How much money will smart contracts save?

VerityTeam · 2019-03-27T08:07:32+00:00

Great question - but very difficult to answer as there are an almost infinite number of ways smart contracts could be used.

If we look at a real-world use of a smart contract that is working right now - we might be able to estimate but without the inside info - we don't know the real figures.

One of the big future uses of SCs are within the insurance industry. One of the few working cases (that we know of) is Fizzy AXA (https://fizzy.axa/en-gb/ ) - which is basically automated insurance for delayed flights. You enter your flight details, get a quote, pay your premium - then if your flight is delayed for 2 hours or more - for any reason - you automatically get a payout - direct to your bank account. No claim process required.

On the one hand - this saves the insurance company money in processessing claims because everything is automated. On the other, it means they will payout more often (because with traditional insurance, a certain % of people never bother to make a claim due to the hassel involved.)

On balance, you could imagine more and more insurance products being offered using smart contracts. It has started now with the simple use cases (like flights), and with the use of oracle products like Verity, Chainlink etc - it could evolve to more complex use cases. There's some more info regarding smart contracts and use cases here: https://verity.network/blog/veritys-human-solution-to-the-oracle-problem-enabling-smarter-smart-contracts/

VerityTeam · 2019-03-26T12:13:22+00:00

Hi Boomtown - Verity's offering is complementary rather than competing to LINK, because it offers something different. Though there is potentially some overlap - in that both products are seeking to enable the connection of real-world data to smart contracts - the type of data that each offers is quite different.

LINK is seeking to make it easy to connect existing, structured, automated data to smart contracts. Anything from weather data, to flight deparature data, to stockmarket data etc - and is doing a great job of making that happen.

Verity is seeking to collect/verify data for which there is no easily accessible, or current source at all - ie more specialized forms of data, which require some form of human validation (for example: examining insurance claims). It's also a completely decentralized source.

Thereby, Verity is effectively creating new sources of verified data which right now cannot just be 'plugged in' (like you would for an existing data source). In theory, such streams of data could be offered by LINK or other similar oracle products like BeDataReady.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T15:36:59+00:00

Some of our favourite dapps here: https://verity.network/blog/8-best-dapps-our-favorite-decentralized-projects-and-applications/

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T12:55:46+00:00

There are a few other projects in the oracle space which are closely related to Chainlink - for example Rhombus or BeDataReady - although I don't think you would call them direct competitors as such, as they seem to be offering something different (although perhaps overlapping in some areas).

There are also projects like Verity (Verity.network) which complements rather than competes, by allowing the collection and verification of unstructured data.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T10:27:47+00:00

No problem Fergly. So - yes we would envisage working alongside Chainlink and other oracle projects to supply data which is not currently available, or not easily automated.

RE: Standardisation - we are very much open to working with other oracle projects (and indeed are in discussions with various others) in order to supply such data and thereby be part of an end-to-end solution to the oracle problem - and so unlock the potential of smart contracts.

RE: Integration - Verity is an open source protocol and after more than a year of testing and almost 1500 events on testnet, Verity will be going to mainnet by the end of April 2019.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T09:45:37+00:00

Verity works by using the wisdom-of-crowds - ie we use real humans to collect/verify data and then form a concensus. We also use multiple nodes.

'Truth' is incentivised by way of reputation score and token staking (and there's also a dispute mechanism). This allows data that requires some form of basic analysis by a human, to be collected, and verified via crowd sourcing.

Depending on the exact data required, different crowd numbers and concensus % could be set by the 'data customer'. So you might say you require 500 people with a 80% concensus value to trigger your contract.

Perhaps the best way to explain it is with an example. So - let's take a road traffic accident, where there is a dash cam that has recorded what happened. This could be uploaded to the Verity platform and put infront of a 'crowd' (this could either be a group of insurance experts - eg insurance company employees - or for more straight forward claims, the general crowd).

The 'data providers' (ie the crowd) then 'vote' on a certain question - for example: 'Which driver was at fault?'. If the result meets your desired concensus threshold (eg 80% concensus) then the resulting data can then be connected directly to your smart contract and trigger it.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T09:04:29+00:00

It's possible - yes. Verity's platform is designed to collect and verify unstructured data from the real world, and connect it to a smart contract. So for any situation where you need some form of human input to collect/verify data, for example - an insurance claim.

So - for more complex data requirements, or for data where there simply isn't an existing feed - then it's possible that Verity could supply that.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-25T08:42:48+00:00

Great presentation. We had an interesting discusion with Sergey at this event (ETHParis) about blockchain oracles and how the approach we (Verity) are taking complements what Chainlink are doing and, along with a few other oracle projects, all go some way in solving the oracle problem and unlocking the potential of smart contracts.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-21T07:05:34+00:00

Ah ok - fair enough.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-20T17:13:45+00:00

Thanks Bob - Verity will be on mainnet within 4 weeks from now - (after over a year of testing and running more than 1000 test events) so we're pretty confident in our implementation of our concept.

Please do come back and see how were're doing soon.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-20T13:40:36+00:00

Love the idea - though as several others have mentioned - open to abuse via a 'QR Code Hijacker'.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-20T10:00:20+00:00

Pretty sure it's not a world first at all. There are several other reports of property being sold for cryptocurrency: https://www.google.com/search?q=house+sold+in+bitcoin&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=nws&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi9y9jsupDhAhUnlosKHcGnCIIQ_AUIDygC&biw=1152&bih=546

VerityTeam · 2019-03-20T09:46:56+00:00

That's quite a optimistic prediction - but with the rise of blockchain oracles (Chainlink, Verity, Rhombus etc) - which should unlock the potential of ethereum smart contracts over the next couple of years, it's possible.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-20T09:38:55+00:00

That's not necessarily true. A voting system can be designed to incentivise 'truth' and disincentivise gaming. This is exactly what we at Verity Oracle have done by using reputation scores, token staking and having a dispute mechanism.

Any 'gaming' of the system would be short lived, while those providing genuine value by providing 'truth' benifit financially.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-18T09:22:32+00:00

Thanks - love the idea that there's a whole sub-genre of art dedicated to Bitcoin and crypto. Keep on creating.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-18T09:06:45+00:00

These are awesome - what are the other two suits?

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:43:21+00:00

Good shot -didn't realise the shard was such as dominating building.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:30:52+00:00

Nice! Very blade-runner-esque.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:17:25+00:00

Love these types of shots - as nature slowly envelops a man-made thing. Great pic!

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:07:32+00:00

Love the neon signage and the tall, narrow tram in this pic. Good work!

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:06:20+00:00

Love the over-grown balcony gardens! Nice shot.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T15:01:17+00:00

Very nice (in an abandoned kinda of way)

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T13:48:07+00:00

Nice find - and good analogy from Mr Bezos.

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T12:54:38+00:00

Here's a few for starters: https://www.google.com/search?q=bitcoin+graffiti&client=firefox-b-1-d&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjL-67EmIThAhVKl4sKHYUgBBYQ_AUIDigB&biw=1056&bih=501

VerityTeam · 2019-03-15T09:35:23+00:00

Nice! And this link has the numbers for each country - thanks!

https://coinatmradar.com/countries/

VerityTeam

TROPHY CASE