Cryptocurrency has long been heralded as a technology that can change the world. But the fact is that it is largely only understood or trusted by those who understand the technology. This is because cryptocurrency is still pretty difficult to use. Sending funds to a seemingly random and unreadable hash of characters and numbers is something that turns off the average person.

Like the Internet before the World Wide Web, cryptocurrency needs a layer of technology that bridges the technological complexity with a more friendly user experience. The experience of dealing with even one cryptocurrency is not very satisfying for the average user. Combine this with all the exchanges and different tokens (along with their different address) that users must interact with and it can become a bewildering experience. FIO offers a solution to all of this by abstracting this complexity into a layer that simplifies and integrates much of the cryptocurrency ecosystem to give a cleaner and friendlier presentation to the end user.

What is FIO?

The FIO (Foundation for Interwallet Operability) Protocol is a decentralized service layer designed to improve usability across the entire cryptocurrency landscape. It is an industry standard that will simplify the interaction between every blockchain, token and coin. The protocol will be ultimately guided by the Foundation of Interwallet Operability (FIO), a consortium of wallets, exchanges and crypto payment processors.

How Does FIO Make Crypto Easier and Why is it Important?

The FIO protocol provides an address that works with every token and coin automatically. All the different addresses that must be used for each coin or token are no longer necessary to know about or even see. These addresses can be human-readable as opposed to the cryptic hashes that are used on the blockchain. Along with the ability to send fund requests to other parties, you can also attach metadata to any transaction. This removes the sometimes confusing task for figuring out what was behind a cryptocurrency transaction. This information can be encrypted to ensure total privacy.

Though FIO is still in the early stages, there are many other great features planned. These efforts and more are publicly viewable on this handy site, fio.tools. They are laid out in FIO Improvement Proposals (FIPs).

All of these features are important because making the use of cryptocurrency easier will make it more attractive to use. Being easier to use means that cryptocurrency’s advantages will shine that much brighter and increase its adoption. Abstracting public addresses and private keys will go a long way toward making the use of cryptocurrency so easy that even Granny can use it.

Increased adoption is something that all who are invested in cryptocurrency are eager to promote. That’s why Binance with its venture capital arm, Binance Labs has participated to help fund the development of FIO.

Binance Labs Led a Series A Funding Round Which Raised $5.7 Million for FIO

Dapix raised $5.7 million to fund the development of FIO, with Binance Labs leading the way. Other investors included Access Venture Partners and Dundee Venture Capital. This fundraising round followed a seed round in 2018 which raised $2.3 million.

FIO Token Now Listed on BitMax and Binance

On July 9, 2020, BitMax.io announced the listing of FIO Protocol on its platform. This was the first platform to list the token. On July 31, 2020, Binance listed the FIO Protocol in the form of the trading pairs FIO/BNB, FIO/BTC and FIO/BUSD.

A look to the future

The average person is no more comfortable using cryptocurrency in its present state than your grandpa is navigating a Linux command line. In order to get adoption for cryptocurrency as a whole, an easier and friendlier outward presentation must be made to the user. FIO offers a tremendous vision for making this happen. It is not only a vision but a project well under development to make that vision a reality. With funding from cryptocurrency leaders like Binance Labs and with a growing number of cryptocurrency exchanges on board, the project has the initial funding to proceed and the ability to raise more funds increases with each exchange listing.

Cryptocurrency has vast potential to break down financial barriers. One barrier that is often overlooked is the barrier to entry that comes with being difficult to use for the average person. No matter how often enthusiasts downplay these difficulties, the fact that remains that average people who are not passionate about the technology will not make the sacrifice to learn how to use it. That’s why a project like FIO is needed and companies like Binance recognize this. Having a user-friendly layer on top of the cryptocurrency ecosystem has the potential to greatly enhance the community as a whole.

About the author:

Brad Spannbauer is the founder of Currency Hub LLC. He is a 20+ year internet veteran, compliance guru and a Certified Bitcoin Professional. Currency Hub is a FIO affiliate member & block producer.

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