Vrumi connects professionals needing work space with householders who have rooms, through an online marketplace. Vrumi have partnered with SafeShare Global, a pioneering start-up insurance business focusing on the sharing economy, to develop the first fully integrated insurance product to give home owners 100% peace of mind.

The insurance product employs a distributed ledger - aka blockchain technology - created by Z/Yen Group to confirm counter-party obligations. Blockchain technology facilitates the delivery of a flexible and a responsive product to customers at a reasonable price.

Roddy Campbell, Vrumi's co-founder has highlighted that "insurance is the biggest practical problem" facing the expansion of the sharing economy. In practical terms, most traditional home insurance policies exclude paying guests. This renders those policies void should any issues occur.

The product is underwritten at Lloyd's of London. It offers hosts the opportunity to 'opt in' to cover, giving comfort without breaking the bank. With a modest excess and a 24-hour claim service hotline, this insurance will help increase confidence in generating extra income for UK home owners. The underlying replicated authoritative immutable ledger ensures a trusted record of insured parties is maintained.

Alex Steinart, SafeShare Global Co-Founder states:

"Insurance for the sharing economy needs to be flexible and responsive to customer needs. Our distributed ledger approach, developed by Z/Yen Group, offers the opportunity to coordinate the provision of products between counter-parties in near real-time and to radically cut the cost of this coordination."

Professor Michael Mainelli, Executive Chairman of Z/Yen, continues:

"Z/Yen's woven broadcast technology delivers SafeShare's insurance solution an undisputable record of the insured through a distributed network of proof. Built on MetroGnomo, encrypted copies of the distributed ledger are held by all parties, such as the States of Alderney who are providing oversight of MetroGnomo's integrity."

Notes to editors

Vrumi

Vrumi was founded in 2014 by Roddy Campbell, William Sieghart and Sophie Neary. It offers its users an alternative work environment, connecting householders who want to earn money from their dead space to people who might wish to work in that space - from therapists through to micro businesses and start-ups. By combining the benefits of home working and the office hang out, the site aims to help battle the UK's huge space issue; people are crowding into tiny places when there are amazing rooms locked away that go unused.

www.vrumi.com

SafeShare Global

SafeShare is an insurance technology business, created to capitalise on innovation in the insurance market. The company works alongside emerging technology businesses, developing 'smart insurance' products to cover our increasingly dynamic and technology-enabled lifestyles. SafeShare's aim is to develop the insurance infrastructure to support and build confidence in rapidly evolving worldwide markets.

www.safeshareinsurance.com

Z/Yen

Z/Yen Group is the City of London's leading commercial think tank promoting societal advance through better finance and technology. Z/Yen applies its risk/reward methodology in research on markets, best execution, liquidity, strategic planning (outsourcing, re-engineering, relocation) or performance evaluation. Z/Yen's mutual distributed ledger (MDL) software suite, ChainZy, provides the basic architecture for wide variety of MDL services.

www.zyen.com

States of Alderney

The States of Alderney is the legislative assembly of the Channel Island of Alderney, which remains a separate jurisdiction within the Bailiwick of Guernsey. The main economic drivers on Alderney include business services, finance, eGaming, tourism and energy. Alderney seeks to become the leading centre for regulation and standards for mutual distributed ledgers.

www.alderney.gov.gg