Jack Saba explains how smart contracts could automate insurance policies based on real events, like switching Uber coverage when a driver goes online. He sees bigger opportunities in land-title registration across Africa and Latin America, where blockchain could unlock credit and reduce corruption. His advice: solve real problems, partner with governments in regulated sectors, and don't chase hype.
Questions this video answers
By creating two separate policies on Ethereum—one for family driving and one for ridesharing—that automatically switch when a ridesharing app is turned on, with the on‑chain event logging which policy applies at the time of an accident.
Focus on real‑world problems that are currently unsolvable, such as unregistered land titles, rather than trying to fit blockchain into any use case.
Generally no; use an established chain like Ethereum to benefit from its security, developer community, and network effect.
Develop proof‑of‑concepts that demonstrate immutable records, then partner with governments or incumbents (e.g., Philips) to gain legitimacy and resources for scaling.
You cannot delete the original entry, but you can append a new record that corrects the mistake and references the original, preserving an audit trail.
Chapters
So Bitcoin was the first blockchain, but it's not the end-all be-all. The next evolution, the next, I think, most powerful blockchain is Ethereum. So one of the things that makes Ethereum really cool is the Bitcoin blockchain is just kind of a data layer where you— where it transacts and you locate and you save information to it. The Ethereum blockchain, you actually code things into the blockchain. So what that allows is for multiple parties to interact directly. So say, for example, Right now, one of the biggest problems with Uber is that insurance companies don't want to insure people on the— that are driving Uber, right? So people are getting dropped because they're doing this ridesharing. So if someone were to create an insurance company on Ethereum's blockchain, you could have 2 policies. You could have your policy as driving your family around, and you can have your policy as an Uber— as a ridesharing driver, right? And if someone were to create a ridesharing application on the blockchain, that you were using. As soon as you turned on your ridesharing application, your policy would switch. So it would go from being a family driver to being an insured driver. And depending on that, you would pay out, and if you got in an accident, it would incur. So now you have the ability for these applications to interact directly, and for one change of events to trigger another change of event in a company that has no connection to each other. Just you as a person has that connection to it.
So are you saying like it would change I don't really understand. So you become an Uber driver, it changes, and then if you're—
If you're a regular driver, so say you have your policy as a family person, right? And that's your— and they don't want to insure you as an Uber driver. Right now you don't have the option. You're just that, or you get dropped and you have to go to someone else. This could provide 2 insurance policies. So under this you get X kind of coverage, right? And under the Uber driver you get different coverage. So if you get in an accident while the ridesharing application's on, this coverage is the one that occurs. And that can never come into question that you were doing something else because your ridesharing application was on and that information is logged to the blockchain and it's immutable. So they can go to the time of the accident, see what you were doing, and define the policy that should be used.
What do you suggest for us to find opportunities like that? It's my first time knowing Bitcoin, so I got— so like how do we find Applications like the new stuff like travel.
Solve real problems. So as I look at companies that are solving the blockchain, you find 2. Some that are finding real-world problems that finally the blockchain is enabling a solution to, and then you have the others that just think it's cool technology and they're trying to fit a round peg into a square hole. It just, it doesn't work. So things like land registration. There's $9 trillion of debt capital that's unutilized across the globe because people can't prove their land is their land. That's wild for me coming from the United States, right? Like, I never saw this problem. But around Africa, 90% of land is unregistered. Around Central and South America, 70% of land is unregistered. And for the most part, that's people's only, like, true asset, like their one thing that they truly own. So if they can prove that their land is their land, they can now borrow against it. They can do school supplies. They can pay for fees. They can start a small business. Whatever it is, they can now borrow against that. So something like land registry was unsolvable before because there was either not a system in place, Or the system was easily corruptible. The blockchain is an immutable record, so if you put your name up on the title, you could see a change in history. You could see that someone else in the bureaucracy tried to put their name on it and sell it or do something with it, and then that is the source of truth for a dispute amongst it. So look for real problems that have been unsolvable, and the blockchain may be your solution. So if you're looking at a problem If you're gonna start a new application for it or something like that, do you create a new blockchain, or do you just tap into an already developed blockchain or something? So the power and security in a blockchain is in its length, and in the amount of people that are operating it. So Ethereum would be the best, I think if you're gonna develop something new and you're gonna go work with it, go to Ethereum, because that's harvesting the best development community, and will ultimately be, I think, the most secure chain. Right now Bitcoin is the most secure chain, as it has the longest history, and the biggest market cap, that doesn't really necessarily validate that, but the longest history. But Ethereum will be there, and that's, so you should move to where things are going, and I think that's where things are going. And there's probably better clients to develop on there as well.
Yeah, this is kind of like an abstract question, but how people entering the blockchain now, like which strategy are they taking? choosing to break regulations and start building this blockchain network? Just because I'm thinking about, like, so the land ownership papers in Brazil, like, I would go to these houses that keep these documents and try to introduce them to this new technology, like, they freak out.
They don't need to know about the technology. They don't need— it's not something that needs to be explained. It doesn't change anything. It's just an additional step to what you would do as a business. To provide an immutable record. And so at first the thing is governments might not respect your record of land titles, right? So you've got to show that it works with that proof of concept. You've got to show that this is an immutable record that can create more trust in the bureaucracy that they have. And then you would work with the government in order to implement this solution on a very broad scale. A lot of these companies are going to be entering very heavily regulated markets, So partnerships are going to be fundamental to your success. You're not going to be able to go in and take healthcare regulators on head to head. You've got to maybe partner with a Philips or someone else, and they are eager for these solutions. These are things that they want to know about that they can't necessarily know everything. And so if you bring them something, they would be so stoked to partner with you, and they have the resources to battle the regulations.
What if there's wrong information at the beginning, like in the In the case of land, where maybe they're going to log maybe 1,000 lands maybe for a prototype, and then one or two of those records are actually wrong from the beginning, and then you kind of build on that. Is there any way of getting that resolved?
Lack of a better term, shit in, shit out. You've got to get it right the first time and then move it. But the thing is, if you were like, hey, you spelled my name wrong, or hey, any of these things, you would just make an addition to the that piece of information, and what it would show is it would show the original, and then at some point the correct would exist. You're not gonna get rid of this and you're not gonna alter this. This exists, but you would redo it and it would exist over here as well, and you could show that that happened.
