[ANN] FACTOM - Introducing Honesty to Record-Keeping

[D-Lux]

Is it just me, or has the FCT sell-side been looking increasingly anemic? Anyone been keeping track of the total buy/sell orders over the past few days?

[Jjtjjt]

From the way I understand it, factom inserts a hash stating that a record exists but the actual record is kept off the blockchain?  I might have this wrong.  I read the whitepaper.  Are the actual documents, i.e. videos, files, etc kept on Factom servers?  Thanks. 

[MisfiringNeuron]

I just sold the last of my Factom and am going short.  I realize this whale is going to keep Factom down until M2 which seems to be one delay after another.  I bet we don't see M2 this year in fact.

[D-Lux]

I just sold the last of my Factom and am going short.  I realize this whale is going to keep Factom down until M2 which seems to be one delay after another.  I bet we don't see M2 this year in fact.

I believe that's correct. Though I think the Factom team is at least friendly with the Storj team ...

https://twitter.com/paulsnx2/status/536245604331302912

... so I guess there would be the possibility of some sort of online-storage partnership down the line. 100% speculation though.

[Jjtjjt]

I just sold the last of my Factom and am going short.  I realize this whale is going to keep Factom down until M2 which seems to be one delay after another.  I bet we don't see M2 this year in fact.

I believe that's correct. Though I think the Factom team is at least friendly with the Storj team ...

https://twitter.com/paulsnx2/status/536245604331302912

... so I guess there would be the possibility of some sort of online-storage partnership down the line. 100% speculation though.

Thx buddy.

[nowhere man]

D-Lux, when is your interview with Paul Snow?

[astmandu]

As much as I try to step away and take the long view, I must say it's nice to see the sell book fall below 400K.  It's been awhile.  Some consolidation at lower volume at this level would be fine with me.  Looks like it formed a nice base at this level back in early to mid-August.

[astmandu]

The commit frequency has slowed quite a bit.  Anyone have an opinion as to whether this means anything regarding testnet/M2, or nothing at all? 

https://github.com/FactomProject/factomd/commits/testgenesis

[Freckleg]

The commit frequency has slowed quite a bit.  Anyone have an opinion as to whether this means anything regarding testnet/M2, or nothing at all? 

https://github.com/FactomProject/factomd/commits/testgenesis

well the chances of a M2 release become greater with every passing day. And it does seem quite quiet on GitHub, then again could be just a well deserved weekend for the team

[Embat]

at this rates I am strongly buying. M2 will be big step for fct. I am sure this technology will atract much more investors in near and far future. Have a nice trade!

[Mimir]

From the way I understand it, factom inserts a hash stating that a record exists but the actual record is kept off the blockchain?  I might have this wrong.  I read the whitepaper.  Are the actual documents, i.e. videos, files, etc kept on Factom servers?  Thanks. 

There's nothing stopping you from doing it, but it is incredibly expensive to store data on the Factom chain. From the FAQ:

Factom is not intended for Data storage. The prices are projected at ~$1048/GB

Though still far cheaper than storing the data yourself on the Bitcoin blockchain, unless you are a billionaire it's not intended for data storage. It's for proof of existence and auditing purposes.
Say you had an invention but weren't ready to patent, you could make a hash of your file containing the idea, and as long as you keep that file you can prove ownership at a specific point in time that is indisputable.

[D-Lux]

Say you had an invention but weren't ready to patent, you could make a hash of your file containing the idea, and as long as you keep that file you can prove ownership at a specific point in time that is indisputable.

Cool. I'm personally still struggling to get out of the "horseless carriage" mentality in imagining what could be done with Factom. What comes to mind now are mainly the systems and processes that already exist, but that could be made more efficient / secure / etc by using Factom. But I think things start to become interesting when imagining what new processes / systems could be created by using Factom, which weren't previously possible.

Actually I suppose this is the conceptual challenge for a lot, or most, cryptos ... Maybe I'll ask Paul during the Q+A. Though if anyone has any ideas about what new systems / processes (not really sure of the word, even) could be created with the use of Factom -- that didn't exist before, b/c they couldn't --I'd be curious to hear.

[Jjtjjt]

Right now there are 8 million factoids give or take.  Will that number increase or decrease over time?  There is supposed to be 10% emission but at the same factoids are burned when converted to entry credits.  Or will it all be a wash in the end, i.e in 10 years after all the emission and burning there will be the same number in existence?

[Mimir]

Cool. I'm personally still struggling to get out of the "horseless carriage" mentality in imagining what could be done with Factom. What comes to mind now are mainly the systems and processes that already exist, but that could be made more efficient / secure / etc by using Factom. But I think things start to become interesting when imagining what new processes / systems could be created by using Factom, which weren't previously possible.

Actually I suppose this is the (conceptual) challenge for a lot, or most, cryptos ... Maybe I'll ask Paul during the Q+A. Though if anyone has any ideas about what new systems / processes (not really sure of the word, even) could be created with the use of Factom -- that didn't exist before, b/c they couldn't --I'd be curious to hear.

It's a pretty crappy example on my part, but gets the idea across.

As I said earlier about Turkish censorship on twitter, which coincidentally blew up only a few hours later, now sites hosting the leaked Turkish govt docs or even linking to them is blocked, Google Drive, Onedrive, Gibthub are all blocked, solely for storing the files or magnet link

This is what tyranny looks like in the digital age. The emails are damning, but governments control the backbone of the internet, they censor because they can, and it now affects millions of innocent people who are simply trying to go about their lives without even caring about the documents, software companies are making alternate location plans after github was censored. It's far from reasonable for a modern democracy and especially a western ally.

