And Yet Further Thoughts on FIO

An update from this post ...

I started "staking" FIO tokens -- that is, making them available for network use and earning rewards from a pool -- in February as soon as that functionality became available via the Edge wallet.

What's my rate of return? Well, I can't tell you exactly. Earlier stakers earn bigger rewards, and I've added tokens to my staked amount over time. But it's an average of more than 10% over four months. To be more precise, as of today, my rewards are equal to 10.36 of the total number of tokens staked.

Of course, the value of the FIO token has gone down since February -- but no more so than the value of the cryptocurrency/ies I used to buy the tokens I staked. My expectation is that when e.g. Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash come back up to higher prices, the FIO token will do the same.

FIO is a good use case. It makes crypto transactions easy, and bookkeeping-friendly, across a range of currencies.

My only complaint about FIO staking remains: Rewards only become accessible when you un-stake your staked tokens. I wish it was possible to access the rewards without un-staking, if only to stake them as well.

As for use of the FIO protocol, I'm interested in that bookkeeping-friendly aspect. You can attach memos to each transaction over the protocol. For example, if I send Bitcoin from my FIO name to yours, I can specify that it's "for 1 kilogram of pure cocaine." And that memo, if I understand things correctly, is encrypted specifically to our mutual FIO addresses so that unfriendly eyes can't read it. The transaction itself will appear on the blockchains of whatever cryptocurrencies are being used, but our reasons won't be visible to everyone.

I'd like to see some kind of toggle on that, so that the FIO chain could be used as a public message registry too.

For example, suppose I wanted to start a petition to free Julian Assange. The way to "sign" that petition would be to send any amount of any cryptocurrency to any FIO address, from any FIO address, with "free Julian Assange" in the memo line, set to "public." Then a blockchain explorer could easily pull up a number and list of FIO names which have "signed the petition."

The fact that there would be a cost, however slight, to "signing" the petition is a feature, not a bug. It would reduce fake/multiple signatures. And in the example above, it wouldn't be "pay the petition organizer." You could send any amount of any cryptocurrency to anyone -- all that would matter would be that you included that message.

An alternative to a public message toggle would be to simply set up an FIO name for the petition or registry. Sending any amount of any cryptocurrency to that address would constitute "signing." But if I understand the FIO protocol correctly, transactions between FIO names are not themselves publicly searchable. Your FIO name is connected to a set of cryptocurrency wallets and the transactions to and from those addresses are on the public blockchains, but you can't just go and see a public record of transactions to, to use my FIO name, knappster@edge.

If you've read my posts on e.g. Ravencoin assets, you know this public registry thing is a been in my bonnet. There are applications I have in mind, and I haven't yet found the perfect tool for them. The FIO protocol looks promising given certain feature additions, but those additions might be at odds with FIO's chosen mission.