Time: March 9th, 2023. 1pm UTC
Venue: Bella Protocol Telegram Group
Fay Fu:
Hello everyone. This is Fay with Bella Protocol, and the host of today’s AMA. Nice to e-meet y’all here!
Today, we are glad to have Dan Thomson, CMO of InsurAce, in our channel to share his insights on various topics in the DeFi field. InsurAce is Bella’s close friend and partner, and a leading decentralized insurance cover protocol.
📅 Before we start, I’d like to share the agenda of today’s AMA. There will be 3 sessions:
💬 Session 1: 5 questions about InsurAce and the industry
💬 Session 2: 2 selected questions on Twitter
💬 Session 3: The guest will select 3 questions from the group and answer them directly
Let’s go now!🚀
Hello Dan @vagrantcrypto! Welcome to Bella community, how are you doing today?
Dan:
Hey everyone, thanks for having me today, great to share what we do at InsurAce with the Bella Community.
I hope I’ve got some useful information for everyone to get stuck into
Fay Fu:
Pleasure to have you in our group 🙂 Dan!
First off, could you please introduce yourself?
Dan:
Sure!
I’m Dan Thomson, the CMO (Marketing, BD & Partnerships) for InsurAce.io.
I am originally from London, but I spend my time nomadding around the world following crypto conferences now…. Currently in India.
I have a background in growing companies across Europe and have been in crypto since 2015 when I bought my first Bitcoin. Since then I have gone on to launch one of Europe’s first crypto Index Funds based out of Gibraltar, and then moved into DeFi which is when I came across InsurAce and the DeFi insurance sector. It’s now coming up on two years working at InsurAce, and it’s been quite a ride.
Fay Fu:
Thanks for the introduction! That’s hell of experience you have!
Guess it’s a nice warm-up for you and our group members both. Now, let’s get into Session 1. Ready?
Here goes the first question: Can you tell us briefly about InsurAce and what it does
Dan:
InsurAce (www.InsurAce.io) is a DeFi insurance protocol covering your assets from hacker attacks and bugs in smart contracts that may result in losses to your assets, we also cover custody insurance for funds kept on exchanges (like FTX), as well as Stablecoin De-Peg events (like $UST), and IDO failure events. From as little as 2% annually you can guarantee your assets’ security and have peace-of-mind.
To date, InsurAce has covered over $350m of assets on 150 different protocols across 20 different public blockchain networks. We paid out nearly $12m to victims of the $UST de-peg event, showing that DeFi insurance can and does work.
We will be adding more types of insurance in the future including Bridge cover, Slashing Cover, Rug-Pull, Market Volatility, NFT insurance amongst others.
We actually have an announcement for a new cover type in the next 24 hours so I’m sure I’ll be able to share a bit about that later.
Fay Fu:
A new cover type in 24 hours! wow that’s exciting indeed! But let’s touch that later. Now that you mentioned something we all care to know, let’s start with that.
Interesting that you mentioned FTX.
Although might not necessarily be good news for some FTX users, but congrats on the most recent FTX payout, I’m sure it’s very meaningful for the InsurAce community.
Could you elaborate the recent FTX claim payout, what are the implications for decentralized insurance industry, what did InsurAce learn from this, and how do you guys plan to leverage this experience to further improve?
Dan:
yeah sure, it’s definitely an important issue, something that a lot of people in the space are still suffering from
The recent FTX claim payout by InsurAce is an important milestone for us as a company, and we’re pleased to have been able to provide a quick and efficient resolution for our customers.
We are proud to be one of the few insurance providers to have covered FTX in the first place, and we were able to successfully process and pay out claims related to this event.
The implications of this payout are twofold.
Firstly, it demonstrates the importance of insurance in the rapidly-evolving crypto space. As more and more people invest in cryptocurrencies, the risks associated with them also increase, and insurance can help to mitigate these risks. This is not the first time it has happened and I dont think it will be the last. So it is good that these types of solutions now exist for users. Previously, victims of Mt Gox and other exchange exploits and failures were not covered.
Secondly, it highlights the need for insurance providers to be agile and responsive in their operations. In the world of crypto, events can happen quickly and unpredictably, and insurance providers must be able to keep up with these developments.
At InsurAce, we’re constantly striving to improve our processes and better serve our customers. We’re taking this experience with FTX as a learning opportunity to identify areas where we can improve our operations, such as in our claims handling and customer communication. We’re also looking at ways to further strengthen our underwriting capabilities, so that we can continue to provide comprehensive coverage for the rapidly-changing crypto landscape.
We’re committed to continuing to innovate and improve our services, and we look forward to playing an important role in the ongoing development of the crypto insurance industry.
This has been shown by our latest series of updates over the past year that have improved our protocol, policies, systems, and customer service greatly.
