[ANN] FACTOM - Introducing Honesty to Record-Keeping

[neo1947]

https://www.smartrac-group.com/pr/smartrac-launches-dloc.html
New partnership with traditional-identity-documents management company.

Thanks for sharing,very healthy news pouring in regarding FCT lately.

[AlanX]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure. 

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

[stereotype]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure.  

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

Yes, correct.
Now assign the identity of a new diamond or piece of jewelry that you want to digitise onto a blockchain. How is that physically done when you cant put any piece of third party ID device, on it?
And the second question would be, whatever way/technique you use, how am i completely convinced as a joe-public buyer, that the blockchain reference for that piece of jewelry or stone, is irrefutably connected, to said jewelry or stone?

[BitGoser]

Is there anyone who use Factom Entry Credits or how to use them.
I'm busy with a project and want to use Factom.
I’m using PHP so I use the curl function.
It seems there is some decoding that I’m not sure of.

Like:
'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/f6e117ea838cb652e9cfc3b29552d5887800a7ba614df0bd8c13e171eddc5897' - is working

 and

'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/FA2oMzWrkwspnRriJmDvjjiFVfLBzbjUQ28sxgtwvSb3NCytAMnP'  - does not work.
Is there any  example on how to
hash a string
put it in the factom blockchain
retrieve the hash from the factom blockchain.

[AlanX]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure.  

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

Yes, correct.
Now assign the identity of a new diamond or piece of jewelry that you want to digitise onto a blockchain. How is that physically done when you cant put any piece of third party ID device, on it?
And the second question would be, whatever way/technique you use, how am i completely convinced as a joe-public buyer, that the blockchain reference for that piece of jewelry or stone, is irrefutably connected, to said jewelry or stone?

In the supply chain, you do not have to tie the physical to the providence.  The fact that you can't create TWO document streams means that the diamonds are immaterial.  You can only sell one as real, and sell the other as undocumented.  And there is no economic or legal reason to care.  The documentation cannot be duplicated, so only the number of legitimate diamonds are traded as legitimate.  Today it is just too easy to mix legitimate with the illegitimate so that the industry ends up selling both as legitimate.  That is what providence can stop.

[Pap0u]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

[crazyivan]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

So why it hasn't skyrocketed yet? It s got all preconditions.

[Pap0u]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

So why it hasn't skyrocketed yet? It s got all preconditions.

Crazyivan take a shot of vodka, smoke a nice joint and chill out

The money is coming soon!

[lolikop]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

So why it hasn't skyrocketed yet? It s got all preconditions.

Because 80% thinks it will

And when people like you dont see it rise they sell

One day it will burst but only if those manipulators say so

[D-Lux]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure.  

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

Yes, correct.
Now assign the identity of a new diamond or piece of jewelry that you want to digitise onto a blockchain. How is that physically done when you cant put any piece of third party ID device, on it?
And the second question would be, whatever way/technique you use, how am i completely convinced as a joe-public buyer, that the blockchain reference for that piece of jewelry or stone, is irrefutably connected, to said jewelry or stone?

In the supply chain, you do not have to tie the physical to the providence.  The fact that you can't create TWO document streams means that the diamonds are immaterial.  You can only sell one as real, and sell the other as undocumented.  And there is no economic or legal reason to care.  The documentation cannot be duplicated, so only the number of legitimate diamonds are traded as legitimate.  Today it is just too easy to mix legitimate with the illegitimate so that the industry ends up selling both as legitimate.  That is what providence can stop.

For the diamond example in particular, you can look at what companies like Everledger are doing to identify diamonds. From a CoinDesk article:

"Before a stone like this can be digitised ... it needs a unique identifier – a fingerprint – that allows it to be tracked on Everledger’s platform as it changes hands.

"This is calculated from 40 data points related to each stone – alongside the Four C's. Any diamond over 0.16 carats will also have a serial number inscribed on its girdle during the grading process.

