Factom

Our dev team has released improved Factom binaries and installers, follow the guides available at http://factom.org/howto for step by step guides on how to install and use our software. Below is a breakdown on what the changes are.

Main fix: Factomd now works past block 22880 A quirk of Milestone1 code caused some unexpected behavior. Existing client software will crash if restarted after downloading past block 22880. If users (like exchanges) did not shut down factomd, they would not have seen this problem, and functioned normally. Only when restarting would this bug have manifested itself. All users must upgrade to restart.

No Factoids have been lost, and the chain is still safely secured by bitcoin.

If you see this error, it is time to update to factomd v0.3.5. You can tell the version by running factom-cli properties (but see the last note too).

panic: Error in initializing dChain:000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000c DBHeight:22880 i:22881

(for those unable to upgrade to the latest factomd, a workaround is to delete the databases in the .factom/ldb/* folder. This will cause factom to re-download the blockchain and will process the latest blocks. Closing and re-running factomd will cause the above panic)

This is the patch to fix the bug for the curious.

Koinify Import Note Factom-cli importing has changed slightly for the Koinify 12 words and paper wallets (Fs keys).

Use the command “factom-cli importaddress” instead of “factom-cli generateaddress”. Also, the similar “factom-cli newaddress” command has been deprecated.

Lesser, but also important fixes Compiling from source now works again.

The source code repository https://code.google.com/ was shut down recently. Any project which used libraries hosted there (including factomd) stopped being buildable. We switched to alternate repositories for the missing code. This update allows developers to simultaneously pull and build factom using the friendly ‘go get’ commands.

https://github.com/FactomProject/FactomDocs/blob/master/communityTesterDirections.md#install-factom

Minor annoyance resolved Windows users of factomd had error messages complaining about log files. Internally, when two different subsets of factomd accessed the same log file. It now writes to two different log files and the error is gone.

Developer focused updates API updates

Our fctwallet can now build the chain and entry commit data structures.  API users now no longer have to do bitwise manipulation to place data into Factom.

A new fctwallet API call has been added to programmatically determine the txid before submission. 

Factom now also has a call to verify address validity.

This update also added the ability to use a remote factomd.  fctwallet and factom-cli are now able to access a factomd node on a remote server, allowing medium trust applications to be built. Communication between fctwallet and factomd does not need to be secret. No private keys are passed between the two programs, only signed public data. This will allow multiple users to be able to share a single factomd instance.

Advanced Config File User’s Note Mac If you have made any changes to your .factom/factomd.conf file, it will have been renamed to .factom/old_pre035_factomd.conf with the latest installer. Non-advanced users who have not made changes to this file will use the default internal configurations.

Linux and Windows Only advanced users will have created the file factomd.conf in the .factom directory.  

If you have a config file and use fctwallet, it must be updated with new options. Please add this to the bottom the factomd.conf file:

FactomdAddress                   = localhost FactomdPort                          = 8088

If the config file is not updated, factom-cli and fctwallet will not show balances and will result in these errors:

$ factom-cli properties Failed to retrieve properties

$ factom-cli balances Error printing addresses Command Failed:  Server Error

$ factom-cli list all Failed to parse the response from factomd: Server Error

Also API calls will result in:

$ curl -X GET "http://localhost:8089/v1/factoid-get-fee/" {"Response":"Get http://:0/v1/factoid-get-fee/: dial tcp :0: getsockopt: connection refused","Success":false}

Our Chief Architect, Paul Snow, attended The North American Bitcoin Conference (TNABC) in Miami this week. During his presentation he demonstrated how Factom lends scalable solutions. No matter how much data is entered into Factom, the Bitcoin footprint remains the same. Entities using Factom don't have to access all of Factom in order to track their info, this translates to a small memory/storage footprint for users.

He also clarified why permissionless systems need incentive mechanism like Factoids in our case and how these are converted to Entry Credits with a fixed price that users can budget for without concern for volatility in Factoid price.

Below are some pictures from the event.

Factom Interviews Our Chief Scientist, Brian Deery, has had a great interview on The Crypto Show discussing economics, Bitcoin, the Mike Hearn drama, and proposed fixes.

Paul Snow was interviewed by Rick Stoner on Doged Radio, it’s a two hour long interview where Paul goes in-depth about Factom, Factoids, Bitcoin and a lot more.

Koinify is shutting down, what about Factoids (FCT)? Following previous notice, Koinify is officially shutting down by Feb 15th, 2016. After that, all Koinify website functions and data, including wallets will be completely wiped out and no longer available. How does this affect Factom Software Sale contributors? It doesn’t affect them at all. To use or redeem your Factoids purchased on Koinify, you must use tools provided by Factom directly. Koinify.com does not provide any Factom access functions and none of your Factoids were ever stored on Koinify.

