Factom is a system for securing millions of realtime records in the blockchain with a single hash. This gives you the tools to build applications with all of the security of the blockchain without the speed, cost, or size limitations. Our goal is to involve the Bitcoin and Crypto community to engage with us, look at our work, and collaborate with developers across the industry and beyond. Factom is a next generation platform for creating enterprise tools and applications using Blockchain technology. Factom allows you to build applications on top of the Bitcoin blockchain. Factom uses a simple API that lets you build projects that were not possible before while still harnessing the trust and security of the Blockchain. Factom is a solution to:
In a nutshell, what is Factom? Factom is a system to record entries in a way that makes the list unique (everyone gets the same copy) and allows anyone to add to the list, but does not allow anyone to change entries once they are in the list. As a designer of business applications, why should I consider using Factom? Factom is a method of creating an immutable audit trail. It is also a mechanism to communicate changes in a system. If your application needs a central server to coordinate processes, you might be able to eliminate the central server in favor of using Factom. Does Factom use a cryptocurrency? Yes. You can use Factoids (the Factom currency) to purchase Entry Credits with a simple transaction. The protocol does the conversion, so you effectively purchase the Entry Credits from the protocol. You assign those Entry Credits to a public key. Who controls Factom? Factom is a distributed, decentralized protocol running on top of Bitcoin. That means nobody controls it, but that it is software that people all over the world run to make the protocol work. Factom.org is releasing and maintaining the software. But the software is open source, and anyone is free to use it for any purpose. With Factom is really possible to build safer and more secure record keeping on a truly global scale. There are three types of proof that allow Factom to do that:
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Trust is a rare commodity in todays global economy. Yet we must trust various parties to participate in this increasingly computerized marketplace. Until recently, electronic records have been particularly hard to protect, challenging to synchronize and difficult to verify, largely because computer records are so easy to change. We use heavy regulation to try and minimize failures, and massive insurance systems to pave over the failures that none the less occur. Then Bitcoin introduced the blockchain. A blockchain is a distributed mechanism to lock in data, making it immutable, verifiable and independently auditable. The Bitcoin blockchain was used to create a secure digital currency and payment system. But think of the benefits if you could also use the blockchain to secure and verify general purpose data! Using Factom, you can. http://media.tumblr.com/2542fa8a491796dc87e656e4ec76f6bd/tumblr_inline_nktv2lQysv1tp1sgd.png Bitcoin is used to transfer value between parties. With Factom we can use this powerful ledger to secure general purpose data. Factom is most easily understood as a protocol that provides unlimited books of blank paper. Users of the protocol can take a book, label it with the title of their choice, open the book, and write on a page. When that page is submitted to Factom it cannot be altered or deleted. Nobody can back-date a page. All the data written into the book is preserved in the order it was presented to the Factom protocol. http://media.tumblr.com/d9bb83d1b91dab602f38e41faf6874f7/tumblr_inline_nktuktrUcI1tp1sgd.png Factom does practically nothing. But by limiting itself to simply recording and securing data, Factom enables practically anything. Factom was designed to scale. Just like you can go into a library and select only the books that interest you, Factom allows users of the protocol to select only the books of interest to their application. Users do not have to download and process the whole library. And again, Factom is like a library. A library can support the documentation of any information at all, from fiction and romance novels, to scientific journals and history books. Factom can also support any application at all that needs to document the past. All decisions are made based on data. To defend a decision, proof is needed of the data on which a decision is based. Factom becomes the technology applications can use to validate and verify the creative process of producing art, music, and literature. It becomes the technology that allows tracking of licensing of creative works. Factom can even be used to track their use. Factom becomes the technology to secure land titles. And it does so in a way that ensures the records belong to the people. The records cannot be changed or altered without in fact adding such changes to the book. This ensures a permanent record if fraud occurs. It is said that the winners write the history books. But Factom provides the seed for a technology that does not allow for the selective recording of the past, editing of the past, or inventing the past. Factom provides the means of creating records honestly and securely. The Factom Alpha API is available today, and many developers are beginning to work with it. Open source, cryptocurrencies, and distributed applications are changing the world. This is just the beginning of their ultimate applications. The most exciting days are still ahead! by Paul Snow - Founder & CEO, Factom |