"While a criminal could reshape a stone to distort its 'digital fingerprint', Kemp explained that diamonds are not, in fact, the sum of their parts. The cutting process results in a lot of wastage, so any attempt to alter a diamond, or split it into two, will drastically reduce its value."

http://www.coindesk.com/everledger-blockchain-tech-fight-diamond-theft/

Though this obviously wouldn't work for most other objects (chickens, turnips, shoes ...).

[D-Lux]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

So why it hasn't skyrocketed yet? It s got all preconditions.

Because 80% thinks it will

And when people like you dont see it rise they sell

One day it will burst but only if those manipulators say so

Yes—this, in a nutshell. At some point the price is going to rise, and most ppl won't buy b/c they'll assume it'll go down again (market-induced "learned helplessness"). But when it doesn't go down, others start buying. Repeat, repeat ... Until things get interesting.

My guess is M2/Exodus will be the trigger. But as Lolikop says, this is a manipulators’ market atm. The price will be suppressed until they decide to remove the bots and walls, or until volume picks up the the point that they’re overwhelmed. Till then, we’re left to accumulate, give BTC the evil eye, and squabble in these forums.

[stereotype]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure.  

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

Yes, correct.
Now assign the identity of a new diamond or piece of jewelry that you want to digitise onto a blockchain. How is that physically done when you cant put any piece of third party ID device, on it?
And the second question would be, whatever way/technique you use, how am i completely convinced as a joe-public buyer, that the blockchain reference for that piece of jewelry or stone, is irrefutably connected, to said jewelry or stone?

In the supply chain, you do not have to tie the physical to the providence.  The fact that you can't create TWO document streams means that the diamonds are immaterial.  You can only sell one as real, and sell the other as undocumented.  And there is no economic or legal reason to care.  The documentation cannot be duplicated, so only the number of legitimate diamonds are traded as legitimate.  Today it is just too easy to mix legitimate with the illegitimate so that the industry ends up selling both as legitimate.  That is what providence can stop.

For the diamond example in particular, you can look at what companies like Everledger are doing to identify diamonds. From a CoinDesk article:

"Before a stone like this can be digitised ... it needs a unique identifier – a fingerprint – that allows it to be tracked on Everledger’s platform as it changes hands.

"This is calculated from 40 data points related to each stone – alongside the Four C's. Any diamond over 0.16 carats will also have a serial number inscribed on its girdle during the grading process.

"While a criminal could reshape a stone to distort its 'digital fingerprint', Kemp explained that diamonds are not, in fact, the sum of their parts. The cutting process results in a lot of wastage, so any attempt to alter a diamond, or split it into two, will drastically reduce its value."

http://www.coindesk.com/everledger-blockchain-tech-fight-diamond-theft/

Though this obviously wouldn't work for most other objects (chickens, turnips, shoes ...).

Yeah that makes sense, and hey, the shoe could work if they are considered valuable........."Beyond stones, the company is also "aggressively pursuing" other opportunities in the luxury goods space. Many valuables, from handbags to boats, are now equipped with RFID tags - a technology Kemp has a long history with.
Luxury goods is a big spend, and there are a lot of items, a lot of money and cross-border as well - that's where the blockchain comes in, the ability for it to be a global ledger."
 
Maybe Smartrac are going to enable their RFID's or could re-develop the dLOC sticker, to suit.

Just a thought.......if you insert a blockchain enabled RFID or dLOC sticker on/in an assayed registered block of gold, have you turbo charged the fungibility of said block of gold?

[D-Lux]

.....however.....its still not clear to me how can this technique can be applied to precious stones and jewelry. A killer app, for sure.  

Providence and audit trails can stop all sorts of fraud and misrepresentations.  In the case of the supply chain for precious stones and jewelry, the application is pretty simple.  If the major producers set up providence for the legitimate production of their product, and that is maintained through the supply chain, then the insertion of "blood diamonds" or other illegitimate products is much harder. They would lack the providence trail that the legitimate product has.