Most of the contributors should have by now redeemed their Factoids (FCT) either in our Wallet or onto Poloniex easy to use import tool. If you still haven’t done so look at our guides at http://factom.org/howto for instruction on how to install and use our command-line wallet, GUI wallet and the FactoidPapermill which can be used as a paer wallet.

You will need your Koinify 12 Word Master Passphrase to redeem your Factoids, this was shown to all software sale contributors at the time of purchase via a pop up window stating to write down the passphrase and store it in a safe place. Failure to do so would incur in the loss of Factoids as neither Koinify nor Factom are able to retrieve the passphrase.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

A project that proposes using blockchain technology to shift the traditional international trade business took first place and won the prize of USD 30,000 during the Shanghai Blockchain Hackathon hosted by the Wanxiang Blockchain Lab and Deloitte at the Bund Center. The winning idea was created by the CargoChain team, aiming to secure and transmit trade documents with lower cost and pollution.

A plan from the Smart Property team that proposes creating smart contracts to assist property sales transactions took second place with a prize of USD 20,000. Third place went to the Medical Records team, which developed an idea, built on Factom, for a platform that uses blockchain technology to store medical records and prescriptions immutably, which could reduce the insurance fraud and costs with a simple medical history verification process. The Nevermore, Food Chain, Random Number Generator teams were awarded special prizes. The FBS Capital special award went to the Bitsmile team, which came up with an idea for a mobile app that would integrate charitable donations with blockchain technology, making donations transparent with the ability to trace the flow of money for each transaction.

First Prize Winners

Second Prize Winners

Third Prize Winners

The competition was fierce. The other teams also presented excellent proposals with demos, and covered a wide range of application scenarios. They included federated equity exchange, credit information sharing, RMB digitization and circulation, education certification, insurance agent credit rating and etc.

Today’s judges, who are renowned experts or entrepreneurs in the blockchain industry included, amongst others, Vitalik Buterin, Founder of Ethereum and David Johnston, Chairman of Factom. They reviewed all the final business plans and shared their insights on how they could be improved.

Special Prize Winners

Special Prize Winners

In his welcome address, the vice chairman and executive director of Wanxiang Group and the founder of Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, Dr. Xiao Feng, introduced the background of the lab and the series of projects launched since its establishment. He also mentioned that a blockchain technology enabled cloud platform and a blockchain series of books are in the works. He believed the business plans presented during today’s competition would go on to influence business in the real world. The proposals presented would plug into the blockchain ecosystem and further expand it.

Ms. Qin Yi, Deloitte Partner for Asia Pacific, set the stage for the three day long competition with an informative keynote speech that introduced the research result and business progress of their Rubix team, a Deloitte blockchain technology R&D team established one year ago with more than 100 members across Ireland, Canada and other regions. One of the Rubix based applications is PermaRec, a global distributed ledger, connecting to SAP, Oracle and other financial reporting systems that enables real time verification, full coverage of trails for audit work and automated tax compliance reporting, and benefits both the users and regulators.

The hackathon attracted entries from more than 100 participants with more than 20 teams from around the world. The large number of participants at the event is the evidence of the important advantages that blockchain technology brings to our social ecosystem. It also shows the influence the blockchain has had in China as well as its glamour to attract high level talents.

The past year has been a fruitful one for blockchain development. It has been the interest of the most influential worldwide financial institutions. The Wanxiang Blockchain Lab has responded to the growing trend towards the increasing demand of such technology among the regulators, corporations, developers and venture capital by organizing the blockchain hackathon with Deloitte, to create an atmosphere and instrument of innovation and set up a bridge between business initiatives and capital through the interaction between research and investment. To better support them, the lab has also launched several new initiatives including a global sponsorship program, BlockGrant X, and training program, BlockTrain X, aimed at encouraging people to leverage this new technology creatively and drive innovation.

Below are some pictures taken during the event.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Hurry up! There is only one day left to join the Blockchain Hackathon in Shanghai, China. Starting on January the 8th, Wanxiang Blockchain Labs together and Deloitte are organizing the event offering on-site Blockchain experts to support participants. It is also an excellent opportunity to meet potential business partners for your ideas. Expertise from global blockchain, financial, venture capital and other industries will be in attendance. There are several prizes to be won varying between 30,000 USD and 10,000 USD each totalling a whopping 100,000 USD.

