Crypto-exchanges. They're a-dime-a-dozen these days. Every other day you’ll hear about a new one popping up and it’s already so hard to keep track of them, especially to find the best rates to convert fiat currency to the cryptocurrency of your choice, then to altcoins, or vice versa.

So what do you do to stand out?

You beat the competition flat in what they do best, and in what they don’t even offer.

Enter Blockchain.io, the true diamond in the rough.

Who are they?

Blockchain.io is a comprehensive ecosystem for secure and efficient access to what they call the ‘Internet of Value’:

• Gearing up to become the leader in European cryptocurrency exchange
• Combining a centralized exchange with decentralized settlement
• Offering liquidity services to assist ICO campaigns and ICO listings

If you're wondering how they managed to snatch up such a catchy name, it's because their founder and CEO had the wisdom and foresight to do during the inception of blockchain technology itself in 2012.

So, how do they stand out from any other crypto exchange out there in the market already?

Blockchain.io intends to combine the best of both centralized exchanges (fast order matching, strong liquidity and easy trading) and decentralized exchanges (security, low cost and speedy) into a hybrid exchange offering ‘fair exchange settlements’.

How secure are they?

Blockchain.io has been hack-free since their inception in 2013. For a company that has been around since the beginning of the blockchain technology itself, this is a big deal.

They will store 98% of their data offline in crypto cold-storage (which means it cannot be accessed remotely by any hostile third parties) with cryptographic proof of reserves to boot.

Pierre Noizat, founder and CEO says that they are willing to go to these lengths even at the cost of convenience on their end, all to safeguard the security of their infrastructure against hacks.

Just how reliable are they anyway?

Blockchain.io needs a minimal amount of downtime and can maintain resilience under heavy user volume, high traffic and even DDoS attacks.

As Pierre explains it, they are prepared as an exchange platform for when they are needed most: When the market is at its most volatile. Because of that, their processing capacity in the first phase can support up to 2 million transactions per day.

They also hand-pick the digital currencies listed in their exchange, analyzing cryptocurrencies based on their technical merits, sustainability and deep protocol. This is to not only ensure only high-quality tokens are listed on the platform, but to also prevent the exchange from being compromised by a single problematic token. They also provide an ICO service to institutions interested in launching their own tokens, so one can expect them to subject those fledging ICOs to the same scrutiny.

And if you ever need any customer support, theirs run 24/7, 365 days a year.

But who keeps them in check?

Because they deal with fiat currency, their exhaustive accounting records are audited by independent professional auditors to ensure the integrity of the trading platform.

The exchange aims to comply with all current applicable EU regulations, ensuring that assets never get seized or frozen. Customer balances on the liability side must match exactly the inventory of coins held by the exchange. Blockchain.io aims to perform such balance check and to publish its cryptographic proof at every block interval.

OK, so who are the people behind Blockchain.io?

Blockchain.io prides themselves of being helmed by a team of experts in IT, finance and marketing.

I'll bet they must have some pretty good advisors, then?

You're right, they do.

What’s the conclusion?

The seasoned veterans behind Paymium are launching a hybrid cryptocurrency exchange with the goal of catering to many different facets of the crypto-exchange sphere. As a whole, Blockchain.io is taking the right course by getting the accreditation, licenses and most importantly, the right people taking the lead.

So how can I find out more info about them?

Here are some links to get started:

Website: https://blockchain.io/

Whitepaper: https://blockchain.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/BCIO_Manifesto.pdf