Quote from: BadGhost on March 12, 2016, 03:10:12 PM

Quote from: crazyivan on March 12, 2016, 07:17:36 AM

Quote from: tempus on March 11, 2016, 09:33:18 PM

Quote from: BadGhost on March 11, 2016, 07:21:24 PM

Could someone explain me a thing: What is Factom - the Factom being traded, what are the pro's of Factom. I mean Factom is certainly a kind of coin, but then there is factoid. So factoid is the coin using for operations, and will be the one people will be paying for services with. So what does the factom coin do?

Factom ist the System, Factoid is the "coin". But it's more a license or a "system-currency" if you want.

Factom as a system is something like a recording engine for data in time. Let's say you are a trader and you want to be able to proof that you didn't manipulate your data. So you can hash your trades into Factom, which is like fingerprinting and timestamping it, so you can proof that your data is complete and correct. Or think it bigger: You are a trader for a company. This company connects it's system with Factom and potentially they could record every little step into Factom. You log into your Company-Account and it's recorded, you open a file and it's recorded, you change the file and it's recorded etc.

Important is: Factom does not store the data itself (it's possible I believe but necessarily the sense), just a hash of each file so it's possible to control if data is correct or not, if data is complete or not and so on. And if a company would also record who had access at which time to specific data, manipulations would become a lot more difficult, or loss of data with intention ("ups, we've lost all our data. sorry!"). It would become much more easier to find out who is responsible and also what happened.

Factoids:

For each entry into the system you need Entry Credits. You get Entry Credits if you transact Factoids on an Entry Credit - Address or even better: You buy just the Entry Credits for Dollar (each 1/10 cent) in the (coming) Store, so you don't have to touch any Cryptocurrency. Each Entry Credit is one Entry.

On first sight it may look confusing but it's a very elegant system because it solves a lot of problems at once:

- Factom can be decentralized. Factoids are also the value to pay the participating server.
- User don't need to touch Cryptocurrency (Factoids, Bitcoin etc.). They can order Entry Credits and pay with Dollar, Factoids are transferred on the EC-Address and voila. That's important to avoid regulatory problems for big companies.
- While Factoids are transferable Entry Credits are not. Once a FCT is converted into EC's it's not possible to re-convert it or to transact it. Just to use it.
- While the price of Factoids can be very volatile (which we see on the exchanges) the price for EC's can be (is) stable. The price for FCT's will never have negative impact on the demand.

And, what's also ingenious: The value of Factoids will reflect the use of the system. The more it's used, the more Factoids will be converted into EC's --> out of the system (kind of "burned"). So it will be possible to calculate something I call the "base-price" which is needed for a stable supply. If the price would drop below, more Factoids would be consumed than new created. If it goes above, more Factoids will be created than consumed. Speculation will have a great effect (it already has), but it's very likely that the price will always find a base where the number of consumed FCT's will be equal to the 73k new Factoids each month.

At the moment the price reflects speculation, it says something what people believe if they think about future potential of Factom. But there are also some interesting points:

1. It's really mostly speculation (or betting) and it's visible in the Polo-trollboy (just for example) that many did not make enough research to come to own conclusions. I can't say that my conclusions are correct because there is nothing without risks. But I believe that Factom is the project with the biggest potential right now (I think it's potential is bigger than ETH, because I believe to see a lot of risks in ETH while it's already near to 1 billion marketcap - personal opinion of course) and I believe that more and more ppl will learn about Factom and come to similar conclusions.

2. The price-rise of the last 3 months, since Mid-December, is a price correction. Factom was totally undervalued since the ICO and the first months on Poloniex. With other words: If more people would have understood how good this project is to that time, more people would have bought into the ICO. The total supply would be higher which would mean that it would have started with a higher market-cap at lower prices for each Factoid right from it's first day on an exchange. That can be called an opportunity.

And while the price has increased a lot, many people believe it's overbought now. But kind of funny is: The high volume builds strong support. While the total supply is just 8,7 Mio it just needs some days to trade that volume and a lot of profit-takers have already sold. Some not of course but that are obviously strong hands and in for longterm. The dumping was mainly margin trading. I don't believe in the chinese-theory. I know that there were problems and there may have been some arbitrage but I saw the interest rates and that 90% of all loans were demanded. But, it's not even important. Important is it's general potential and in my opinion that's like Bitcoin in 2011.

Ok, someone asked for an unbiased review of what Factom is and what is its potential. Here it is, I agree with every word. Good stuff.

Thanks for the answer it was enlightenment. One last question. I already understand the factom system, I understand the factoids. But why would I want to own Factoms (like coins)? Other than investment, it has the same use as bitcoin ie trading, means of value, investment? Factoms are now around 2 dollars, but what are they? An asset, coin? Do they have any special use?

I just see that I've made a few mistakes in my post (besides grammar because english is not my language ;-) )

Especially this sentence needs a "not":

Important is: "Factom does not store the data itself (it's possible I believe but not necessarily the sense)"

There are more, but, howsoever...

Regarding your question:

I see 3 different usecases:

- Payment for Server in a decentralized system
- "Currency" to buy Entry Credits
- Investment (in best case store of value)

There is no special use besides the first two points as a system-currency and without speculation there wouldn't be any difference for those who use Factom and the system itself. But the Investment-aspect is very interesting because differently to a cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, Factoids will be kind of backed. Bitcoin's value is it's function and the trust we have in it. Factoids will be backed through the use of the system, because of FCT-consumption. Differently to Bitcoin the base-value (if we subtract speculation) will be calculable and in some way more objectively.