Tim Käbisch, Lucas Johns

• Humans started using the principles of insurance thousands of years ago when they lived in tribes in smaller villages. If one of the tribe members were injured, the others would take care of him and his family. The basic principle of insurance is several people covering each other against a particular risk. Today, most people in regions like Europe have access to insurance, while many people worldwide still have no access at all. The cost and accessibility may be improved with a blockchain-based parametric approach. The insurance process in a parametric approach is exclusively based on data, and decisions are made objectively. Blockchain is a necessary and integral part of the approach to create transparency and connect the customer’s and investor’s risk capital. The paper offers an overview of the opportunities and challenges of blockchain-based parametric insurance, a catalog of criteria for such insurance, a description of all components and their interaction for implementation on Ethereum, and a reference implementation of a train delay insurance in Germany.