Passive income is nothing new in the world of crypto.

From masternodes to dividend-paying coins, there are multiple opportunities for the average crypto investor to take advantage of. However, these options are limited in number and far from mature; most would argue that the majority of cryptocurrency passive-income opportunities are still very high risk investments. Low or non-existent liquidity, unimpressive returns on investment and extreme price volatility are a few of the problems that plague current passive-income options in the crypto market. To many investors seeking passive income, these risks far outweigh the benefits. This highlights an enormous market opportunity: bringing stable passive income opportunities to the crypto markets.

On the other hand, passive income is far more common in traditional markets — by some estimates, the bond market is three times larger than the stock market. Common sources of secondary income include corporate and government bonds, high interest saving accounts, and dividend stocks. However, these traditional options carry their own set of inefficiencies. The need for a central authority to clear transactions and the constant involvement of intermediaries causes those transactions to be slow and expensive. A lack of immutability means there is no guarantee transactions made in the fiat world are final and irreversible. This brings us to another market opportunity: bringing fast, cheap, trustless transactions to traditional fixed-income markets.

FIC NETWORK

With cryptocurrency and traditional markets exhibiting almost opposite problems, new project FIC Network seeks to tackle these issues by taking the first ever steps to merging the fiat and cryptocurrency passive income markets.

As an all inclusive solution, FIC will function as a decentralized one-stop-shop for borrowers to securitise or investors to invest their crypto or fiat assets. Traditional investors will reap the benefits of the blockchain, and crypto investors will be able to gain interest on their own crypto assets without having to ever sell or withdraw them. Shifting the traditional fixed income market onto the blockchain eliminates a multitude of its current inefficiencies by providing a decentralised, cheap and transparent platform for transactions to occur on. Transaction times will be reduced from days or even weeks to a mere 3–10 seconds with every transfer being publicly recorded and stored on the FIC blockchain, with high levels of anonymity for borrowers and pseudonymity for investors . Allowing participants to interact directly with one another ensures a more efficient system including lower fees for both lenders and borrowers, ultimately creating a more profitable outcome for both parties. The result will be a secure, accelerated, more trustless P2P network which can connect all participants regardless of financial scale.

Furthermore, FIC will utilise a decentralised exchange (DEX) which is directly integrated within the platform, which means participants will only be exposed to the currency of their choosing. If the borrower wants to receive euros, but the lender prefers to pay in bitcoin and earn interest in dollars, the DEX automatically converts these for the members involved. Ultimately this leads to increased liquidity and stronger adoption potential.

So what’s the big picture for a cryptocurrency investor? Quite simply, FIC network is unlocking the ability to have your money work for you: investors can turn their “HODL” into a passive revenue stream. This flexibility is something the crypto market has never seen before, and combining this with the huge multi-trillion dollar fixed income fiat market has the potential to bring the benefits of blockchain to not only large businesses and corporations, but retail investors and smaller lenders alike. Consider everyone who has ever benefited from a loan or has earned interest on stocks, bonds or savings accounts; these are all people and companies poised to benefit from FIC Network. The speed, transparency and security of blockchain is about to give the fixed income market a much needed upgrade in this day and age.