If there’s one thing Bitcoin doesn’t need, it’s to be more complicated. By adding a new data layer on top of the blockchain, some believe
Factom to be doing just that, introducing features a small minority of the population will understand.
Their latest partnership with
Netki is an attempt to address the issue. Most of Factom can run in the background out of sight, but Factom addresses are still around 70 characters long. Now they’ll be a simple username.
The Netki Wallet
Netki’s slogan is “Making Digital Currencies Human.” It lies on the outermost layer of the blockchain, where mainstream users reside. Instead of a long string of characters like Bitcoin, it lets you reserve alphanumeric usernames, which are easier to look up and send money to–they use wallet.TonyStark.bit as an example.
Netki uses the
Namecoin blockchain to register names to Bitcoin addresses, as well as Litecoin and Doge. To protect your privacy, it generates a seed using an HD wallet, and generates a new address for every transaction. It also uses a system similar to SSL (the lock next to a URL at the top of your web browser) to verify you’ve got the right person when sending funds.
This puts Netki in a growing class of Bitcoin companies: identity-based services on top of the blockchain.
ChangeTip has become popular by allowing users to send small amounts of BTC via Twitter, and claiming your
Onename has become a mild techno-fad.
Factom Integration
It’s important to rely on decentralized infrastructure, but not everyone has to interact with it directly. The Factom application is packaged within Netki, allowing the easy utilization of all of its functions. They’ve taken special care to ensure that an understanding of the Factom protocol is not required.
Users can send Factoids to one another using their Netki wallet just like other cryptocurrencies, and redeem them directly for Entry Credits. If you don’t want to dabble in Factoids at all, you can also buy them directly with bitcoins. Entry Credits are non-transferable, however, meaning Netki is giving you the private key that holds them, which they’d still have knowledge of.
To outsiders, however, you are completely anonymous, thanks to Netki’s HD wallet scheme. The
DNSSEC system ensures that the name you’ve entered forwards to the correct Factoid address–this is Factom made simple. As Factom and Nekti acquire more partners, we can also expect more interoperability.
EDIT: I initially made a conceptual error in this article. It's fixed, now.
