The Factom project has been attracting a lot of attention over the past year. Using blockchain technology for things outside the financial sector is always exciting. The project’s team is working on anchoring sensitive data into the blockchain. However, they will be using both Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains to do so, thanks to a new feature called M2.
Contrary to what most people believed to be true, Factom will not be exclusive to the Bitcoin blockchain. While that remains the most secure of the blockchains in existence today, the company will not put all of their eggs in one basket. By integrating the Ethereum blockchain as well, Factom will ensure data is secured at all times. Additionally, this increases the decentralized aspect of the entire project.
Factom Embraces Ethereum Blockchain
All of this is made possible thanks to a feature called M2. Factom organizes all data in the network into Entries and Chain. User data is stored in the Entries, whereas the Chain associates Entries with one another.Every chain will have Entry Blocks, of which new ones are generated every 10 minutes. This seems to be on par with the current Bitcoin block time.
However, there is an important addition to the documentation:
“At the end of the 10 minute period all of the new Entry Blocks for all Chains are combined into one Directory Block, which is then anchored into the Bitcoin and Ethereum Blockchains. If there are no new Entries for a Chain in a given 10 minute period, no new Entry Block is added for the Chain.”
This is quite an exciting development for both Factom and Ethereum. Various companies are exploring the Ethereum blockchain for different purposes. It makes sense for Factom to do the same, and not just rely on the Bitcoin ledger. For now, it remains to be seen when this implementation will go live on the mainnet.
This news comes during a time when the price per Factoid is on the rise. Factom’s native currency will be used to secure information on the supported blockchains. So far, the price of these tokens has been going up steadily over the past few weeks. Exciting times are ahead for Factom, by the look of things.
Source: GitHub
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