So say you are a re-seller.  You have some inventory of legitimate product that you wish to mix with illegitimate product to increse your supply.  With digital providence, you can only document the legitimate product you are holding.  You can't document the illegitimate product, and transferring the documentation of one to the other eliminates your ability to sell the legitimate product as legitimate.

This works for a host of goods and even services.

And it doesn't require TPP

Paul

Yes, correct.
Now assign the identity of a new diamond or piece of jewelry that you want to digitise onto a blockchain. How is that physically done when you cant put any piece of third party ID device, on it?
And the second question would be, whatever way/technique you use, how am i completely convinced as a joe-public buyer, that the blockchain reference for that piece of jewelry or stone, is irrefutably connected, to said jewelry or stone?

In the supply chain, you do not have to tie the physical to the providence.  The fact that you can't create TWO document streams means that the diamonds are immaterial.  You can only sell one as real, and sell the other as undocumented.  And there is no economic or legal reason to care.  The documentation cannot be duplicated, so only the number of legitimate diamonds are traded as legitimate.  Today it is just too easy to mix legitimate with the illegitimate so that the industry ends up selling both as legitimate.  That is what providence can stop.

For the diamond example in particular, you can look at what companies like Everledger are doing to identify diamonds. From a CoinDesk article:

"Before a stone like this can be digitised ... it needs a unique identifier – a fingerprint – that allows it to be tracked on Everledger’s platform as it changes hands.

"This is calculated from 40 data points related to each stone – alongside the Four C's. Any diamond over 0.16 carats will also have a serial number inscribed on its girdle during the grading process.

"While a criminal could reshape a stone to distort its 'digital fingerprint', Kemp explained that diamonds are not, in fact, the sum of their parts. The cutting process results in a lot of wastage, so any attempt to alter a diamond, or split it into two, will drastically reduce its value."

http://www.coindesk.com/everledger-blockchain-tech-fight-diamond-theft/

Though this obviously wouldn't work for most other objects (chickens, turnips, shoes ...).

Yeah that makes sense, and hey, the shoe could work if they are considered valuable........."Beyond stones, the company is also "aggressively pursuing" other opportunities in the luxury goods space. Many valuables, from handbags to boats, are now equipped with RFID tags - a technology Kemp has a long history with.
Luxury goods is a big spend, and there are a lot of items, a lot of money and cross-border as well - that's where the blockchain comes in, the ability for it to be a global ledger."
 
Maybe Smartrac are going to enable their RFID's or could re-develop the dLOC sticker, to suit.

Just a thought.......if you insert a blockchain enabled RFID or dLOC sticker on/in an assayed registered block of gold, have you turbo charged the fungibility of said block of gold?

Yes, I think you're right about other high-value objects. Though my sense is that valuables would be more a market for Everledger, whereas Factom's going after the mass scale (documents of various sorts) side of things.

For the block of gold example, wouldn't adding such a sticker actually destroy its fungibility? If you make something uniquely identifiable, it's no longer fungible, right?

Unrelated, but this is sort of exciting: "The innovative document verification and authentication solution dLoc is Smartrac’s entry for this year’s Sesames Awards and will be showcased at Trustech, the largest tradeshow event dedicated to trust-based technologies. The event will take place from November 29 to December 1 in Cannes, France." Fingers crossed for Smartrac + Factom ...

[crazyivan]

Factom is gonna be a big winner it's unreal

So why it hasn't skyrocketed yet? It s got all preconditions.

Because 80% thinks it will

And when people like you dont see it rise they sell

One day it will burst but only if those manipulators say so

So the price does not go up cause of me? Damn, I m more powerful then I thought so.

People like me and people like you re the market. That is the real power which determines the price, not your empty expectations of bunnies and candies. 

[BrianDeery]

Is there anyone who use Factom Entry Credits or how to use them.
I'm busy with a project and want to use Factom.
I’m using PHP so I use the curl function.
It seems there is some decoding that I’m not sure of.

