FIO Protocol (FIO)
A Decentralized Usability Layer for Cryptocurrency Transactions.- FIO Protocol (FIO) is a decentralized blockchain protocol that aims to enable a better way of sending and receiving coins and tokens.
- The FIO token is the native utility token of the project's blockchain infrastructure, FIO Chain, and is used for transaction gas fees and onchain governance.
- FIO Chain is a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) blockchain that is designed to manage the high data-write needs of the FIO Protocol. Block Producers (BP) do not collect block rewards, nor incur any token supply inflation. Instead, BPs only get rewards from transaction fees.
- As of the time of writing, the project has launched:
- FIO Address: allows users to initiate onchain transactions with intelligeble identifiers such as "tom@trustwallet" or "jack@ethereum";
- FIO Requests: allows users to request funds from anyone using supported wallets, with in-app notifications and simple approvals;
- FIO Data: allows encrypted metadata to be attached to any transaction.
- 16.02% of total FIO token supply has been distributed to equity investors, while 1.41% of the total FIO token supply were sold via private token sales. FIO protocol raised a total of 6.27MM USD from equity and private token sales.
1. What is FIO Protocol (FIO)?
The FIO Protocol is a decentralized usability layer that connects crypto wallets, exchanges, payment processors, and any other application in which crypto assets are held or transferred.
The project aims to make the user experience of interacting with all blockchains easier, less complicated and risky, and therefore reducing user friction.
Some of its key highlights include:
- Human-meaningful: allows users to initiate transactions using intelligeble identifiers such as "tom@trustwallet" or "jack@ethereum".
- Decentralized: powered by a public blockchain that does not require a centralized solution of a trusted third party.
- Secure: all FIO Protocol transactions require a FIO private key, which is controlled by the user herself.
- Private: sensitive information such as public addresses and metadata can be encrypted on the blockchain.
- Interoperable: once integrated into a wallet, the FIO Protocol works with any blockchain and cryptocurrency without any integration to those chains.
- eCommerce-ready: enables request for payment functionality along with private metadata for every transaction.
1.1 Recent news
- July 2020: Release of e-commerce plugin and proof-of-concept online store.
- June 2020: Free FIO Addresses made available on Edge and Guarda Wallet.
- April 2020: Release of the first FIO Protocol integrations in Edge, Scatter, Guarda and Trust Wallet.
- March 2020: Launch of FIO Protocol Mainnet.
- November 2019: Launch of FIO Protocol Testnet.
2. Existing products and technical infrastructure
2.1 Existing products
FIO Address acts as the human-readable wallet identifier for users on the FIO Protocol. It is necessary for users to utilize all the capabilities of the FIO Protocol, but also serve as a replacement for complicated public addresses across all tokens and coins in users' wallets.
FIO Addresses have the construct of username@domain. Examples of a FIO Address would be: "tom@trustwallet" or jack@ethereum".
The registration of a FIO Address can done directly through an application that has integrated the FIO Protocol, or through a hosted registration site that is open to the community. Applications and service providers who have already integrated with the FIO Protocol can be found here.
The FIO Addresses and all subsequent interactions with the FIO Protocol are controlled by FIO private keys owned by users themselves.
A FIO Address has a default yearly fee in FIO tokens, and is bonded with 100 free transactions.
If a user has used all of her free transaction quota before the next year, she could choose to renew her yearly subscription early with another FIO token payment, or to pay transactions individually going forward. If the renewal fee for a FIO Address is not paid by its expiration date, the address will be temporarily disabled.
FIO Request allows a user to initiate a transaction in which a payee is requesting funds from a payer using FIO Addresses. This request is stored onchain, and all sensitive metadata such as currency, amount, public address of payee, FIO Data, etc., is encrypted using the Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
The payer's wallet or application communicates with the FIO Chain for relevant FIO Requests, and decrypts the request inside her wallet. The payer can choose whether to approve or reject the requests.
FIO Data is metadata that can accompany any blockchain transaction. This metadata can range from a simple memo (e.g., "for lunch"), to structured data like an order cart, exchange deposit details, or hashes that refer to off-chain data. FIO Data can be used to support decentralized commerce, in which conventional transaction information such as invoices, dates, and contact information can be stored on-chain for future audits.
FIO Data can also include metadata related to a native blockchain transaction, such as transaction ids, refund addresses, and hashes of off-chain data.
2.2 Technical Infrastructure
The FIO Chain is utilizing Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) to achieve network consensus. Block Producers (BPs) are chosen by users who hold FIO tokens via onchain voting. Anyone can register to become a BP and produce blocks if they receive enough votes.
Voting will be conducted after every epoch, or 126 blocks, and 21 active BPs and 21 standby BPs will be selected. For each block, 40% of the fees collected will be split evenly amongst the 21 active BPs, while 60% of the fees will be distributed to all active and standby BPs proportionally, according to how many votes each BP receives.
Blocks are produced exactly every 0.5 seconds. During each epoch, the 21 active BPs will each produce 6 blocks. BPs can modify system settings and smart contracts with ⅔ + 1 (at least 15 BPs) supermajority.