The Factom team supports the event and cannot wait to see the best blockchain innovations coming to light in Shanghai. We wish good luck to all participants. More information on the Blockchain Hackathon can be found below.

Brochure from the Blockchain Hackathon Shanghai

Introduction to the Blockchain Hackathon The Shanghai Blockchain Hackathon, which is organized by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and Deloitte, will be held from Jan 8, 2016 to Jan 10, 2016 in Shanghai. Participants will be divided into several small teams. All teams will have 2 days to innovate, design and develop their projects. Experts from Ethereum, Deloitte Rubix Team and Wanxiang Blockchain Labs will provide technical support for participants. Each team will have the chance to present their prototype and win the 100K USD reward!

Why should you join this event? A. You can discuss with Blockchain experts from Ethereum, Deloitte Rubix Team and Wanxiang Blockchain Labs face to face and learn more about Blockchain technology in-depth. B. You can communicate with Blockchain enthusiasts in-depth, get some new ideas on how to innovate, and achieve a better understanding on the potential of Blockchain applications. C. You can meet elites from global Blockchain, financial, venture capital and other industries. They could be your potential business partners, investors and customers. D. The reward is attractive.

Who can join this event? Whether you are a blockchain expert, a technical geek, or a top notch designer; Whether you want to use the Bitcoin or Ethereum blockchain; Whether you are a software engineer or UI designer who knows nothing about Blockchain technology; We welcome you to join us at this grand event for Blockchain applications. You don't have to limit your thinking like a product manager, creativity is all that you will need.

Sign-up You can either sign up as a team or an individual. You can bring your team to the event or form a team on site. A typical team should consist of 3-5 participants.

Sign-up fees Please sign up at this link: http://blockchain-hackathon.eventdove.com/. For participants：300RMB  or  0.1 BTC

Date 2016.1.8 (Evening) - 2016.1.10 (Beijing Time Zone)

Location Shanghai, China

Hosts

Wanxiang Blockchain Labs Wangxiang Blockchain Labs is at the Frontier Research Institution and is focused on blockchain technology. The lab will gather experts in this field to work on technological development, business applications, industrial strategy and other aspects, to provide guidance for entrepreneurs, and to provide reference for the development of the industry and policy making, in order to benefit the society and economy with blockchain technology.

Deloitte Deloitte – one of the world's 'Big Four' audit firms, has been involved in Blockchain research for over 18 months now. Most of the Blockchain based research is being co-ordinated by a dedicated team of over 100 people based out of various locations. The team, called Deloitte Cryptocurrency Community is responsible for finding potential uses of Blockchain technology in banking and retail businesses. Deloitte also interact with Blockchain based start-ups, retail and banking sectors.The DCC has three mandates: educate Deloitte and its clients on opportunities in the space, investigate how the technology could improve existing services and explore future solutions built on the blockchain.

Sponsors FBS Capital If you want to become a sponsor, please contact [email protected].

Rewards Total：100,000 USD

First Prize: 30,000 USD X1 Second Prize: 20,000 USD X1 Third Prize: 10,000 USD X1 Special Prize: 10,000 USD X3 FBS Capital Special Prize: 10,000 USD X1

Schedule Friday（2016.1.8） 17:00 - 17:30 Registration Open 17:30 - 18:00 Welcome and Intro 18:00 - 18:30 Keynote Speak 18:30 - 19:00 Idea Pitch 19:00 - 20:00 Ice-breaking & Free Dinner 20:00 - 21:00 Team formation, registration for teams and projects 21:00 Start hacking!

Saturday（2016.1.9) 08:00-22:00 Hacking all day 08:00-22:00 Workshops

Sunday（2016.1.10) 11:00 Project Submit Due 11:00 - 12:00 Presentations Preparation 12:00 - 13:00 Lunch and free demo 13:00 - 15:00 Presentations 15:00 - 16:00 Panel Discusstion 16:00 - 16:30 Reward Ceremony

We are thrilled to announce that there have been over 100,000 entries in Factom so far. On December 30th the 100,000th entry was made into our blockchain marking an impressive milestone for us.

Another notable statistic is the number of blocks generated on the Factom network, we are nearing 17,500 at the time of writing.

Our software is being used progressively more by our partners and customers, after four months from the Factom Genesis we couldn’t be happier about the network usage and reliability. “Factomizing” on our network using Factom Chains is one of the advantages we offer compared to anchoring and time stamping every entry directly onto the Bitcoin blockchain.

We reached 100,000 entries in a very short timeframe and at a fraction of the cost of doing so directly on Bitcoin. Factom is working on providing a platform that can scale to million of entries per customer while keeping costs low and the Bitcoin blockchain bloat at bay.

