Anyone who has some experience with sending and receiving crypto payments from wallets will be aware that it can be a confusing process.
The Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FIO) is trying to change this.
A consortium of leading blockchain wallets, exchanges and payments providers, it is developing a decentralized, open-source protocol to make the user experience of sending and receiving cryptoassets far smoother.
We spoke with FIO Protocol founder David Gold about the project, the current problems with transacting cryptoassets, and what industry trends excite him.
Could you give us a high level overview of the Foundation for Interwallet Operability and the FIO Protocol?
FIO is a consortium of major wallets, exchanges and crypto payment processors working together on the FIO Protocol. The FIO Protocol is a decentralized side-chain to the entire blockchain ecosystem that will enable “venmo like” usability and more across every blockchain token/coin and in any wallet, exchange or crypto payment processor. The FIO Protocol enables a usability layer that is homogeneous across all other blockchains and which abstracts away the complexities on workflow limitations that exist on blockchains today.
What are the biggest issues with spending and transaction cryptoassets at the moment?
55% of people who sent crypto in a decentralized fashion in 2018 felt less than completely confident that their transactions would go as planned. 18% had one or more issues when sending including complete loss of funds. And 6% were subject to man-in-the-middle attacks on the public address. Bottom line… crypto is far from the degree of usability that it must have to be broadly adopted especially in a world of irreversible transactions.
Are you in talks to include Ledger and Trezor to FIO?
We are in discussions with most of the largest players in the crypto wallet ecosystem. But specifics on those discussions aren’t disclosed until a wallet decides to join FIO.
What trends in the industry are most you are interested in right now?
The increased focus on real projects that will generate real results and enable the use of blockchain in commerce and for utility… in other words, getting beyond sheer speculation.
Are you interested in other projects that aim to improve cryptoasset interoperability and ease of use?
Yes… in particular projects that focus on blockchain interoperability like Cosmos. Those projects are solving a very different problem that FIO. They are enabling blockchains to interact with each other creating the ability to have cross chain exchanges of value. Whereas FIO creates a greatly enhanced user experience in interacting with those blockchains. Together, projects like Cosmos and FIO can create 1+1=3
Where do you see projects such as Cosmos and the FIO protocol in 2 years?
I see cross chain transactions being enabled by projects by Cosmos and I see virtually every wallet, exchange and crypto payment processor integrating the open source FIO Protocol to enable users to have an ease of use in moving blockchain value that is even better than Venmo.