Fay Fu:
Indeed indeed. When we feel sorry for the victims of failed platforms such as FTX and MtGox, we shall all be precautious for ourselves too.
But, unfortunately, the importance of insurance is not yet fully understood by most the crypto-ers. So, to help our community members here to better understand and more importantly, better prepared, can you explain in a nutshell how insurance works? And what kind of coverages InsurAce offers?
Dan:
Yeah it’s always a tough question on how to educate around something that people usually dont consider.
Insurance is an afterthought usually, and in an industry as fun as crypto where huge gains are to be made, sometimes people dont like to think about costs
Decentralized insurance works by sharing the financial risks between many users (both customers and stakers), insuring their assets on many protocols, as well as stakers (underwriting miners) who are incentivized by high yield rewards for providing liquidity.
The rewards are generated from both the premium income and also investments made by the reserve capital in the liquidity pools (this part is still upcoming, but will be launched in the near future)
This all helps to give participants greater rewards, whilst reducing the overall premiums paid by the insurance customer.
In the result of a hack or a bug, where funds are lost in one of the protocols, then the users can simply submit a claim through our easy-to-use protocol and our token holders govern the decision on whether the claim is legitimate or not.
Even with good audits and big bug bounties, protocols have still been hacked.
Even those protocols with the best teams and investors. Over 10 billion dollars was lost in 2021 due to this. Up from 120 million in 2020. That figure was much higher in 2022.
The only way to mitigate this risk is with insurance. Preferably InsurAce 😉
Currently, we have smart contract cover, custodian cover and stablecoin de-peg cover live on our website https://app.insurace.io
Along with our new products that I mentioned before, we are developing CDIS (Crypto Deposit Insurance Scheme), which will protect users who deposit their funds into centralised exchanges and CeFi platforms
Fay Fu:
It’s nice to see you guys making effort on diversifying the decentralized insurance product pipeline. Already feel much safer now!😆
So, I can’t wait to dive deeper into the decentralized insurance field. But before I take action, could you please help me out, say, among the new products, which do you think retail users such as our members in Bella and InsurAce communities should pay the most attention and why?
Dan:
of course!
Our smart contract cover is by far the most relevant to Bella users.
You can find it at app.insurace.io
This protects any staked assets in Bella against hacks, bugs and exploits.
But the most exciting development for us in the near future is our CDIS.
The CDIS is the Crypto Deposit Insurance Scheme of our industry, protecting the end users, enhancing market stability, and restoring public confidence.
Imagine FDIC (or SDIC in Singapore) for crypto.
The CDIS will be set up as mutual insurance structure, Insuring to an initial limit of $10K per user.
It will help the most vulnerable users in crypto stay safe against future incidents like the collapse of FTX.
Fay Fu:
Excellent! CDIS seems to be a product that’s very beneficial for end users indeed!
Please do keep me posted on this! An initial limit of $10K per user is definitely something that can make a lot of retail users feel safe!
Dan:
that’s the idea, protect as many early-stage users as possible
Fay Fu:
That’s great! Now, you just touched a bit about your BEL-related product. I can’t let you skip this😆 please share some Bella-related details with our members here. What does the coverage actually mean? And how to get covered, what the claim process will be?
Dan:
Our coverage for Bella Protocol is against smart contract hacks and bugs at protocol level.
This means if there is a direct attack on the smart contracts and your asstes are no longer secure there, or are transferred out to a hacker wallet, then we will be able to pay you for the losses. We have a few examples where we have had to payout on cover like this… like the Elephant Money hack last year.
Full cover wording can be found here for anyone who wants to dig deeper: https://files.insurace.io/public/en/cover/SmartContractCover_v2.0.pdf
Getting covered is super easy as well, you can go visit our webapp:https://app.insurace.io/coverage/buycovers, and type in Bella in the search bar.
Claims are easy too. Once you have your cover purchased, it is all on-chain and can be checked anytime via our dashboard when you connect your wallet.
There you can opt to make a claim on your coverage in the event of a loss of funds.
You submit evidence which is then reviewed by a team of experts before being put to a community vote.
Since all of this is on chain, it’s pretty easy to determine if it is a genuine claim or not
Fay Fu:
Got it! Although our tech team pays a loooot attention on security, and so far we’ve been doing perfectly great guarding our users assets, while we keep strengthening our security leve, it does no harm for precaution from users indeed.
Well, that’s very thorough sharing of yours on not only the current decentralized insurance field and your diverse product pipeline but an ambitious prospect too, Dan!
Very insightful indeed! Many thanks!
Now, let’s dive a little bit deeper. We have picked 2 questions from Twitter, ready to shed some light on them, Dan?
Dan:
We hear this from all projects, and yes it’s true that projects do focus on security… but unfortunately we just dont know what the next type of attack will be.
