Bitcoin Forum

Im considering whether i should start up a Bitcoin insurance company which would essentially insure you for certain amounts of Bitcoins. There will be premiums, and plans which i hope to set up to cover you in case of a theft or hack. Full details of the service may come soon depending on interest and demand.

ps. If this goes ahead i will need investigators to check out claims of clients and investigators will receive payment depending on the cases they cover etc.

What do you think guys?

 :D Yesterday i was talking with my friend, that bitcoin insurance company can be good idea!!! Good luck! I will watch.. :)

Thanks for the support mate i hope to see the company up soon as this will help a lot of people who have been recently experiencing thefts hacks etc

Most of the insurance companies, if not all, are reluctant when it comes to paying out. They will do anything to prove you are wrong, so they don't have to pay.

Not sure if I would use one, but I guess there is a certain demand for this service. Interesting project.

Yeah that is true.

This is a good idea would help out a lot of people.

But wouldn't be easy for people to scam you? Like a lot of people try to do some sort of damage just to claim insurance.

I also think ( to my knowledge ) that thefts and hacks don't occur as often as a normal crime ( house robbery , hijack ).
For me at least.. I live in third world crime fest where you get targeted as soon as you leave home :/

It would be easy to defraud insurance companies but with the aid of professional investigators you can easily protect yourself against this sort of crime. There are plenty of investigators around the forum infamous for their doxxes etc. :D i hope the project will be under development soon but it all depends on demand  for the service

If you need help with any logos or banners or even a website, I can help.

Here is a link to my thread:
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=715634.0

Insurance is immensely complicated and I don't think you have the resources or experience to make it work (forgive me if I've assumed incorrectly). I only say this from what I know about people working in insurance in the City of London...

There would be such huge amounts of risk involved in crypto too that it would be very easy to fake claims etc

We note that the escrow services are becoming more popular and in my opinion a sort of insurance industry will surely develop. Simply, it is difficult for me to imagine it now but someone with good vision can become a rich man in the future  :)

I'm pretty sure this idea has been thought out before - how would you actually be able to confirm that the coins were in fact stolen rather than evidence planted and the coins moved. Secondly, wouldn't this whole thing (if it got customers) mean that addresses have to be tied to identities meaning the whole anonymous nature of Bitcoin goes out the window. Next, how exactly are you going to calculate a premium for this - you'd need an actuary to determine the likelihood of a loss and figure out premiums from this. Plus, insurance is based off a large scale long-term outlook, if you have a small userbase with a lot of incidents the business might be unviable.

Sorry to be such a downer, but I wanted to know if you really thought this through.

I will introduce with my friends about  buying insurance on your Bitcoins, services?
Good luck and see later.

The risk is really high for bitcoin insurance company. Too many hacker and too many people losing their BTC. The only way I can think of is you force them to install some kind of anti-virus and make sure they have really long password. This way you are also protecting their wallet.

Good idea, you should do tis

i may start accepting a few offers later next week probably ~3 to start and will try out a short term insurance plan of 14 days to begin with depending on the amount to cover and if user wants a full premium where their Bits will be covered in all cases except if the loss incurred was completely on the users part. All claims made during this period will be examined by investigators to avoid situations of fraud etc. We will need certain details such as the use of bitcoins, if you are involved with any high risk practices such as high volume trading, gambling etc to decide on the prices set for premiums. Depending on the amount that needs to be insured prices will be calculated individually depending on risk, policy type and other variables. Certain precautions on the users part will have to be taken including installing 1 antivirus program, at least 1 firewall, armory/electrum should also be installed client side. Taking these precautions will have a massive impact on the security of your bitcoins and even the risk encountered which in turn will lower the price you pay for cover. More information will be coming your way shortly :D

What kind of things will it insure for? I would definitely like to see it.  But since bitcoins are anonymous, how do you intend the investigators to be helpful? A lot of people might just be able to fake something and file a claim for it.

Good luck!

Think it still exist : http://www.coindesk.com/coinbase-names-aon-bitcoin-insurance-broker/

https://www.elliptic.co/vault

Coindesk is insured http://www.coindesk.com/great-american-insurance-bitcoin-coverage-businesses/

There is a market for a new player; you can suceed if you are lucky, skilled and have cash

This will be split into 2 main sections corporate and personal so if you would want insurance against a business or for private funds it could all be calculated. As for those worrying this is a calculated risk on my part as im planning to start off with short term cover as 1 day in real life is almost a week for hackers and thieves to get their hands on your money.  Of course when dealing with Bitcoin one has to consider the risks involved etc so i will begin with short term plans to minimize risks incurred. As users will be background checked and their Bitcointalk profile checked (take into consideration that at the moment the insurance will operate primarily for members of the forum before it moves on to bigger things.). As users will have to pay daily or weekly to keep their plans going and if users are uncovered to use fraudulent means to try and scam me (the insurance provider) they would not receive anything back...