 I very much dont support this new phenomenon of wholesale leaking, its easily manipulated by nation-states (the WADA leaks were proven to be partially falsified and regarded as payback by Russia), but proper whistleblowers deserve protection in a civilised society and any claims should go through the scrutiny of the justice system, that's what's separates us from the terrible countries on earth, and it's really sad how the world seems to be turning it's back on justice as though the means justifies the end, history has shown repeatedly how this turns out.

If Maidsafe were up and running Turkey would struggle to hide this, but as it stands it's very easy for any government on earth to block whomever's IP address they want to. When large corporations and monetary threats are involved it's even easier.

Simply posting the torrent link here means bitcointalk would likely be banned. You can't claim to stand for your principles yet watch others down the street to do otherwise without saying a thing.

[BrianDeery]

The commit frequency has slowed quite a bit.  Anyone have an opinion as to whether this means anything regarding testnet/M2, or nothing at all?  

https://github.com/FactomProject/factomd/commits/testgenesis

Why do you think that?  https://github.com/FactomProject/factomd/commits/m2-sunday

Right now there are 8 million factoids give or take.  Will that number increase or decrease over time?  There is supposed to be 10% emission but at the same factoids are burned when converted to entry credits.  Or will it all be a wash in the end, i.e in 10 years after all the emission and burning there will be the same number in existence?

Maybe more than what you were looking for:
https://medium.com/@BrianDeery/i-love-negative-feedback-632f8ee780ff

From the way I understand it, factom inserts a hash stating that a record exists but the actual record is kept off the blockchain?  I might have this wrong.  I read the whitepaper.  Are the actual documents, i.e. videos, files, etc kept on Factom servers?  Thanks.  

While storing things on the factom blockchain is expensive, and not really even guaranteed, it works much better as a publishing platform pointing you where to find the bulk data, and if you find it, is it correct (by whatever definition of "correct" your application might use).  Bitcoin with pruning used widely in the future has similar properties.

As the Turkey censorship detailed above, storage is not the real problem.  The real problem is the indexing, collation, publishing and advertising of the data, coupled with making sure you have the right data.  Storing of the data is not the hard part.  Once you know what data you are looking for (and in some cases how to find it), it does not matter who produces the data, if you can check its hash and verify the signature.
Here is Julian Assange talking about this technology.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=290&v=MaB3Zw5_p9c

This resonated pretty strongly with me.  George Orwell predicted a pretty bleak future.  The antagonist in the book 1984 has a saying:

Code:

Who controls the past controls the future: 
Who controls the present controls the past

Securing records in a public witness (a blockchain) with >$1,000,000 of electricity per day being burned to advance the ledger, means that bureaucrats with admin rights cannot change history undetectably.  Even when the local databases are wiped, individual citizens can produce copies of the digital documents that match the hashes signed earlier by the bureaucrat's predecessors.

There is also a pet theory of mine which flips the rationale for Bitcoin's existence.

https://medium.com/@BrianDeery/hashpower-is-the-ends-bitcoin-is-the-means-4de61c559bc0

[Mimir]

You always make me smile Brian, and im very grateful for the time you spend dealing with us all, the crypto world is crazy place, but it's plainly clear to anyone who looks that y'all are very good people working there. I hope you take as long as necessary to move on to v2, might just be me, but I really prefer something done right rather than something rushed out the door under duress.

Apologies if the questions are quite forthright or on touchy subjects. I just hope others understand how powerful the protocol actually is, in the end private enterprise will be the ones burning EC's, but the the p2p network has its merits in times of need.

[crazyivan]

To quote Brian:

"Factom has a source and a sink for Factoids. Both the sink quantity and the price of Factoids are variable. The price of Factoids is at the whims of the market, but here is where the negative feedback loop comes in. The conjecture is that Factoid price will reach an equilibrium directly proportional to Entry Credit usage.
Let’s conduct some thought experiments. First assume that the EC usage is constant, because the cost to submit Entries and usefulness of the system is independent of the Factoid price. Let’s postulate that the market drives the Factoid price to a low level. The Federated servers will match this internally and raise the Factoid/EC exchange rate. If the price drops to 1/10th of the earlier price, then 10x more Factoids will be needed for the same number of ECs. This means that now 10x more Factoids are being removed from the market. This will lower supply, which will tend to push the Factoid price up."

Nice, let s hope this will be the case and not correction downwards cause as an early investor I DO care about the price and not only technology.

[GrossBit]

the volatility has calmed a bit, and the price cannot recover over 0.00400

its clear the market is not here because of "manipulation" but because of lack of new buyers. everyone bullish is already in.
those who complain about low prices should just buy here and stop complaining. if everybody did the same the market would be higher...

unfortunately, if there is a new wave of selling, we could go down to 0.0025 or even 0.0015.

By the way, the current weakness is NOT just FCT - related. Other Alts (ETH, XMR,...) to name a couple ones are quite off their highs with a similar timing, and its also got to do with BTC strength, and fear of a BTC squeeze.

[daburone]

So, if there's more selling, the market will go lower. Unless there's more buying, in which case it will go higher. Thank God you are here to steer us in the right direction!

FWIW, I'm waiting on the sidelines until there's a bit of good news, maybe the testnet, then I'll increase my position.

[GrossBit]

So, if there's more selling, the market will go lower. Unless there's more buying, in which case it will go higher. Thank God you are here to steer us in the right direction!

FWIW, I'm waiting on the sidelines until there's a bit of good news, maybe the testnet, then I'll increase my position.

sometimes in trading, its better not to trade. Patience is a virtue.