This is a great way for us to end the year while we look forward to 2016 when we will deliver our 2nd and 3rd milestones, announce new partnerships and customers, as wells as helping make governments, businesses, and institutions easily auditable, transparent and honest. Stay tuned.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community. We wish you all a Happy New Year!

We are thrilled to announce the winner for our first Twitter bounty: the 12 days of Factom. It took a while to go through the numerous entries but we appreciated every single one of them. We have now chosen the winner which you can see below together with some of the best entries. We will proceed to get in contact with the winner to payout the prize. We want to thank every single one of you who participated and look forward to host more bounties in the future.

Our winner: Sandro Ieva

Below are some of the top entries in no particular order:

All of the entries were greatly appreciated by the team, to see them all search for #factomxmas on Twitter.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Hi All,

There’s been some confusion about the Honduras title project and I’d like to take the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions.

Yes, the project has stalled. We were hoping to have a working prototype deployed by the end of the year, but as 2015 comes to a close, we’ll all have to wait another year to deploy a blockchain backed land title system that is both tamper-proof and transparent.

I’ve had humbling conversations with many smart people in the world of international land title including a CEO of major title insurance company, international policy experts, and companies that have built and sold land title software for decades. They all agree that this is a very common occurrence. The project is political in nature, and government systems move slower than we all would like.

I do want to give a shout out to the hard working people in Honduras that have helped us get this far. We have support from top-level government officials, and we are working to launch a prototype project. We have also been working on the software with our partners at Epigraph. We’ll continue to plug away on these projects and others that use the blockchain to make secure and transparent processes and systems.

I also want to clarify some of the concern about the reports and news articles that have come out both for and against the project. Each of the reporters that I worked with directly did a tremendous amount of research and due diligence before writing the articles. We put them directly in touch with Honduras officials, who for reasons of their own were unable to comment. We also had approval before going on the record with any of these news organizations.

Factom has always stood for honesty and transparency, and we welcome your questions. The letter of intent between the Honduran government and Factom/Epigraph includes some amount of non-disclosure language, so we’ve had to be quiet about the business model and non-technical details of the project. However, we’re always thrilled to discuss the technology behind the solution and explore new ways to move forward.

Have a Merry Christmas.

We are thrilled to announce that Yuanbao is the first Chinese cryptocurrency exchange to have added support for the factoids software tokens. After our software sale, and our visit to China’s Blockchain Summit, earlier this year, the Chinese community has been eager for a platform on which to trade factoids. Yuanbao is Factom’s officially recommended partner for the Chinese/Asian market.

We have released binaries and installers for the Factom client to make it easier for users to transfer tokens as they wish. You can find our guides together with the installers for Windows, Mac, and Linux here: http://factom.org/howto.

Yuanbao has chosen “Factom factoids” as the clearest way to list factoids on their platform, given many people aren’t aware of the technical details of the Factom Network or its use of “factoids”, but know the project simply as “Factom”.

Yuanbao Exchange is one of China's largest digital assets exchange, with a daily trading volume of around 5 million USD. They have been on the market for more than two years already, and currently have 18 coins been successfully traded on the platform, factoids will be the 19th. We are happy to partner with a reliable and trustworthy service to allow all Asian users to be able to purchase access to our software with factoids.

Following the exchange announcement, below are the details on when factoids deposits and trading will be available for users in different timezones.

Friday, 18 December 2015, 3:00 PM China Standard Time (07:00 AM GMT/UTC, 02:00 AM EST). Deposit of Factoids will be opened so that users can prepare themselves for trading and deposit the necessary funds.

Monday, 21 December 2015, 10:00 AM China Standard Time (02:00 AM GMT/UTC, Sunday 20 December 2015, 09:00 PM EST). Trading of Factoids/CNY officially opens.

“Factom has been well accepted in the Chinese community. Partnering with Yuanbao is a very important step of Factom’s plan to land in China. The partnership will further deepen the roots of Factom into the community.” Stated Jack Lu, Factom CTO

“We are looking forward to supporting public and private projects in China that leverage the blockchain. And partnering with Yuanbao is a significant and strategic step to building Factom’s presence in China.” Said Paul Snow, Factom Chief Architect

“Our experience working with Factom was very pleasant and productive. We are happy to support a leading company like Factom on our exchange. Of course, we will look forward to working together and melding together our strengths based on their promising blockchain applications.” Continued Jelena Strelnikova, Foreign Cooperation Officer, Yuanbao.

