• Pal Network runs on top of  the Ethereum blockchain

• Through the power of blockchain and smart contracts, PAL offers insurance without human processing or decision making

• With a market cap of under $2 million, PAL caps the year with the launch of its mainnet and services already live

After the sea of red that is crypto in 2018, it is easy to slip and miss the progress that is actually being made using the technology that brought us to crypto in the first place. Today we will do a review of one project that is making very innovative use of smart contracts for the insurance industry; the Pal Network (PAL).

Insurance on the blockchain

You have heard it time and again; blockchain allows us to remove middlemen and create a trust where it would otherwise be difficult to create any. While this sounds interesting, few projects have managed to do much with it so far, other than gambling dApps and, of course, the base currencies themselves.

But PAL is finally making things happen here. By making use of oracles and smart contracts, PAL can offer insurance policies that pay out automatically if the right conditions are fulfilled. An example from their whitepaper: Flight insurance. If you take out a policy on a flight, any delay or cancellation of your trip will be noted by trusted third party oracles. The smart contract holding your policy can verify oracle inputs and pay out automatically, both cutting out the cost of manual processing and removing the need to wait for the manual review and human decisions.

We can repeat the same basic idea for everything from Earthquakes and floods to market fluctuations. If you can imagine an oracle for it, an insurance policy can be put in a smart contract.

PayPal Incubator winner

Launched in early 2018, PAL’s market cap has bled severely this year – like basically every project in crypto. Now sitting at just under 2 million USD, there could be a lot of potential in this project. And apparently, PayPal think so too.

Although none too impressed with crypto in general, PAL was selected for PayPal Incubator this year. Beyond the vote of confidence, this helped the young startup raise funds for development and connect with business partners and investors.

Nor does PAL lack for connections on its own account. Val Ji-hsuan Yap, founder of PAL made headlines when she was selected by Forbes for their ‘30 under 30’ list for Asian business leaders, and she comes from a solid banking background. She is backed up by a strong team and a wide net of advisers.

2019 and beyond

So far Pal Network has checked off its roadmap point by point. Infrastructure is sliding into place, an extensive testnet has been launched, and flight insurance is live on the platform The year is capped off with the release of the official mainnet. Which in 2017 would have brought a lot of attention to the project, but 2018 is a harsh year for the market, with even top 10 projects hardly moving a blip in response to major developments.

It may be however that 2019 will see the word of PAL spread more, as it takes its seat at the very select table of projects that have not only solid ongoing development but a working product.