Every interaction with the FIO blockchain can be tagged with an optional Technology Provider ID (TPID), a type of FIO Address. When such a transaction is submitted, the tagged FIO Address will receive a portion of fees collected. This feature is made to increase the adoption of the FIO Protocol among existing blockchain ecosystem participants.
3. Economics and supply
Token allocation
| Token Name | FIO |
|---|---|
| Equity Investors | 16.42% of total token supply |
| Private Sale 1 | 0.04% of total token supply |
| Private Sale 2 | 0.04% of total token supply |
| Private Sale 3 | 1.33% of total token supply |
| Team | 17.53% of total token supply |
| Advisors | 1.05% of total token supply |
| Foundation | 22.01% of total token supply |
| Foundation Service Provider | 0.32% of total token supply |
| Future Token Sales Reserve | 3.59% of total token supply |
| Bounties | 12.50% of total token supply |
| Integration Incentives | 11.39% of total token supply |
| FIO Address Giveaway | 12.50% of total token supply |
| Block Producer Incentives | 1.00% of total token supply |
| Airdrop | 0.28% of total token supply |
Token sales data
| Token Name | FIO |
|---|---|
| Private Sale 1 Price | 0.0500 USD / FIO |
| Private Sale 1 Allocation | 400,000 FIO |
| Private Sale 1 Amount Raised | 20,000 USD (20,000 USDT) |
| Private Sale 2 Price | 0.1200 USD / FIO |
| Private Sale 2 Allocation | 400,000 FIO |
| Private Sale 2 Amount Raised | 48,000 USD |
| Private Sale 3 Price | 0.0375 USD / FIO |
| Private Sale 3 Allocation | 13,333,333 FIO |
| Private Sale 3 Amount Raised | 500,000 USD |
16.02% of total FIO token supply has been distributed to equity investors. FIO protocol raised a total of 6.27MM USD from equity and private token sales.
FIO token distribution (%)
3.3 Token governance and use of funds
As of writing, FIO Protocol has used approximately 76.00% of funds raised according to the allocations below:
- 60.90% Protocol Development.
- 15.20% Business Development and End User Marketing.
- 8.10% Legal.
- 15.80% Administrative.
FIO token release schedule
The following chart represents the number and breakdown of all FIO tokens that are to be released into circulation on a monthly basis. Bounties and FIO Address Giveaway tokens will continue to be released after October 2024.
3.4 FIO token overview and use-cases
The FIO token is used primarily for:
- Address and domain registration fees
- Transaction fees
- Block Producer voting
4. Project team
Dapix is a service provider to the Foundation, and has built the first version of the FIO Protocol.
5. Roadmap, updates, and business development
5.1 Original roadmap and achievements
| Date | Milestone | Commentary |
|---|---|---|
| 2018: Q4 | Launch of the Foundation for Interwallet Operability | Medium |
| 2018: Q4 | Launch of product integration alpha | Medium |
| 2019: Q3 | Launch of FIO Address pre-sale | Medium |
| 2019: Q4 | Launch of FIO Chain testnet | Medium |
| 2020: Q1 | Release of core protocol functionalities | Medium |
5.2 Updated roadmap
The current list of FIO Improvements Proposals (FIPs) can be found here.
2020 Q3
- Release of new fee computations.
- Release of API paging improvements.
2020 Q4
- Release of token burn functionalities.
- Allowing voting and proxying without a FIO Address.
5.3 Commercial partnerships and business development progress
The FIO Ecosystem consists of wallets, exchanges, applications, tools, crypto payments processors, and other supporters of the FIO Protocol. A full list of the members of the FIO Ecosystem can be found here.
6. FIO Protocol's activity and community overview
6.1 Development activity
6.2 Social and community activity
Strategy overview
FIO Protocol will initially focus its community development efforts in North America and Europe, and will gradually expand to other regions as the project grows.
Current community growth strategies of FIO Protocol include:
- Building an extensive worker proposal system and reputation system to incentivize community contribution.
- Providing consistent updates on all of FIO Protocol’s activities.
- Developing an extensive online knowledge base.
- Conducting joint campaigns with FIO Ecosystem partners.
- Attracting users with the onchain referral system.
- Launching various giveaway and airdrop campaigns with key ecosystem participants.
Future community growth strategies of FIO Protocol include:
- Providing more tools to community members to create and manage international communities
- Launching grants, bounties and service contracts.
- Reaching out to more companies for potential partnerships.
Community and social channels (Data as of August 11th 2020)
Twitter (English) | 52.0K Followers
Telegram (English) | 14.6K Members
Reddit (English) | 130 Members
Facebook (English) | 250 Followers
Discord (English) | 853 Members
Blog (English)
7. Appendix
Documents
Advisors
- Erik Voorhees (Founder of Shapeshift)
- Michael Perklin (Chief Information Security Officer at ShapeShift)
- Scott Sallinen (Blockchain theory and mathematics expert)