Factom is the first usable blockchain technology to solve real-world business problems by providing an unalterable record-keeping system. By creating a data layer on top of the Bitcoin blockchain, Factom’s distributed ledger technology secures millions of real-time records in the blockchain with a single hash using cryptographic isolation. Businesses and governments alike can use Factom to document their information so that it cannot be modified, deleted or backdated. Factom’s technology decentralizes record keeping by ensuring that the integrity of stored data remains intact, providing complete transparency, while at the same time maintaining user privacy in an increasingly digital world. The Factom project began in 2014 which puts it on the older end of the blockchain spectrum. The team has made steady progress since then. They released the first version of Factom in early 2015 and had their token sale in the middle of that year. In August of 2015, they were accepted into the Plug and Play FinTech accelerator and were chosen as one of Austin’s A-List start-ups in May 2016. Based out of Austin, TX, the core team has multiple members with several years of experience in the blockchain space. Peter Kirby, Factom Co-founder and CEO, and Abhi Dobhal, VP Product Management, previously worked together at CoinTerra, Inc – a producer of ASIC miners for Bitcoin. The price of a Factoid is directly tied to the amount of network usage. As more businesses join the network, it will become more costly to submit Entries which will, in turn, affect the Factoid price. Once the number of Factoids being burned outpaces the 73,000 that are created each month, the currency will become deflationary. This may drive the price up even further.
What is DAG? In more traditional blockchains, the host provides the food/drinks (i.e resources) for this party. And when the guests arrive, the amount of resources can only accommodate so many people, the portions are small and then everything eventually runs out and the party ends. Think Constellation DAG like a potluck (a party where everyone brings food/drinks). With every added guest (node to the network), the more resources the party has to keep going. This is the nature of Constellation, a distributed system that scales horizontally. Is Constellation a Blockchain? Not exactly. Although inspired by the principles of decentralization, many standard blockchains such as Bitcoin and Ethereum face scalability issues. This is why the next, generation of decentralized networks such as Hashgraph, IOTA, and Constellation have turned to DAG. What is a Microservice? “Microservices” is an approach to application development in which a large application is built as a suite of modular services. Each module supports a specific business goal and uses a simple, well-defined interface to communicate with other sets of services. Uber, for example, is not a singular app purse. It is a unified app which means it is a single interface that brings together their driver app, their rider app, and their corporate team app.