If you spend any time speculating on what a blockchain enabled future will look like, it is difficult to ignore 21.21 is one of the few companies that has both a grand vision and the resources (it has raised $116 million from a stellar lineup of investors) to build out a full stack infrastructure for Bitcoin and roll it out globally.At RiskBazaar, we take great interest in the markets that are springing up around public blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.Part of it is curiosity — it is exciting to follow a space that is attracting the talent and spurring the innovation that these ecosystems are.But more importantly, we are building a platform to facilitate risk contracts (such as insurance contracts) and some of the most attractive opportunities for us are marketplaces that are already facilitating trade on-blockchain using cryptocurrency.There have been a number of ideas generated by the 21 team and some present opportunities for RiskBazaar.These opportunities can be separated into three distinct buckets.There are a number of risk contracts that become viable in a future being built by 21.

(Recall a risk contract is defined as a contract that pays out conditional on the occurrence of a future event.)The Sensor21 network allows you to earn bitcoin micropayments in return for collecting environmental data.Crop insurance is already a conventional insurance product but with weather sensors in specific neighborhoods, you open up the prospect of micro weather contracts in specific locations such as insuring against rain on a wedding day or warm weather during a ski trip.We think that the micropayments made possible by 21 will allow for a shift in public perception of insurance from a necessary evil to a product that you consider when planning out your life; even your daily routine.The payoff from these contracts can act to offset disappointment and perhaps more importantly provide funds for alternative courses of action.Another risk that will pose opportunities is the variations in the hashing power of the Bitcoin network.At the moment, mining is heavily centralized but if 21 succeed, everyone will be considering whether to get a 21 enabled device that is mining continuously in the background.

Suppose a business is considering purchasing a 21 enabled device and projecting forward whether it will offer a sufficient financial return.litecoin mining video cardOne way of hedging a lower than expected financial return would be to buy a derivative on the hashing power of the network (or to purchase shares on a prediction market such as Augur).bitcoin wallet libraryAnother startup, Hedgy has recently pivoted from cryptocurrency derivative contracts but there will certainly be demand for these type of contracts in future especially if cryptocurrencies go on to be traded and/or held by financial institutions.The demand for insurance springs up wherever there is trade.bitcoin asic companiesOpenBazaar (protocol for decentralized peer-to-peer online commerce) is so exciting because trade is now bubbling up on the blockchain that provides opportunities for transaction insurance (insurance against not receiving the promised good/service or a refund).bitcoin ether exchange

The Machine economy that 21 is facilitating with machines trading data and services for bitcoin provides a similar opportunity wherever there is the possibility of default.1 bitcoin a peso mexicanoThis may be due to a device malfunctioning or the coded contract not executing as planned.litecoin mining onlineAs the machine economy evolves, the opportunities it presents RiskBazaar should become a little clearer.New sources of data also offer opportunities for pricing risk contracts.The existing paradigm is that corporations like Google, Facebook and LinkedIn own your online identity and your personal data.A new paradigm that is beginning to be built on the blockchain hands ownership of identity and personal data back to the individual user.This data need only be released when in the interest (financial, social or convenience) of that user.

The same goes for reputational data.At the moment all reputation data on sharing economy platforms is owned by specific platforms (e.g.This means that drivers who have built up a reputation on Uber are unable to leverage this reputation to generate business on Lyft.Ebay sellers will experience the same problem when seeking to bootstrap their existing reputation on Ebay to a new marketplace such as OpenBazaar.21 micropayments will provide a channel for consumers to sell their data to research organizations or sales representatives of companies.It may be the case that users release data to specific parties for free in exchange for receiving cheaper services (e.g.However, when selling or advertising directly to a consumer, it is in the interest of the seller to know as much about the target consumer as possible and they now have the option of using micropayments to convince consumers to release this data.The machine-payable web facilitated by 21 will see machines transferring value between themselves.

Funds can now sit at the device level (locked with a cryptographic private key on the device) rather than on a centralized database at a bank or an insurer.From an insurance perspective, this has obvious implications for digital supply chains that increasingly contain sensors and Internet of Things devices.When there is a minor disruption or a small claim event at some point on the supply chain, it is now possible for the situation to be resolved without resorting to a central fund or direct interaction with the insurance company.This means that smaller, predictable claims can be processed efficiently and at near-zero cost.Another project that interested us was a Mechanical Turk service started by Jeff Garzik that provides an API for automating and comparing work by human workers.Although some insurance claims will be able to be processed without human oversight, many in the short term will require humans to verify that evidence provided by the policyholder justifies a claim payout.For example, imagine you want to make a claim on a policy that insures you against mobile phone theft.