:58","modified_gmt":"2022-01-25T08:26:58","slug":"atlas-etherisc-another-new-kid-on-the-blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/19\/atlas-etherisc-another-new-kid-on-the-blockchain\/","title":{"rendered":"Atlas Etherisc \u2013 Another New Kid On The Blockchain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>At the end of my blog post entitled\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/05\/axa-fizzy-the-new-kid-on-the-blockchain\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>AXA Fizzy &#8211; The New Kid On The Blockchain<\/strong><\/a>, I&#8217;d promised to answer the \u201cWhy Blockchain?\u201d question in a follow-on post.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not fulfilling that promise yet.<\/p>\n<p>Frequent readers of this blog would be aware that it&#8217;s light on research and heavy on personal experience and anecdotal evidence.<\/p>\n<p>For reasons highlighted in my previous post, I couldn&#8217;t &#8211; and still can&#8217;t &#8211; buy an AXA Fizzy insurance policy. Nor could I find anyone else who has bought one. Without personal experience or anecdotal evidence, I found it hard to deep-dive into the &#8220;Why Blockchain?&#8221; subject. Since writing a post entirely on the basis of desktop research is not my style, I was about to can my follow-on post.<\/p>\n<p>Until I found another Blockchain flight delay insurance product that I could &#8220;test drive&#8221; a couple of weeks ago.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ATLAS-ETHERISC-fi.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-4703 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ATLAS-ETHERISC-fi.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"630\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ATLAS-ETHERISC-fi.jpg 630w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/ATLAS-ETHERISC-fi-200x89.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 630px) 100vw, 630px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>This is from an unnamed company whose\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/fdd.etherisc.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>website<\/strong><\/a> features a origami bird as its logo but lacks any other branding. According to the fineprint on the homepage, it&#8217;s powered by one etherisc.com, whose website says it&#8217;s a provider of &#8220;decentralized insurance&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;d actually stumbled onto this website soon after I heard about AXA Fizzy.\u00a0At the time, it allowed purchase of flight delay insurance on many sectors, including BOM and DEL airports in India &#8211; unlike AXA Fizzy, which offers policies only on flights to and from CDG. However, it accepted only ETH payments.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">EtherIsc offers &quot;Flight Delay Insurance&quot; on more sectors than AXA Fizzy &#8211; but requires alt-coin payment. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/G4VQjzHVLq\">https:\/\/t.co\/G4VQjzHVLq<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/tkchBAz4uj\">pic.twitter.com\/tkchBAz4uj<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; GTM360 (@GTM360) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GTM360\/status\/916279491852488704?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 6, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>On my next visit to this website, only to find that it now offered policies only on flights in and out of SFO. So, once again, I couldn&#8217;t buy insurance on a sector originating from BOM or DEL in India.<\/p>\n<p>But on this visit, I saw an addition to the fineprint: The website said its policies were issued by one <em>Atlas Insurance PCC Limited<\/em>, an insurance company based out of Malta. Absent any brand name on the website, I&#8217;ll refer to this product \/ company as &#8220;Atlas Etherisc&#8221; going forward.<\/p>\n<p>A few days after publishing\u00a0<strong>AXA Fizzy &#8211; The New Kid On The Blockchain<\/strong>, I happened to visit Atlas Etherisc\u2019s website again. This time, it offered insurance on BOM \/ DEL sectors and accepted fiat currency payments in USD \/ EUR \/ GBP.\u00a0I decided to apply for a policy for the BOM-FRA sector on Lufthansa LH757 flight. The premium and payouts are shown in Exhibit 1.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4690\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4690\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-04-USD-abridged.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4690\" src=\"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-04-USD-abridged.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-04-USD-abridged.jpg 446w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-04-USD-abridged-200x187.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4690\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exhibit 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>When I entered my credit card details to make the US$ 17 payment and hit the &#8220;Apply&#8221; button, the website went into a tizzy and displayed a message saying \u201cWaiting for transaction to be mined\u201d (see Exhibit 2).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4691\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4691\" style=\"width: 490px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-09-abridged.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4691\" src=\"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-09-abridged.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"462\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-09-abridged.jpg 695w, https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/etherisc-flight-delay-insurance-09-abridged-200x185.jpg 200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4691\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Exhibit 2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I guess that was the process of writing the transaction on the Blockchain.<\/p>\n<p>This message was still there after five hours. (Now I get why system architects recommend centralized database if performance is key.)<\/p>\n<p>I don&#8217;t know whether Atlas issued a policy in my name or successfully registered the transaction on the Blockchain.<\/p>\n<hr style=\"width: 70%;\" \/>\n<p>I now have personal experience of an insurance dApp. I hope to get some anecdotal evidence about dApps in the coming days. In the meanwhile, I also gained some more experience on a conventional insurance website.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to all this, I feel adequately geared up to deep dive into the &#8220;centralized versus decentralized app&#8221; subject and finally fulfill my promise to write that elusive follow-on post on the &#8220;Why Blockchain?&#8221; question. (Spoiler Alert: We&#8217;ll see another example of\u00a0<a title=\"Permanent Link to Hiding Your Secret Sauce\" href=\"http:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/06\/hiding-your-secret-sauce\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"bookmark noopener\">Hiding Your Secret Sauce<\/a>.)<\/p>\n<p>Stay tuned!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the end of my blog post entitled\u00a0AXA Fizzy &#8211; The New Kid On The Blockchain, I&#8217;d promised to answer the \u201cWhy Blockchain?\u201d question in a follow-on post. I&#8217;m not fulfilling that promise yet. Frequent readers of this blog would be aware that it&#8217;s light on research and heavy on personal experience and anecdotal evidence. &#8230; <a title=\"Atlas Etherisc \u2013 Another New Kid On The Blockchain\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/2018\/01\/19\/atlas-etherisc-another-new-kid-on-the-blockchain\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Atlas Etherisc \u2013 Another New Kid On The Blockchain\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6,14,13,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-b2-product-v-services","category-bfsi","category-cx","category-product","category-mandatory-category"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4687"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9060,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4687\/revisions\/9060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gtm360.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}