For more info find the Factom project description page here, the factoids trading page will go live on Monday.

Thanks again to our awesome community of open source contributors and volunteer supporters.

[BOUNTY] Win $100 in BTC + 100 Factoids for Best Tweet - Ends December 25, 8:00PM CET!

Christmas is coming and we are thrilled to announce our 12 Days of Factom Twitter Bounty. Anyone with a Twitter account can participate and win a prize of $100 worth of BTC + 100 Factoids. We want to hear how transparency and verification in record keeping can make a change for businesses and institutions. Tweet to us about use cases, ideas for new projects, or what you’d like to build on our platform…

The winning entry will be selected after the end of the bounty for the best creative, insightful, witty, inspiring, and popular Tweet. You can tweet as many times as you like with a picture, a meme, a slogan, an idea, etc. To be eligible, your Tweets need to contain both @factomproject and the hashtag #factomxmas.

Sample Tweet: @factomproject is the #blockchain truth engine. #factomxmas #bitcoin #fintech #startup

The above is only an example you should Tweet your own ideas, pics, slogans, etc... How and when do I receive my prize? The prize will be awarded after the end of the bounty. We will get in touch with the winners via a personal message on Twitter. Make sure you follow us so we can send you a direct message. We will then ask for an email address for further details.

Picking the Winner We will be monitoring all submissions for the duration of the bounty. We will choose between the ones that stand out for their originality, creativity, and best feedback (i.e. retweets, quotes, etc). We’ll also be retweeting and quoting the posts we like the most.

We are looking forward to see your submissions and we wish you all a very merry Xmas.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community. The Factom Foundation Team

Factoid Wallet GUI The Factom Dev Team has been hard at work to release the Factoid Wallet GUI, it is available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Below is a quick start guide on how to send Factoids with the GUI Wallet. You can find the full Factoid Wallet GUI guide here.

Factom Network hits 10,000 blocks The Factom Network has hit 10,000 blocks in just over a month since the Genesis launch. The 10,000th block was generated at 09:30:00 on November 10, 2015.

Events Peter Kirby attended the ABA Conference earlier this week. ABA’s tradition of innovation has ignited some of the biggest and brightest moments in banking.

We have had another wonderful week of development at Factom. We will have several new updates for everyone early next week. Here is a quick rundown of some of the things that we have been upto this past week.

Factoids price can now be seen on your Android device  Digital Currency Widget is a simple widget that displays the current price of your favorite cryptocurrency according to your choice of exchange. You can choose to view the price converted to any of 8 major old-world currencies.

Factom featured on The Economist Peter and Tiana were interviewed by a reporter for The Economist. You can read about Factom’s work and other blockchain companies in their latest issue.

Factom’s New Office The factom team has moved into a new, larger office last weekend. As the team is growing we need more space to fit our staff. So after a weekend of DIY assembling desks and setting things up we can now show you some pictures.

The new office entrance

Some of the team members settled in

Jobs We are looking for two more amazing people to join our team. Currently we need a test engineer able to dig into backend code, compare binary structures against specifications. Automated testing experience a plus. And the ability to write scripts and understand command line tools. Must use Linux, Windows, Mac and be willing to live and work in Austin TX.

We also need a full stack engineer: C/C++, Java, and Go. Multi-language experience required. Key-Value databases like Bolt or Leveldb a plus. Understanding of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology a plus. Backend programming, Web Services, Networking. Degree and significant work experience required. Must be willing to live and work in Austin TX.

If you are interested in joining our team please drop us a line at factom.com/careers.

Factom at the Bitcoin.com AMA Bitcoin.com will be hosting a series of Blockchain related AMAs during November and December 2015 on their forums. David Johnston is scheduled for an AMA on November 8th while Paul Snow for December 16th. Find the full list of AMA sessions here.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Monitoring the Poloniex Exchange with Factom The Factom team has created a new chain to monitor the Factoid price on Poloniex over time. It is now possible to write real-time trading information into the blockchain without causing bloat. Read more about this project on our sister blog. The code for this project can be found on our GitHub here.

Since all of the chart's data has been retrieved from the Factom chain, it is historically verified. There is no need to worry about the data having been retroactively tampered with.

BlockNotary App There is a new Factom integration in the BlockNotary app. It allows you to store the digital fingerprint of your photos on the blockchain. Think of it as a notary for the digital age. The app is as simple as clicking the “Share” button.

