To the uninformed user, and in particular for those who havent even heard or dont know what Bitcoin is and how it works, it can be hard to understand how Factom technology works.
Factom kinds a looks like Ethereum to me; it presents a decentralized autonomous solution that can be used in all areas. But in Factom case it works more like a semi- decentralized autonomous network because its based on a federated server model.
By introducing a futuristic and functional network Factom is introducing a new scale on top of the Blockchain The Blockchain is a giant ledger where you can store anything, and everybody has access to; it is also an extremely versatile technology because it can be used for practically everything. For now were just using it for currency, but it can be extremely useful for various applications.
As I already heard Peter Kirby saying, Imagine the Blockchain as the TCP/ IP as the internet protocol that basically sends bits around then Factom can be the HTTP; the structured data that allows you to build the interesting and functional tools on top of that. Within this environment, Factom will be the application that structures, processes, stores and deploys data on top of the Blockchain. This way Factom becomes a completely new ledger that can be used for storing, auditing and managing data on top of the Blockchain without having to rely on the specific rules of the Blockchain because it uses its consensus algorithm to outstrip the Blockchain limitations. Factom decreases the cost of running millions of transactions while it introduces the needed speeds to manage an optimized processing of the data into the Blockchain ledger.
Factom presents a wide number of solutions for any business and has been gathering a lot of partnerships. Thats why Im already envisioning it as the platform that will lead blockchain technology to mainstream adoption. I'm totally going all in with this one! Looking forward to getting my hands on some Tokens:P !