FIO Crypto Handle — The New Name for FIO Address

Since the launch of Mainnet, the FIO Protocol ecosystem has rapidly grown to more than thirty integrated wallets, exchanges, payment processors, and NFT marketplaces — with an additional list of partners who are currently in the process of integrating. To date, this ecosystem expansion has enabled FIO Protocol functionality across more than 12k eCommerce sites and produced the registration of 550k+ (and counting) FIO Crypto Handles.

But what is a FIO Crypto Handle?

As is sometimes the case with revolutionary technology, finding the perfect name — one that both clearly describes the solution at hand and resonates strongly with end users — can take some time. As FIO Protocol continued to grow, so too did community feedback on occasional confusion surrounding the use of FIO Address and FIO Name for the labeling of our human-readable wallet names (e.g. username@domain). As we move into a new year of building better crypto usability, we’re excited to announce that the community’s voice has been heard and changes are underway; we have officially started to sunset the use of both FIO Address and FIO Name, and are actively replacing those legacy terms with the community-supported term: FIO Crypto Handle.

But what is a FIO Crypto Handle?

FIO Crypto Handles are human-readable wallet identifiers that replace traditional, long-string public wallet addresses. They are formatted as username@domain, and allow users to send, receive, and request any type of cryptocurrency to and from these easy-to-read wallet names instead of copy and pasting complex public addresses. This ease of use is built to mitigate loss-making errors associated with incorrectly entered public addresses or blockchain type, as well as provide protection against man-in-the-middle attacks.

While we’ve already completed updates on our website and in community communications, we’re still in the process of working closely with integration partners to update in-app naming across the FIO Protocol ecosystem in full. Additionally, it’s important to note that this updated nomenclature does not apply to any in-code variables or calls. All documentation in the FIO Knowledge Base, Developer Hub, and Github is accurate and up-to-date as is.

Thank you to the FIO community for facilitating this transition — your feedback, recommendations, and contributions have been invaluable, and we’re excited for this opportunity to bring more clarity and even better usability to FIO Protocol functionality.

About FIO

FIO, the Foundation for Interwallet Operability, is a decentralized consortium of blockchain organizations and community members supporting the ongoing development, integration, and promotion of the FIO Protocol. The protocol is an open-source, decentralized usability layer solution that works across all blockchains, and uses human-readable Crypto Handles to replace the complexity, risk, and inconvenience that comes with blockchain-based transactions using public addresses.