How would you best describe factom compared to current cryptocurrencies - what is it most similar to? how difficult would it be for current exchanges to implement it?
Thanks for the question.
Factom isn't very similar to existing cryptocurrencies as its main function is not to act as a payment network or currency, but rather as a decentralized platform for publishing and reading generalized data from an immutable ledger.
If I were to pick any project I'd say Side Chains is a good analogy (though very different in function). Where Side Chains is a means of moving value (in the form of coins) from one blockchain to another, Factom is a means of securing / time stamping data that has been hashed and anchoring it into the bitcoin blockchain. With the ability to trace back that merkle root into the Factom directory layer and audit the hashes that have been published.
So perhaps one could say Factom is to data what Side Chains is to coins. That is a means of scaling the blockchain in that particular function.
It not a perfect analogy, but I hope that answers your question.