Like:
'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/f6e117ea838cb652e9cfc3b29552d5887800a7ba614df0bd8c13e171eddc5897' - is working

 and

'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/FA2oMzWrkwspnRriJmDvjjiFVfLBzbjUQ28sxgtwvSb3NCytAMnP'  - does not work.
Is there any  example on how to
hash a string
put it in the factom blockchain
retrieve the hash from the factom blockchain.

There is nothing special about putting a hash vs any other piece of data into factom.  It allows up to 10 KiB per Entry.  I would reccomned a signed hash, as others can also submit hashes potentially fooling your application.  also, you probably want a nonce in the entry (or an ExtID), because duplicate entries won't be allowed in m2 within the same hour.

We have some documentation here, but it is a bit lacking.
https://github.com/FactomProject/FactomDocs/blob/master/FactoidAPI.md

You should know that we are very close to putting out a V2 of the API.  It will be json based.  It should be fairly easy to port over though.  that being said, this is how you would do it with the existing tools:

first run factomd and fctwallet


putting entries into factom is a two stage process.  first you need to get a commit (a payment for a piece of data) then you submit the reveal (the data itself)

make sure you have entry credits in fctwallet. 

factom-cli balances

it should show you the name of the address which has factoids

if not, run
factom-cli generateaddress ec myecaddress

factom-cli newtransaction txname
factom-cli addinput txname myfactoidaddress 0.5
factom-cli addoutput txname myecaddress 0.5
factom-cli addfee txname myfactoidaddress
factom-cli sign txname
factom-cli submit txname

After 10 minutes, when your run
factom-cli balances
it will show that you now have Entry Credits.







Everything in factom needs to go into a chain.  lets use this one as an example:  e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855
http://explorer.factom.org/chain/e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855



curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"ChainID":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855", "ExtIDs":["657831", "657832"], "Content":"48656C6C6F20466163746F6D21"}' localhost:8089/v1/compose-entry-submit/myecaddress

that returns:

{"EntryCommit":{"CommitEntryMsg":"0001588a2a467dfac23d2299b690813cec4666b11ecb8d2e6b21bbe983c1412b5f5c9405a537d20 13b6a27bcceb6a42d62a3a8d02a6f0d73653215771de243a63ac048a18b59da29c5d4b9c41a7bd5 77f16cba749f89fd2ab4aca2b2434f758f16414509702ecd37768d47ef8ec36bfbe48e6f43e1277 5961f1594a5303ea3819c21e7d5fe3ebf0c"},"EntryReveal":{"Entry":"00e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855000a000365783 1000365783248656c6c6f20466163746f6d21"}}


we break that apart and send those to factomd with two calls.

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"CommitEntryMsg":"0001588a2a467dfac23d2299b690813cec4666b11ecb8d2e6b21bbe983c1412b5f5c9405a537d20 13b6a27bcceb6a42d62a3a8d02a6f0d73653215771de243a63ac048a18b59da29c5d4b9c41a7bd5 77f16cba749f89fd2ab4aca2b2434f758f16414509702ecd37768d47ef8ec36bfbe48e6f43e1277 5961f1594a5303ea3819c21e7d5fe3ebf0c"}' localhost:8088/v1/commit-entry

curl -i -X POST -H 'Content-Type: application/json' -d '{"Entry":"00e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855000a000365783 1000365783248656c6c6f20466163746f6d21"}' localhost:8088/v1/reveal-entry


After 10 minutes it will show up in the chain.  you can check by running
factom-cli get allentries e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855


To read it programmatically instead of through a helper function, you can make http calls to get json data. you would find the latest block then iterate backwards getting successively earlier blocks. at the same time you would pull out all the entries that were placed into those blocks.

