Cargo insurance

How Pelusium cargo insurance works—premiums, claims, LP underwriting, and the pool pie.

Cargo insurance

Players: treat insurance as experimental. You can lose premium if a haul succeeds, and underwriters (LPs) can lose capital when claims pay. Rules and UX may change. Always read what your wallet is signing.

Cargo insurance is optional cover tied to a freight job. You pay a premium in SUI so that, if the haul fails under the policy rules, you can claim up to the insured cargo value from a shared pool. That pool is funded by liquidity providers (LPs) who deposit SUI hoping to earn premiums when jobs finish safely.

It is separate from freight escrow (payment for the haul) and from speculation (side bets on on-time vs late). Insurance is about cargo value risk, not courier pay.

Trust model: On-chain freight job state is the source of truth for delivery, overdue refunds, and undelivered claims. Destruction claims (e.g. freighter destroyed en route) need a signed destruction witness from Pelusium’s configured oracle—not a raw killmail object the contract can read today. Treat destruction payouts as oracle-dependent.

If your deployment is paused or waiting on world-contract support, you may still browse insurance screens while final purchase or claim actions stop at signing.

Two roles

Role	What you do	How you make or lose money
Insured (usually shipper / cargo owner)	Buy a policy on a freight job; pay premium	Lose premium if the haul succeeds; claim cargo value if the policy pays out
LP / underwriter	Deposit SUI into the pool; later unbond to withdraw	Earn premiums when policies expire safely; lose when claims pay from the pool

One job can have at most one active policy.

What a policy covers

Claim path	Wins when (simplified)	Trust basis
Undelivered	Coverage window has ended and the job was not delivered (e.g. overdue / still in transit past end / cancelled per rules)	On-chain freight job state + time
Destruction	Oracle-signed destruction witness matches the policy/job during coverage	Pelusium oracle signature (not native killmail verification in Move today)

Coverage timing follows the job’s delivery window (plus a configured grace period). Exact start/end are set when you purchase—check the app for your policy.

You can usually cancel a policy only while the job is still open or accepted (not after pickup). Cancel refunds most of the premium minus a cancellation fee.

Lifecycle

1. LPs deposit into the shared pool (underwriting capital).
2. You create or pick a freight job, get a premium quote, and purchase a policy (premium + any small creation fee).
3. While the job is early enough, you may cancel for a partial refund.
4. If the job delivers, anyone can expire the policy: premium moves into the LP pool as earned yield.
5. If the job fails under claim rules, the insured claims and receives up to cargo value from the pool.

How the money moves (simple pie examples)

Numbers below use the default-style 1.5% premium and 10% cancel fee (short-rate style). Your quote and deployment may differ—always trust the wallet preview.

Example A — haul succeeds

You insure 100 SUI of cargo value and pay 1.5 SUI premium.

• The haul delivers → policy expires.
• That 1.5 SUI premium is earned by the pool (LPs). You do not get cargo payout from insurance (you didn’t need it).

Example B — claim pays

Same policy: 100 cargo value, 1.5 premium. The claim path succeeds.

• You receive 100 SUI claim payout from the pool.
• Your 1.5 SUI premium was already paid in; economically the pool is funding the large payout (premium is tiny next to cargo value).

For LPs, a claim is the risk they underwrite: large payouts shrink pool value relative to shares.

Example C — cancel before pickup

You paid 1.5 SUI premium; cancel fee 10% → 0.15 SUI stays with the pool, 1.35 SUI refunded.

Pool capacity (why quotes can be refused)

The pool will not sell unlimited cover. A max coverage ratio caps how much locked exposure (sum of active cargo values) can sit against pool value—for example around 50% on cautious deployments.

If the pool is full or paused, new policies can fail even if you have SUI for the premium.

LPs: deposit and unbond

• Deposit — You send SUI; you receive an LP position with shares of the pool.
• Request unbond — Start withdrawing some or all shares; a cooldown applies (often on the order of days—check the app).
• Complete unbond — After the cooldown, burn those shares for your pro‑rata slice of current pool value (which may be up or down if claims hit during the wait).

LPs earn when premiums expire into the pool; they lose when claims pay. There is no guaranteed APY.

Insurance vs speculation vs escrow

	Freight escrow	Insurance	Speculation
Purpose	Pay the courier (and optional goods)	Cover cargo value if the haul fails	Side bet on on-time vs late
Who puts money in	Shipper locks escrow	Insured pays premium; LPs fund pool	Bettors stake For / Against
Who gets paid on success	Courier (per job rules)	LPs earn the premium	For bettors (if on-time)
Who gets paid on fail	Often shipper refund paths	Insured claims cargo value	Against bettors

What works today

• Shared insurance pool: LP deposit / unbond, policy purchase with signed quote, cancel, expire on delivery, claim undelivered, claim destruction with oracle witness.
• App surfaces under Insurance (policies and underwrite) when your deployment has pool IDs configured.

What’s still rough

• Pricing may be a simple flat premium (sometimes with a distance factor)—not a full risk model yet.
• Destruction claims depend on the oracle pipeline; undelivered claims are closer to pure on-chain job state.
• Treat every premium and LP deposit as money you can lose.

Related

• Shipping & freight jobs — the haul insurance attaches to
• Speculation pools — optional side bets on the same job’s timing
• Glossary — short definitions
• FAQ — common questions