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I-CHAIN, Ethereum upgrade?

Eseandre Mordi

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Today we want to publish one article written by an independent analyst:

I want to talk about I-CHAIN, a blockchain insurance Platform which I analysed and understood that it is about to bring some fresh breath to the insurance industry with their proposed remodelling of the industry. It allows for a reliable, efficient and transparent insurance platform. As I understood, with the help of the open source technology, blockchain, insurance companies can now post and sell their products to a large variety of customers. That’s great! Isn’t it?

This means that the Platform will offer a monopolized system of trade as well as allow new entries in the insurance market to thrive.

Moreover, external developers can develop own products on the platform as packages consisting from business process(es) in BPMN format, micro-service(s), smart-contract(s) and UI form(s). And nobody limits those products to be only in insurance field.

Thus, I-CHAIN becomes upgrade of Ethereum for easy automation and also App Store for external developers. Let’s review it in details.

Platform Architecture Layers

Let’s have a look at the whitepaper – https://i-chain.net/i-chain.net.wpaper_rev_005.pdf. It has a pictorial description of the Platform architecture and summarizes the relationship between the Platform and the Ethereum network.

I’ve read an interview of Sergey Chekriy, the Chief Technical Officer of the I-CHAIN Platform, to “Techbullion”. He gave a breakdown on the technical aspects of the platform as well as details of the I-CHAIN architecture.

According to Sergey, who wrote the architectural structure of the platform, the platform consists of 4 layers.

-Ethereum network is the first layer. Here insurance products are designed as smart contracts. To perform smart contract logic and service functions the next layer exists.

-Product logic backend: This is where micro-services matching smart contracts reside. Ethereum and Product logic backend talk to each other via Oraclize interface.

Processing: This next layer ensures common functionality of all insurance products, application service. Insurance Services provide set of methods which are common for all insurance products and also needed by Blockchain Platform for Insurance-related products. Draft preview www.i-chain.net A Paper Published by The Glass Cube Group 17 CRM and BPM. At the same time CRM-backend is responsible for data storage and customers service functions. BMP holds processes within system (like products sales, claim processing etc.) and is connected with CRM. Both CRM and BPM make use of Insurance Services.

-Channels: This last layer provides different channels to communicate with the platform.  Channel may have UI (web, mobile applications), or may not have it (API). Channel can be “old-school” like Contact Centre or innovative like IOT device interface. The list of channels is bound to grow as the platform allows flexibility. Platform Architecture is also not made in stone; it can evolve or improve in the course of time.

To be brief, the Platform architecture consists of these 4 layers:

  1. 1. Ethereum Network: The Ethereum network holds smart-contracts related to insurance products.
  2. 2. Product logic backend: Product logic backend holds insurance products, implemented as micro-services.
  3. Processing layer: The Processing layer it is core of the platform which consists of specialized CRM, BPM managing insurance processes and specialized services for Insurance. The key component here is Insurance Services which is used by CRM, BPM and product layer.
  4. Channels: This is the User interface layer, where the user can be a person, company, IOT device, or partner. Person – site/mobile apps Company – B2B portal, API IOT device – IOT device interface, API Partner – API

The architecture is pretty simple for understanding which makes the Platform transparent to its users.

I-CHAIN platform users and their roles

Of course, there are different types of I-CHAIN Platform users. You can see them below.

