A Retrospective
As our team looks back over the last year, we’ve had significant milestones — far exceeding our expectations.
- Over 28+ FIO Members (with more in talks)
- A successful Series A raise into Dapix (the company building the initial version of the FIO Protocol) with Binance Labs, Blockwall Capital, NGC Ventures and LuneX Ventures
- The formal creation of the Foundation for Interwallet Operability, in addition to the assignment of Luke Stokes as its inaugural Managing Director
- The successful launch and completion of the FIO Crypto Handle (formerly known as FIO Address) Presale
- 10x our social media following in 3 months! (2.5k to over 35k on Twitter)
- Creation of the FIO Protocol Testnet and a growing number of interested Block Producers (BPs)
- Initial integrations with 8+ wallets already completed
- Full set of SDKs available at our developer portal (with more coming)
In the tradition of transparency, though, we’ll admit that building this protocol throughout the bear market wasn’t always fun. Market sentiment bombed along with price, and many wallets and exchanges are struggling with finding sustainable business models. It would be a lie to say that this didn’t affect our project, as it did with almost every project in this space. We have been fortunate — projects that have managed to thrive during this time have also lent their support to the FIO Protocol, deepening the quality of the expertise and encouragement we’ve received.
With a new decade upon us, we have never been more excited about the future. We believe, as we always have, that usability is one of the critical issues needed for the blockchain industry to genuinely mature. Whether you are a trader, a dApp user, a spender, or even if all you do is transfer crypto to cold storage to HODL, usability affects every user regardless of the token or coin they use.
What to Expect
We are planning to launch mainnet this quarter (Q1 of 2020), which means that we’re running through tests, security audits, fixes, integrations, in addition to continuing conversations with FIO Members around future roadmap items and tools for the community. Also, we have been running our testnet for weeks, with several block producers already participating in running nodes.
Not everything will happen on day one of launch. We will happily share details of what’s in, what’s out, and what’s coming as part of this “Road to Mainnet” series that will occur weekly. At a minimum, expect to be able to use the FIO Protocol as intended — to send crypto, request crypto, and store metadata across any blockchain transaction with an easy-to-use, human-readable FIO Crypto Handle. There are certain features that we already know won’t be available immediately, but none of them should be critical to your ability to enjoy the usability enhancements of the FIO Protocol.
In terms of wallet integrations — while all FIO Members are planning to integrate the FIO Protocol eventually, not every wallet will necessarily be feature-complete right at mainnet launch. We are working diligently with the development teams at several wallets to complete integration, and we will publish the finalized list of who will be ready at mainnet launch, and who will be coming shortly after.
The Road to Mainnet Series
While the development team is hard at work, the rest of the team wants to start bringing you into the conversation. Over the next few weeks, we have several exciting initiatives that we’re currently working on.
- AMAs with FIO’s Managing Director, Luke Stokes
- A new resource center on our website to answer FAQs
- A few things for the community to vote on :)
Also, expect weekly blog posts about mainnet launch details (as they are finalized), including:
- Dates
- Integrated wallets
- Features that are in, and those that are coming soon
- Tokenonomics
- Educational materials/animations/videos, etc
- Open source status
- …and a few other surprises :)
Let us know what else you’d like to hear about from us! Or save it for our first AMA (coming soon).