When you sign-up for the app you will get 3 tokens for free and you can use them to sign photos using Factom or Bitcoin. Testnet is always free. It’s available for download on the iTunes App Store. A demo video can be seen below.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Factom Inc. at Plug and Play's FinTech & Retail EXPO Peter Kirby, Tiana Laurence, and Crystal Wiese attended the EXPO, a pitch competition that is the culmination of Plug and Play's Brand & Retail and FinTech & Security Accelerators, it featured 40+ three minute pitches from leading startups in the Brand, Retail, FinTech & Security spaces.

It was a very interesting event for Factom Inc. to see the latest tech trends and meet the entrepreneurs who are bringing to market new and exciting solutions.

Factom is bringing the blockchain to business

Factom Inc. stand at the event

Peter and Tiana preparing for the pitch

Peter presenting on stage

Factom at the Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai Chinese conglomerate Wanxiang Group, best known as one of the nation's largest auto parts manufacturers, is investing in blockchain technology through new initiatives. One of them is a non-profit called Blockchain Labs, co-founded by Vitalik Buterin, BitShares co-founder Bo Shen and Feng Xiao, vice chairman and executive director of Wanxiang Holdings, the company's investment arm.

Shanghai city scale

Feng Xiao, Vice Chairman and Executive Director of Wanxiang Holdings presenting

Packed conference hall

Vitalik Buterin speaking as the keynote

Jack speaking on the panel

David giving the Factom presentation

David and Jack with the largest miners in Shanghai

Jack eating local food

The Blockchain Labs launch is to be followed by the creation of a $50m venture capital fund that will invest broadly in applications for blockchain technology and for which Wanxiang will be the sole limited partner (LP).

Our Chairman of the Board David Johnston and our CTO Jack Lu attended the Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai, China on October 15-16. Organized by Wanxiang’s Blockchain Labs with a theme of “Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy” attendees discussed the applications and opportunities of blockchain technology in areas such as Online Payments, Internet of Things (IOT), Securities Trading, and Digital Assets Management. There were over 200 guests attending from various backgrounds, including banking, manufacturing, information technology and academia representing companies such as: IBM, Deloitte, UBS, NASDAQ Asia, Ethereum, BitShares, Factom, SkuChain, ConsenSys, and more.

"Bo Shen, Vitalik Buterin, and Feng Xiao have put Shanghai on the map as a center for Blockchain technology with the launch of Blockchain Labs and their amazing Blockchain Summit event featuring the top companies in the Blockchain 2.0 space." - David Johnston Chairman of the Board, Factom

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Recap on Factoids The Factom token is a tradable right to obligate the Factom protocol. The original supply of Factoids was set by the software token sale. Once the full Factom protocol is running, Factoids will be issued at a fixed rate to the servers that run the protocol. For now, until the protocol is completely deployed, no new Factoids will be issued.

To use the Factom protocol, Factoids are converted to Entry Credits (EC). EC are used to make entries into the Factom blockchain. Once a Factoid is used, the right is gone. The right to write into the Factom protocol is generated by those parties running it. This right is ended by those using the protocol. The idea is to align incentives so that those that run the protocol are rewarded if and only the protocol is valuable.

Brand-New Tech We are currently at our first milestone, Factom Genesis. We have two more targets to hit before we are fully up and running. Anyone can play with what we are creating. Check out our Github. We are working hard to make it easy to develop apps on top of Factom and to write entries in the system. Have a look at our Developer Sandbox.

Factom's Architecture There is a fixed number of Factoids that will be paid to the servers. This is roughly 73,000 Factoids per month. To write entries into the Factom blockchain, EC must be spent, they are obtained by converting Factoids into EC. This isolates end users of the Factom protocol from ever touching cryptocurrency. EC can not be traded nor can they be converted back to Factoids.

We are building the Factom protocol to be a robust and stable system. The structure guards against those wishing to manipulate the use of the protocol, the price of the token, the degree of speculation, and the number and degree of "pump and dump" attacks. We modeled the supply of tokens, price discovery over the resulting supply and demand curves, the feedback of the token exchange rate, and mapped the effects over time.

The servers set the exchange rate of Factoids to EC. We incorporated this mechanism into the Factom protocol so that EC can remain at a low cost even if the Factoid price fluctuate. The token price will trend to the value of the protocol because the value is measured in the volume of entries written into the protocol.

If the value of Factoids exceeds the number of Factoids used, then the supply of Factoids will decrease, pushing the price up.

If the value of Factoids is less than the number of Factoids used, then the supply of Factoids will increase, pushing the price down.

“Factoids are demanded and removed from circulation when users buy Entry Credits (EC) to use Factom. The Factoid/EC exchange rate is set by the Federated servers. The goal is to have a stable price for EC. This will allow Factom users to ignore the Factoid price, just like how Gmail users can ignore the Google share price”. - Brian Deery, Factom Chief Scientist.

