Please see the latest discussion on this here: Renaming FIO Address to Minimize Market Confusion

(Below is outdated)

Since the inception of FIO, we’ve continually run into confusion with the “FIO Address” label. Contest after contest where we ask people to provide us with their FIO Address, we get an overwhelming number of people who reply with their FIO Public Key instead. That’s the long string of confusing characters starting with “FIO…”. It may be that the cryptocurrency community thinks of the long string of characters when they hear about a cryptocurrency “address.”

We’ve tried collecting data on this through surveys, and the results haven’t aligned with our lived experience.

Open

Open

Those filling out the survey may think, “Yeah, looks like an email, so address makes sense” but those responding to contests with “Give us your FIO Address” are failing at this as demonstrated in this recent (and other) giveaways.

More than 50% (18 out of 30) not being able to follow the giveaway instructions is a failing grade. We must do better.

What we know: “FIO Address” alone creates confusion.

What we don’t know for sure: What is a better descriptor than FIO Address or can we solve this confusion some other way?

Surveying people on Twitter or Telegram doesn’t seem to appropriately reflect the confusion created in real interactions.

What if we doubled down on education?

People don’t know what a FIO Address is. They also wouldn’t know what a FIO Name, FIO Handle, FIO Tag, FIO ID, or FIO Wallet Name is. They fall back on what they know and “address” in crypto means a long crazy string. If that confusion wasn’t there, FIO Address wouldn’t be that bad of an identifier as it addresses where the cryptocurrency/NFT goes, just like addressing where your email goes or where your postal mail goes.

What if we simply acknowledged this challenge and faced it head on by always, every time, including an example when we talk about a FIO Address with (username@domain)? It takes up important real estate from a Tweet, but it might solve the issue after a few months when more people know what the term means and use it regularly. “RT and include your FIO Address (username@domain) as a comment.”

Pros:

• Less work to rebrand everything right now.

• Gives us feedback on whether or not we can overcome the confusion with a simple change instead of a drastic one.

• Doesn’t put us in the terrible position of making a change now and finding out later it’s the wrong one.

Cons:

• Still creates a challenge for the business development, marketing, and sales team.

• Wallets may still ignore us and use FIO Name, FIO ID, etc anyway.

• Takes up a lot of valuable text by always using the example (username@domain)

Alternative Options (with Pros/Cons for each)

After lots of discussion, we haven’t yet come to consensus even within our team which means the best path forward may be to get a poll (numerator, pollfish, qualtrics, surveymonkey) in place in front of real people in our target age group and ask them which option they prefer for something like a “human readable identifier for a payment system account” (exact survey question and description TBD). We don’t have to just survey crypto people. It might be better if we don’t. If we want, we can exclude FIO Address as an option in the poll (or run multiple polls), but if we include it and it wins, that may tell us education is the right approach.

Drop FIO and go generic:

We also considered dropping the “FIO” from the branding all together and trying to own a term outright (like Kleenex) with ideas like Crypto Wallet, Crypto Handle, Crypto Name, or Wallet Name but ultimately decided the FIO branding is important.

Pros:

• Owning it completely so all wallets could integrate it and, over time, it could become known throughout the industry as the standard.

Cons:

• Losing the percentage of people that want to know more and get more involved in the community. How can they find us? Including “FIO” in the identifier accomplishes this important connection to our community.

FIO Handle:

Pros:

• Already understood and reference by marketing personnel (see comments).

• Handle implies your mechanism for being known within and interacting with a network (“Twitter Handle”, “Telegram Handle” etc).

• Already understood as your public username.

• Not confused with address.

Cons:

• Usually starts with an @ meaning it could actually be confused with the domain.

• The argument has been made social media platforms are moving away from this description.

• The argument has been made it’s not known at all by younger folk.

• May not translate well.

FIO Name:

Pros:

• It’s personal.

• Already implemented as such in Edge Wallet

Cons:

• Name implies your actual name (“Luke Stokes”) which may bother privacy advocates.

• FIO doesn’t have to be your name, it can be anything you want.

FIO Wallet Name:

Pros:

• Descriptive.

Cons:

• Too long and some may drop the FIO branding to just use “Wallet Name” which might hurt our branding efforts.

FIO ID:

Pros:

• Short, simple, and clear.

• It is, after all, a human readable identifier of your cryptocurrency public addresses.

Cons:

• Reminds people of something assigned to them, not something they got to choose themselves and own in a self-sovereign way.

• It’s cold and sterile, not human and engaging.

• Closely resembles existing concepts like “DID” which are technical.

• Could get confused with Exchange ID.

FIO Tag:

Pros:

• Other platforms are starting to use this terminology

• Fits with the “tag me in that message” approach

Cons:

• Some may not be familiar with “tag” other than something attached to their clothing or a game they played as a kids.

• We might be too early to push this term before people comprehend it.

• Do people really say “Twitter Tag” or “Telegram Tag” or “Venmo Tag”?

FIO Account:

Pros:

• You register an “account” with a service and this is your account on the FIO blockchain service.

Cons:

• Sounds impersonal, like something assigned.

FIO Username / FIO Wallet Username

Pros:

• …

Cons:

• Username can create confusion as many wallets already have a username with password to login and in some cases encrypt their seed phrases.

FIO Crypto Handle

Pros:

• Crypto is a word growing in popularity in culture.

Cons:

• Too long, might get shorted to Crypto Handle.

• Old demographic may think of “crypto” as a scam or unsafe.

FIO <X>: The Parts

Option 1:

Leave as is, “FIO Name” and “FIO Domain”

Pros:

• No work to do.

Cons:

• “FIO Name” in the context of other changes we’re proposing will probably cause confusion.

• Edge Wallet (for example) already uses “FIO Name” for the full FIO identifier.

• “FIO Domain” confuses people who are familiar DNS and unstoppable domains and they think this part of the identifier has more functionality than it really does.

Option 2:

username@network

In a FIO branded context (such as a FIO identifier registration site), there’s no reason to say “FIO Username” or “FIO Network” as “FIO” is implied. In a non-FIO branded environment (such as an NFT marketplace), the network will be the only part traded separately so in that context it will be described as a “FIO Network” NFT.

Pros:

• username makes sense for what this part of the identifier is, especially in connection with a network

• network avoids the domain confusion mentioned above.

• network works for communities (luke@btc: luke as part of the bitcoin network), wallets and software (luke@edge: luke as a user and member of the Edge Wallet network), and exchanges (luke@bitmaxfio: luke as a member of the Bitmax exchange, quite possibly including special characteristics within that network such as KYC verification).

• Creates opportunities to promote FIO as a solution for networks and communities.

• Taps into a feeling of belonging to a tribe.

Cons:

• Some say network is more confusing than domain and will require more education.

Option 3:

FIO

just use the term FIO. Make it a verb meaning to own your name/ID and effortlessly send and receive decryption and digital assets. Do my handle becomes my FIO or a FIO and I send to your FIO. (Like SWIFT at bank)

Pros:

• Simple

• Can define and execute into a blue ocean

  • Self determination

  • Kaitie’s slam dunk offense

• Good for branding

Cons:

• Need to design and execute market education

• Risk of competition getting mind/market share and marginalizing our impact