  • Customer: A customer refers to the individual or institutions which purchase insurance products. All activities including purchases, claims etc., can be fulfiled through the Channels layer while the product itself is located on Product logic backend layer.
  • Investor: Investors are institutions or individuals investing into product risk pool. Investor provides financial resources to cover.
  • I-CHAIN Strategist: An employee is responsible for the further development of the I-CHAIN platform.
  • Insurance Partner:  The Insurance partner is the entrepreneur (individual, institution) running his own insurance business (i.e. set of products) on the Platform. The layers they make use of include the Insurance Partner Processing layer, Products logic backend, Ethereum Network and Channels.
  • I-CHAIN platform developer: This is the I-CHAIN employee responsible for the improvement and extension of the platform.
  • Product Designer: The Product designer is an employee of insurance partner developing insurance product(s) and/or new Channels. Talking about layers, they make use of Products logic backend, Ethereum Network and Channels.
  • Claim expert:  These are independent experts who need to understand the product(s). They equally play a key role in claim review process. They make use of the Processing layer, Products logic backend layers.
  • Client manager: Operating on the Processing layer and Products logic backend, the client manager is usually an employee of insurance partner who works with clients, especially in sales and claim management process. On his part, there is a need to understand the product(s) (Products logic backend). He works on Platform level to provide services to the clients.
  • Product Business Developer: Responsible for sales growth across channels, the Product Business Developer is usually an employee of the insurance partner. The Product Business Developer operates through the Channels layer.

To summarize, I would like to say that everybody plays his role. Don’t want to be a client? No problem. You can become an investor.

Insurance Services Architecture and how it relates to the Ethereum Network

It’s obvious that the Product logic backend architecture layer is linked to Ethereum network layer with insurance products implemented as smart-contracts on the Ethereum Network. Each smart-contract uses related micro-service implemented on Product logic backend layer.

The main thing is: architecture allows not only create insurance products, but any b2b, b2c products and solutions. To be brief, it is solution-oriented platform above Ethereum, also based on architecture it will have nodes (free to download) and can spread fast.

Any developer can build his own solution packed business processes described graphically (BPMN), micro-service(s) in Java, and smart-contract(s).  And user interface, of course. There is a scheme below: 

User interface<—>BPMN processes<—>microservice(s)<—>smart-contract(s) 

Essential Platform Processes

The I-CHAIN platform has a list of already implemented processes. However, this list is flexible and can be extended on BPM module of architecture. This remarkable platform has the following processes implemented.

  • Customer onboarding: A process where new customers are acquired and registered in the system (CRM).
  • Product sale: Simply refers to the Sale of insurance product.
  • Claim processing: Involves processing of customer claim.
  • Product publishing: Publishing new product on the Platform.
  • Product decommission: In simple terms, the withdrawing of product from the Platform.

Financial Model of the platform

The I-CHAIN platform has made provision for different tokens to be used within its ecosystem. Here we have the Utility token and the Security token. The Utility token will be used for access to the Platform and will be sold during the ICO (crowd funding stage).

A total volume of 5,000,000 Utility tokens will be put up for public purchase. The quantity of token purchased by a Platform partner will determine the number of customers he can provide services to. For instance, 1 ICHN (Utility Token) will allow to serve 1000 customers. 10 ICHN – 10000 customers. 100 ICHN – 100000 customers etc.

The Security token which is the second type, will be used to buy and sell insurance products and invest into risk pools. Also it will be used for internal system transactions, development costs, transactions between partners/service providers/platform developers, experts.

I think Ether (ETH) will probably be used as well. However, from the white paper, it appears the team reserve the right to introduce any other specific cryptocurrency for use on the platform.

Conclusion

To be clear, I didn’t purchase any token. This is my independent analysis and my humble opinion. It’s up to believe it or not.

Here are some conclusions I would like you to focus on.

The Platform gives third-party developers an opportunity to develop their own products on the Platform as packages consisting of interface forms bpmn-processes, micro-services (Java) and smart contracts using technology similar to the AppStore.

Smart contracts fix transactions in the blockchain and provide transparency and reliability.

Micro-services provide a mechanism for interaction with any external system and software logic of any complexity.

Business processes transparently fix the business logic of the system, while allowing quickly and flexibly change it.

At the same time, products can not only be limited to the insurance field.

The Platform thus becomes a superstructure over Ethereum, and any industrial appliance of the platform (not only for insurance purposes) are possible, including enterprises’ private blockchain-networks built using Ethereum technology.

Looks like I-CHAIN is both upgrade of Ethereum and also App Store for external developers. What do you think?

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