The value of Factoids will reflect the value of the protocol, and is resistant to speculation over the long term.

Factom Foundation VS Factom Inc. We have gotten a lot of questions about the recent press release by Kuala Innovations. The important thing to clarify is that the investment was in Factom Inc. not the Factom Foundation.

“The Board of Kuala Innovations Limited (“Kuala” or the “Company”) is pleased to announce that it has subscribed for 3.64 per cent. of the issued shares of Delaware incorporated private company Factom, Inc. (trading as “Factom”), a data company working with multi-national companies to integrate blockchain technology for data storage, management and security across industries (“Factom”).”

The Factom Foundation is a London based foundation that is developing open source software anyone can use. We are happy for Factom Inc. as they are helping spread the mainstream adoption by building software on the Factom protocol. The Factom Foundation encourages entities such as Factom Inc., and others, to use the Factom protocol in order to create solutions that solve problems by utilizing the Factom protocol.

How Factom Inc. affects those holding Factoids is simple. Factom Inc. is building software that is utilizing Factoids and in doing so giving them value.  

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

Factomizing Kittens The Factom genesis block has been generated and Factom has gone into production on September 1st, 2015. Our software is now available for the world at large.

We have released an updated step by step guide on how to factomize kittens. Please remember that as this is the one and only real Factom, all chains and entries that you create will cost real Entry Credits and will remain unaltered and unalterable in Factom until the end of time (or the Internet, whichever comes first).

Dev Update Up until now, the cost to add data into Factom (including Factoid transaction fees) has been constant. Starting midday Friday, the Factoid/Entry Credit (EC) exchange rate will be adjusted to better reflect the market price. This brings the cost to enter data back to the expected $0.001/KiB. We will try to keep the exchange rate within 25% of the observed Factoid market price.

How this affects you:  

If you are using Factom to secure data, ECs that you have already purchased will still enter the same amount of data in the system.

If you purchase ECs after the price change, each Factoid will buy a different number of ECs.  It will get much closer to $0.001/KiB than it is now.

If you are making Factoid transactions, the minimum fees required will change too. The fees are based on how much load they put on the system. The current wallet calculates the exact minimum fee. If the Factoid price declines by 25% and you happen to construct a Factoid transaction within a short 10 minute period around noon Central time, the new minimum fee might be higher than you are paying. Unlike Bitcoin, fees below the minimum are not allowed. Luckily, no Factoids will be lost, and building the transaction again will work.

Kuala Innovations Limited + Factom Inc We are thrilled to announce that Kuala Innovations Limited has subscribed for 400,000 seed series shares of Factom Inc. at a price of US$1.00 per Factom share for a total cash consideration of US$400,000. This amounts to 3.64 % of the issued shares of Factom Inc.

At the price paid by Kuala Innovations, Factom Inc. has an aggregate pre-money value of approximately US$11 million.

Commenting on the Factom Subscription, Kuala Co-Chairman Mr Jim Mellon noted:

"Factom has the potential to revolutionise the way industries handle, process and store "big data", applying the huge advances of blockchain technology to real commercial issues and improving existing practices in terms of cost, time and effectiveness. With growing sales, a wide developer network integrating additional applications, and a pipeline of large client wins expected over the next 12 months, the Board believes this seed round investment by Kuala comes ahead of a significant value shift for Factom when it completes its anticipated Series A funding in the first half of 2016."

Factom at the Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai Our Chairman of the Board David Johnston and our CTO Jack Lu will be attending the Global Blockchain Summit in Shanghai, China on October 15-16. Organized by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs with a theme of “Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy” attendees will discuss the applications and opportunities of blockchain technology in areas such as Online Payments, Internet of Things (IOT), Securities Trading, and Digital Assets Management. 

There are about 200 guests attending from various backgrounds, including banking, manufacturing, information technology and academia representing companies including: IBM, Deloitte, UBS, NASDAQ Asia, Ethereum, BitShares, Factom, SkuChain, ConsenSys, and more.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.

When we last left our furry friend, she was begging to join her co-felines in Factom. Many things have changed since then. Factom has gone into production and the software is available for accessing it. All this calls for new procedures for factomizing this little cutie!

Entry Credits, Factoids, and the Factom Binaries Entry credits are now required to factomize anything, factoids are required to acquire entry credits, and the Factom binaries must be installed on your computer.

Please see the Developer Guides at http://factom.org/howto for assistance with installing the Factom binaries, getting factoids, and using the factoids to acquire entry credits.

