The FACT0RN Blockchain development was funded by Coinbase though their 2022 Crypto Community Fund competitive call for innovative crypto projects (See:
https://www.coinbase.com/blog/fact0rn-blockchain-integer-factorization-as-proof-of-work-pow). The project seeks to replace hashing as PoW by integer factorization; said another way, it seeks to replace a non-research operation like forward hashing by a heavily researched area like breaking RSA or integer factorization.
The project will make available in 2023 the ability to place bounties on the blockchain on any integer of interest, including RSA numbers, by placing FACT coins on them. The details of how to redeem these bounties once you have a solution will be published on a whitepaper. It is a two transaction process, and it is a race.
This project, as stated in the whitepaper as well, seeks to accelerate research and hardware development in the space of integer factorization. The goal being to accelerate advance mathematics and the computational areas associated with it.
FACT0RN has been listed on xeggex and so mining is no longer the only way to get FACT0RN Coins. (
https://xeggex.com/asset/FACT )
The official website is here:
https://fact0rn.io
