Impact

The exploitation of the results of CARECHAIN concentrates the joint work between the company Eurostar Mediagroup and BISITE (USAL), by advancing in the research of the new proposed solutions for the application of DLTs for the construction of an Insurtech platform. The main results will focus on the construction of an environment for the execution of smart contracts for contracting and managing parametric microinsurances, in the search for new market niches and allowing the revitalization of the economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, despite the social distance measures or the periods of lockdown. Additionally, this will contribute substantially to the objective of the ONTOCHAIN project by providing a means to perform trustworthy and secure online microinsurance contracting, exploiting Smart Contracts with DLTs, and providing an open API for it, thus providing transparency to the process.

This is especially so when considering that microinsurances and similar financial operations are one of the most security and trust demanding  sections for online operations, in line with the Next Generation Internet initiative, and the corresponding Fintech and Insurtech fields of applying new digital technologies to the fields of  finances and insurances are bursting with opportunities for new products with strongly secure mechanisms, transparency and traceability, which CARECHAIN addresses directly.

An added value is therefore provided to the general ONTOCHAIN project, by providing a point of entry for ONTOCHAIN into such Fintech and Insurtech markets. Such an innovative microinsurance contracting and managing automated service, via a digital online platform with security, traceability and trust obtained using blockchain and other DLT technologies, is expected to have a great impact into both the European and global insurance industry, and to open the way for more applications and innovation in cutting-edge cybersecurity mechanisms, to be applied to other insurance and financial products. Additionally, drawing upon online and automated mechanisms, such as the one proposed here, allows for a reduced environmental impact, by greatly cutting down paper-based procedures, and generally simplifying contracting and management of insurances. This reduction in environmental impact is particularly higher in microinsurances, such as those addressed by CARECHAIN, given the potential higher number of those compared to other more mainstream insurance services, which is due to the target niche of customer, i.e., lower income segments, previously ignored by the insurance markets.

In CARECHAIN project, Eurostar will be responsible for the commercial exploitation of the solution, designing, deploying, and developing all the strategies explained here. In addition, it will participate in the exploitation of the project through the development of application solutions for its business activity, allowing it to develop new tools that serve to improve productivity.

The expected impact of the CARECHAIN project is summarized in the following table: