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.
Golem is a decentralized supercomputer that is accessible by anyone. The system is made up of the combined power of user’s machines from personal PCs to entire datacenters. Golem is able to compute almost any tasks from CGI rendering through machine learning to scientific learning. It utilizes an ethereum-based transaction system to clear payments between providers, requestors and software developers however it is safe because all computations take place in sandbox environments and are fully isolated from the hosts’ systems. The company released Brass in 2016 which includes Blender and LuxRender which are the two tools for CGI rendering. There are three releases that follows which are Clay, Stone and Iron. Golem has recently updated their Brass Beta and the highlight of this upgrade are the streamlined task creation GUI, the support for partial task restart in case of subtask timeouts and the fix that should alleviate the issues with the Docker service on Windows. Other than that, improvements have been made on the Blender verification and transaction tracking subsystems and fixed some minor pain-points in the UX. Transaction history will become more user-friendly with separate tabs for payments and incomes. Apart from that, improvements are made for requestors as well, requestors is now able to add resource file without having to repeat the task creation procedure if they have forgotten to add them beforehand. Grand vision and core features ● Golem is the first truly decentralized supercomputer, creating a global market for computing power. Combined with flexible tools to aid developers in securely distributing and monetizing their software, Golem altogether changes the way compute tasks are organized and executed. By powering decentralized microservices and asynchronous task execution, Golem is set to become a key building block for future Internet service providers and software development. And, by substantially lowering the price of computations, complex applications such as CGI rendering, scientific calculation, and machine learning become more accessible to everyone. ● Golem connects computers in a peer-to-peer network, enabling both application owners and individual users ('requestors') to rent resources of other users’ ('providers') machines. These resources can be used to complete tasks requiring any amount of computation time and capacity. Today, such resources are supplied by centralized cloud providers which, are constrained by closed networks, proprietary payment systems, and hard-coded provisioning operations. Also core to Golem’s built-in feature set is a dedicated Ethereum-based transaction system, which enables direct payments between requestors, providers, and software developers. ● The function of Golem as the backbone of a decentralized market for computing power can be considered both Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), as well as Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS). However, Golem reveals its true potential by adding dedicated software integrations to the equation. Any interested party is free to create and deploy software to the Golem network by publishing it to the Application Registry. Together with the Transaction Framework, developers can also extend and customize the payment mechanism resulting in unique mechanisms for monetizing software. Check out CoinBureau for the full review of Golem.