Preparing the Data Any digital data, but only digital data, can be factomized. So to capture our kitten for posterity, she must first be digitized. In our example we will be using the above picture which can be downloaded here. Right click on the picture in your browser and “Save Image As” to a location of your choosing on your computer. In our example we saved the image as FactomizeMe.png.

Basically, your kitten pictures are already digitized and ready to be factomized.

Making a Chain in Factom Next, you need to have a chain in Factom in which to store your entry. Our Process Integration Manager, D. Robert Baker, has created a Kitten chain for us all using the below command:

factom-cli mkchain -e "Kittens!" ec-wallet-address-name01 <Kittens

and received this response:

Creating Chain: 475fbcef5e3a4e1621ed9a6fda5840c1d654715e55a8f5e514af0fb879ce0aec

This is Factom giving us the Chain ID of the new chain it will create. This information is required to make an entry in this particular chain and is viewable via the Factom Explorer here.

Another important thing to note is that the Chain will not be available for use until the next 10 minute marker (0, 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 minutes past the hour) because that is when the Chain will be anchored into the blockchain.

Now that a Kitten chain exists, anyone, anywhere can factomize all the kittens they like and they can all frolic together, safe and unchanging forever in Factom. But, first we want to hash the kitten.

Hashing Kittens

Just kidding! Hashing just means transforming a string of bits (like a picture of a kitten) into a shorter fixed-length value that uniquely represents the original string. Our kitten picture is actually 597 thousand bytes of data. Hashing it will reduce it down to a mere 64 bytes. This is a much more efficient use of resources and just as reliable for verification purposes. Furthermore, Factom has a 10240 byte ceiling on the size of entries.

Hashes can be easily created using this web page.

Use the “Choose File” button to upload your picture file:

Click the “Convert file” button and you should get your kitten picture’s hash returned:

Just copy the hash (hex:) from the top line of the box:

23367562d1bc7d2748daf263f6e771b337427aad39fe852590c04975143d0c2b

Now you know what a hashed feline looks like!

Adding Kittens (Entries) to Factom It is very easy to add an entry to the Kitten chain by using the below command:

echo 23367562d1bc7d2748daf263f6e771b337427aad39fe852590c04975143d0c2b | factom-cli put -e “FactomizeMe.png” -c 475fbcef5e3a4e1621ed9a6fda5840c1d654715e55a8f5e514af0fb879ce0aec ec-wallet-address-name01

wich returns: 

Creating Entry: 21f7f9508207aff4aa198210d5dd997db90d954b383b47989403bd35796d7864

And we’re done! You can see the entry on the Factom Explorer here.

The top highlight is the Hash of the entry we have just submitted and the bottom one is the hash of the picture we have successfully factomized.

Now, if anyone inquires after the health of “Miss Whiskers”, we can verify with mathematical certainty that she was indeed happy and well... at a point in time.

Summary for Entering Your Kitten Picture into Factom

Step 1 - Hash your picture using this web page.

Step 2 - Enter your hash into the Factom Kitten Chain:

echo YourHash | factom-cli put -e “picturename” -c 475fbcef5e3a4e1621ed9a6fda5840c1d654715e55a8f5e514af0fb879ce0aec ec-wallet-address

Factoids on Poloniex We are thrilled to announce that Poloniex is the first exchange to trade the Factoids software tokens. “FCT Factom” is the ticker for Factoids on Poloniex. Poloniex has a talented team of developers, we enjoyed working with them on the Factom integration.  

Thanks to Poloniex, we now also have price discovery for Factoids. Entry credits into our system will now dynamically move with the price of Factoids and stabilise the cost of entry for users of Factom.

“We are excited to add Factom to the Poloniex platform as part of our commitment to bringing innovative new projects to the market.” Said Tristan D'Agosta, CEO of Poloniex Exchange.

Factoids on Indexes Factoids have also been listed on two indexes so it will be easier to keep track of market movements, capitalization and total supply. We are listed on CoinMarketCap and WorldCoinIndex.

Latest Binaries and Installers v0.3.3 Our Dev Team has released improved Factom binaries and installers, follow this guide to upgrade to the latest v0.3.3.

New Developers Sandbox Guide Get in and start playing with Factom. Our new sandbox guide makes it easier for you to access an environment that isolates untested code changes and explore development on our system.

In Other News We have migrated the Project Gutenberg from our Alpha version of Factom to our Beta. It is now protected by PGP cryptographic signatures, as well as being indexed by Factom into the blockchain. Look it up on the Factom Explorer here.

Thanks for being an awesome and supportive community.