Proof of Concept: The ORAO Flight Insurance dApp
In March this year, in our very first article, we brought up the usecase of decentralized insurance. We explained how, using ORAO’s Predefined Data Protocols, it would be possible to create a smart contract for flight insurance. A little over half a year later, we went ahead and created such a dApp ourselves, as a proof of concept.
Now let’s be clear on what this is and isn’t. It’s an entirely centralized application, with ORAO providing both the data and the insurance service. It’s also on the Solana dev net — meaning that while the application works just fine, the tokens changing hands are developer net tokens, and don’t have any actual value. With that said, let’s have a look at what we have.
The Mechanics
As development of the mainnet continues, we thought it was time to build something we could show the public. We went with flight insurance, which is a fairly straightforward application of ORAO’s general data product support, coupled with a simple insurance smart contract.
The insurance service, found here, is built on the Solana devnet. You will not be able to access it without having the Phantom wallet installed.
When an insurance policy is purchased, the service puts the buyer’s tokens in escrow, then creates a smart contract with the exact details of the insurance policy. Conditions for paying out (the flight getting cancelled), how much money was put in, how much money will be returned if the flight does get cancelled, etc.
Try it Out Yourself
To try the insurance dApp out for yourself you will need the Phantom wallet app for Solana installed in your browser. You also have to be using a computer — the wallet will not work with a mobile phone browser. You can install the wallet here. It is good security practice to use a new browser to install a new wallet, however the choice is yours. Google Chrome, Brave and Firefox should all work without issue.
Once you have the wallet installed, you will need to switch network to the Solana devnet. You can do this by going into the settings tab of the wallet and scrolling down. Note that you want the devnet, not the testnet or the mainnet. Once you have successfully switched, you can airdrop yourself some devnet Solana tokens by using a faucet. The tokens you get will be completely worthless, so don’t get too excited, but your wallet should show you the value the tokens would have had if you were on the Solana mainnet.
Once you have your wallet and some devnet tokens, head straight over to our flight insurance page. Using the app is quite straightforward. You select a flight from the dropdown menu (If you were buying real insurance on the mainnet, there would be more of a process here to find your exact flight, but for our proof of concept we went with a simple dropdown menu with a number of preselected flights). You then put in how much you would like to pay for your insurance. The dapp shows you the probability that your flight will be cancelled, based on an analysis of similar flights in the past, and how likely they were to get cancelled.
And then, you buy the insurance. There will be a 10–15 second delay here. The app actually prints a smart contract for you on the Solana devnet. Because the transaction costs are so low on Solana, the easiest way to set up an insurance policy like this is actually to just have every instance of someone buying insurance be its own smart contract. You will then find your insurance under the ‘My Insurances’ tab.
And… that’s it. Hope you enjoyed. If you would like to learn more about ORAO, you can check out our website, dig into our whitepaper, or join our Telegram channel to speak directly to members of the team and our community.
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