curl -X GET http://localhost:8088/v1/chain-head/e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855

which gives:
{"ChainHead":"112b6855ccce87d7891db32ee0a312dcdbb768ec23f043e88b4d5c66b89a31a3"}

then do
curl -X GET http://localhost:8088/v1/entry-block-by-keymr/112b6855ccce87d7891db32ee0a312dcdbb768ec23f043e88b4d5c66b89a31a3


which gives
{"Header":{"BlockSequenceNumber":4,"ChainID":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855","PrevKeyMR":"a7833c0dc44f5475f77eed12b5b7853ee81fe6afb1381cbf29f20b1237bb353a","Timestamp":1479786600},"EntryList":[{"EntryHash":"fac23d2299b690813cec4666b11ecb8d2e6b21bbe983c1412b5f5c9405a537d2","Timestamp":1479786960}]}

we can branch downwards and backwards. The call
curl -X GET http://localhost:8088/v1/entry-by-hash/fac23d2299b690813cec4666b11ecb8d2e6b21bbe983c1412b5f5c9405a537d2

asks for the single entry in the latest block in the chain. There can be more than one entry in a block, but this block just has one. the call gives:
{"ChainID":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855","Content":"48656c6c6f20466163746f6d21","ExtIDs":["657831","657832"]}

next we can do entry-block-by-keymr to get the second from latest entry block
curl -X GET http://localhost:8088/v1/entry-block-by-keymr/a7833c0dc44f5475f77eed12b5b7853ee81fe6afb1381cbf29f20b1237bb353a


which gives:
{"Header":{"BlockSequenceNumber":3,"ChainID":"e3b0c44298fc1c149afbf4c8996fb92427ae41e4649b934ca495991b7852b855","PrevKeyMR":"19a3c3307083a592f76158e97f605e9b3d3638df5892e53b64d0183fd087f844","Timestamp":1478574600},"EntryList":[{"EntryHash":"d66a0c102cb6d8421c015fc905f263b6389c6a0b7e92306eb72a51104b781d53","Timestamp":1478575080}]}


We can keep repeating getting the entries and getting the previous block until 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 is marked as the previous block. this indicates that it is the first block in the chain.




This might have some info: https://github.com/FactomProject/FactomDocs/tree/master/DeveloperGuide

as well as this: https://github.com/FactomProject/FactomDocs/blob/master/developerSandboxSetup.md


I hope this is enough to help you get started.

[BrianDeery]

Is there anyone who use Factom Entry Credits or how to use them.
I'm busy with a project and want to use Factom.
I’m using PHP so I use the curl function.
It seems there is some decoding that I’m not sure of.

Like:
'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/f6e117ea838cb652e9cfc3b29552d5887800a7ba614df0bd8c13e171eddc5897' - is working

 and

'http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/FA2oMzWrkwspnRriJmDvjjiFVfLBzbjUQ28sxgtwvSb3NCytAMnP'  - does not work.
Is there any  example on how to
hash a string
put it in the factom blockchain
retrieve the hash from the factom blockchain.

also, the V1 API takes the hex version of the keys, rather than the base58 version.  the V2 only deals with the base58 encoded type, so this will go away.  as a workaround for now, you can use this website:

http://gobittest.appspot.com/PrivateKey

paste the address in WIF checksum checking
FA2oMzWrkwspnRriJmDvjjiFVfLBzbjUQ28sxgtwvSb3NCytAMnP will give

5FB16DA21F1F8898E705C267365929BD3ACDE6B8F73682DDED30BBC9A90C1A324183
in box 3

strip the 5FB1 from the front giving

6DA21F1F8898E705C267365929BD3ACDE6B8F73682DDED30BBC9A90C1A324183

http://localhost:8088/v1/factoid-balance/6DA21F1F8898E705C267365929BD3ACDE6B8F73682DDED30BBC9A90C1A324183 gives a balance

This is all getting better, but slowly.

[Pap0u]

Wow Brian, awesome and utmost professional response, as well as timelyness. I see the staff has been frequenting the forums as of late but obviously ignoring the FUD and price talk which is good. Shows the class act they are.

[addias]

 What are the concerns with medical records on the block chain and Protected health information?

[Freckleg]

What are the concerns with medical records on the block chain and Protected health information?

hashes are stored being a reference to a record, the actual record itself will not be stored on the blockchain

[CocoLibre]

Just a heads up everyone Tiana Laurence will be on The Crypto Show Wednesday night to discuss the Gates grant.