Russian software architects and entrepreneurs Alex Paperno, Eugene Porubaev and Vlad Kravchuk plan to take the insurance company out of insurance. Their Teambrella , a Bitcoin-based peer-to-peer insurance platform, allows users to provide each other coverage for whatever they want, however they want, and without requiring any trusted intermediaries.
Paperno: “Anyone who ever needed a reimbursement knows that insurance companies are actually not interested in paying out at all; it’s not in their benefit to help their customers. We intend to remove that conflict of interest, and make insurance fair and transparent.” “Team Coverage”
So, what is Teambrella?
In essence, Teambrella is a platform that allows people to form teams that offer each other coverage. If one person within that team requires reimbursement, the rest of the team chips in to provide it.
Speaking to Bitcoin Magazine , Paperno explained: “As opposed to a typical insurance, Teambrella team members don’t pay a set periodical fee, but instead deposit funds into a special Bitcoin wallet. As long as there are sufficient funds in this wallet, that team member is insured. Or, if there’s ‘insufficient’ funds in the wallet for full coverage, the team member is simply partly insured.” Each Teambrella Bitcoin wallet is linked to a specific team member, but locked using multi-signature. The funds on that wallet can be spent only if both the insured team member, and three out of eight semi-randomly selected teammates, sign for it. As such, neither the insured person nor his team can withdraw bitcoins from the wallet without help from the other. (But typically, a team member should be able to exit a team whenever he wants to; there’s no reason for his team to lock him in.)
“If the team then collectively decides that a team member has a right to reimbursement, all team members are […]