We provide that peace of mind to investors, no matter how good the security is.
Especially for people and institutions that may be managing someone else’s money
Fay:
Excellent! The first question is from Twitter user @ZONESTER69
He/she asks: Why did InsurAce choose to build its own internal bridge when there are so many different bridging solutions? and is your bridge really secure?
Dan:
That’s a very good question, we don’t get asked it enough
We built our own bridge internally because we looked at available options on the market and realised that we could do a more secure job ourselves if we didnt use others.
This also helped us to keep down gas fees and transfer costs. It has proven to be the right option, because many of the bridges have now been hacked or exploited. So by keeping our bridge in-house and closed source it has kept it safer against these exploits.
Whilst we cant guarantee anything, our bridge has been operating for two years now without any issues or down time. This is great considering it is a small part of our overall project. But it also helps us to understand bridges better which is great for our upcoming bridge cover product.
Bridges are a tricky subject in this space, and they have some of the most famous hacks and money stolen. So it was important for us to do it right.
Fay Fu:
Thanks for the question and the answer!
Yea…I lost count on how many bridges got hacked before. Very serious security issue indeed. Thanks for sharing, Dan! We all now have a better understanding of the bridge’s security and cover policy. Now, let’s take a look at the second question, from Twitter user @pandalucu66
He/she asks: Can you walk us through the InsurAce Post-Audit Cover product and how it differs from Smart Contract Cover?
Dan:
We mentioned that we would be talking about this, and it seems someone has beaten me to it!
Our latest product is our post-audit cover. This is being launched this week actually. It’s a brand new product that allows us to cover early stage projects that are just completing an audit.
This means that they are protected during their earliest stages after their launch which helps to give investors and liquidity providers some peace of mind for the first couple of months and know that they will not lose money in the protocol if there is an exploit.
From our side, it is the first b2b product we offer that will be selling in conjunction with our Auditing partners, so that they can offer this service to their audit clients. It’s good for the auditors as it will act as a safety net for their audits in case there are any vulnerabilities that were missed by the audit.
This is great for early stage projects and their investors to guarantee safety of those vital early stage funds.
Fay Fu:
Lol this user is definitely following up with you guys closely!
So, for early-stage projects, it’s much harder for them to gain trust from users. This new product of yours can help with an extra assurance for users to try out new concept/initiatives without worrying too much about the risk bcuz of the projects don’t yet have a solid track records, right?
Dan:
Exactly
The project will launch with a fresh audit and insurance coverage up to 500k. This means that any early stage tvl is completely protected against any attacks
Fay Fu:
That’s pretty cool. Interest in digging for hidden gems is shared by most of us crypto-ers I suppose😆don’t want miss a single piece of them! Thanks for the question and the answer!
Now, let’s start Session 3! Before we activate the chat to collect questions, dearest members, please be advised:
Rieb:
What’s is relation of BEL and InsurAce? Will you guys have any project together?
Dan:
Hi Rieb,
Thanks for the question.
We already cover Bella on our app. This was a great start to the partnership. We hope we can do more in the future for sure!
But there are no specific additional plans.
We have our referral program which will be shared with the community to offer a discount on our covers for Bella users!
Community member:
Hello Sir . I’m happy to see you there. My questions for InsurAce.
As mentioned There is referrals program in InsurAce.
What are the requirements for referring? Do we need to hold tokens to refer and how many referrals limit per person?
Also what benefit for each person who used referral also for referrer?
Dan:
Thanks for asking.
Our referral program is simple, you just go to app.insurace.io/referral and connect your wallet, you can then share your referral code with friends and family and other communities to give them and yourself a small reward!
There is no limit, and no you dont need to hold tokens before.
Both are rewarded in $INSUR tokens (customer and referer)
Some have earned a lot of $INSUR tokens from our referral program!
Александр Пушкин:
Hi, did I understand correctly that if I insure Bella tokens in the amount of $ 10,000, I will pay $ 96 from them daily? 0.0096%
Dan:
We dont offer cover for the BEL tokens… we offer cover for any assets staked into Bella.
But yes, the maths are correct. It would be $96 to cover $10k annually.
We sell cover up to 3 months at a time, but you can insure as little as $1k for 15 days if you would like to cover less and more regularly.
Fay Fu:
Great! I believe we all have a much better understanding of decentralized insurance, its importance, the mechanism of how it protect our assets, the details of the existing cover products, as well as how the future dec-insurance products will look like. Many thanks for sharing, Dan!
And thanks to our dear community members from both Bella and InsurAce, please stay tuned, there will be more exciting news coming up for both projects!
Dan:
Thanks for having me!
If anyone would like to know more, please do check out www.insurace.io
Or join us on telegram: t.me/insurace_protocol
Twitter: twitter.com/insurace_io
