Insurance is a joke? If pirate defaults, people get .32 btc per bond. There's no gimmick to it and its better than getting nothing.
I wouldn't say insurance is a joke, but mathematically speaking, it just increases the profit as oppose to reducing the risk. So because of the insurance, it may look like a less risky investment than a pure pirate investment. But it really is not. The risk is exactly the same, but your profit is actually more than what you thought it was.
I will give you an example. Lets say you purchased a PPT bond for 1.10, which will be bought back at 1.28. So your 4 week interest is (1.28 - 1.10)/1.10 or 16.4% with a .32 insurance if pirate defaults. But think of it another way. Since you always get paid back the .32 whether or not pirate defaults. It's as if you just set aside .32 bitcoins in a different wallet (or address) that you own, and at the end of the 4 weeks, you transfer those .32 bitcoins back to yourself. Then effectively, instead of the PPT bond costing 1.10, it now costs 1.10 - .32 or .78 btc. And instead of being bought back for 1.28, it now will be bought back for 1.28 - .32 = .96 btc. So your effective interest is (.96 - .78)/.78 or 23.1%. So mathematically, the 16.4% interest with a .32 "pirate default" insurance is the same as 23.1% interest with no insurance.
I think the insurance does more to muddy the actual risk and reward calculation for the bond. It makes it harder to do an apples to apples comparison with investing with pirate directly and with other pirate pass through bonds or deposit programs. But that's just what I think.
Yes, but it can be easier or more complicated.
Previous purchasers have contributed to the insurance and since Pirate didn't default and continues not to default then eventually the lost profit diminishes with time up to the availability rate.
If the trust takes 1% of profit per week and applies it to insurance, then eventually the insurance is fully funded at 100%. Which at that time will be a boon for that investor if he is trusted since peoples funds are fully insured to 'guarantee' no loss. It will be a self funded FDIC up to a preset amount (availability in this case).
Then the investors profits are back at 100% also.
What makes it even more interesting is the investor could keep the 1% draw on after being fully insured and start re-investing with others and offer a higher payout but slowly decreasing the insurance to an acceptable amount. Would definitely put pressure on the others to follow suit or lose customers.