Sounds fine, but you should definitely have the bankroll and consider all the risks related to it, which I am sure you already would have.

I would be interested in a bitcoin gambling insurance.

well you may be one of the first customers in line for a insurance policy as the company will be operating on a full scale and i can calculate your insurance details when it official opens. It will initially be covered for the period of 2 weeks with prices calculated on your BR and depending on the trust ratings and references you are able to provide.

Do you want to say that you can insurance bitcoins sended to online casino for gambling - for example in the case of bankruptcy of this casino ? Next step will be insurance bitcoins sended to Ponzi scheme? I don't get it?

*grumbles about insurance*

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=610339.msg7060900#msg7060900

any idea what the price would be for insurances?

This will simply work with the BankRoll being insured against theft, hacks / exploits. Obviously there will be checks on the website such as security of the website will have to be to a suitable level and due to the risk involved with insuring these business prices will obviously be high. The purpose of this is to give operators peace of mind as the insurance will act as a safety net. Say for example someone wants to insure 0.1 Bitcoin. They would be required to pay 0.005 which is around 5% (This rate will obviosly be lower for those wanting to insure higher amounts such as those insuring 1 Bitcoin will only have to make daily payments of 0.025 which is only 2.5 % ). Money for claims would only be sent out if more than 40% of daily payments have been made as this ensures we have enough liquidity to payout and will also help to stem those out to scam. The 2 week trail period will obviously have separate rules and conditions as the plans have to be changed to meet the short timescale.

There would be no reliable way to know with any kind of certainty if someone's money was actually stolen or if they are claiming it was stolen in order to receive a payout via their insurance contract. Insurance is also a very highly regulated business and you would not be allowed to stay in business because of a "hunch" that someone is trying to scam you.

Also if you do not pay a claim then you would be risking that you would be sued by the policy holder for their claim plus attorney's/court fees/costs (plus potentially punitive damages), it would be relatively easy to prove that bitcoin was "taken" from a specific address, so the burden would generally be on you to prove the policy holder had filed a false claim

NOW ACCEPTING FIRST CUSTOMER\(s)

I am now accepting the first (and second) insurance customer(s) but the following safety precautions have been put in to place :

-no more than 0.1 BTC can be covered for.
-Payments of 5% will have to be made daily for a period of 2 weeks to a bitcoin address which will be made public/available to you.
-Once you have put in about 40% of the original amount which would be in 8 days, you can claim if something does occur to your btc such as a theft etc.
-There will also be a no claims bonus which will mean you will be entitled to receive 10% rakeback from the 40% you would have paid in.

How would you avoid someone taking advantage, by simply claiming that his funds were stolen? He could just transfer it to another address and claim it. Couldn't he?

He could theoretically but we too have some precautions put into place. The amount you want to be insured will have to be put into a separate address allowing us to track all transactions made as the blockchain sees all. The user must also install armory and electrum on the wallet containing the amount which is to be insured. Antivirus solutions are also required with all proof provided to the company. This essentially narrows down the origin of all transactions into 2 categories, theft or ones initiated by the user. we are also considering developing a black box program which would monitor the computers activity allowing us to track the origins of transactions, but this may be highly controversial...  Background checks will also be made on the user and a form of identification will also have to be submitted. These information will be protected in accordance with US data protection directives

I completely understand the importance of taking these steps to prevent anyone from cheating the insurance company, but I also feel all these things are a stretch for someone getting insurance for their funds. Unless, they have a large amount >10btc, it would not be convenient for them. But again, these steps are important, to avoid people to take advantage.

yep the potential for fraud is massive when dealing with crypto :O

wouldnt it be easier to just send you the amount for you to keep? like a bank?

if i understand you correctly i cant even use my insured btc as i would have to move them away from your watchable address...

Using the BTC is no problem unless you report a theft etc in which case the transactions will be inspected and event logs from your pc will be examined for signs of malicious activity. THis would also help to see if the theft was committed with the intent of defrauding the business...

did u get any clients??
I see the fees being a bit too high but i understand that there is a big chance of being scammed!
I like the ida of the "insurance company" having a custom wallet that can confirm if u have antivirus and somehow check if its a scam.
ur ment to be able to spend the BTC during the time ur BTC is ensured right??

yep the same way ur meant to be able to drive a car whilst its insured

Intersting Idea! will be watching it :)

btw accepting first customers ;D want to give the experiment a shot nows the time :D