The Foundation for Interwallet Operability (FiO) is a blockchain consortium of wallets, exchanges and cryptocurrency payments providers, all of whom utilize the FIO protocol. Development is overseen by the FiO foundation, and the company originally behind the development of the protocol, Dapix, received $5.7 million in funding through Binance’s venture arm, Binance Labs.

The FIO protocol has been described as an “industry standard, decentralized service layer that improves usability across every blockchain, token or coin.” Its mission has been described as doing for the blockchain ecosystem what the HTTP protocol did for the internet.”

The FIO blockchain uses the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus algorithm, which the team says ensures scalability and provides adequate incentive mechanisms for network contributors. The network’s token, FIO, is used to pay for transactions - but the distinction here being that users will pay a “modest” yearly registration cost associated with the FIO address. 

The project’s roadmap is a detailed document that does not provide specific dates for most objectives, though it does offer a thorough look into the development process and vision. The roadmap does state that the initial version of the FIO protocol is expected to launch in Q1 2020.

In the year following the mainnet launch, the team has outlined the following goals: a pricing oracle, a block explorer, enabling the FIO domain in other wallets and more. Secondary ideas include aliases, multi-sig routing, a verified user program, browser plug-ins, among other ideas.

Several prominent entities in the cryptocurrency space have already already joined the FiO consortium. Members include the ShapeShift, Mycelium, Enjin Wallet, Coinomi, KeepKey, TrustWallet, MyCrypto, Bitcoin.com and many more.