Factom Protocol Newsletter15 Apr 2019 06:30
exract from today's edition (April 15th):
"Usage and Development
The Factom Protocol continues to see real-world usage with more on the horizon. The protocol metrics site Factoshi showcased a sharp rise in cumulative entries from 17,434,852 to 17,708,644 over the last 30 days.
Total chains saw a significant spike from 7,988 to 11,333. "Chains" are client-defined sequences of entries (I think of them as mini blockchains) relevant to an application.
From what we can ascertain, a significant portion of the new mainnet usage is coming from dLoc by Linxens, who are partnered with Factom Inc. Linxens is a leading multinational technology company providing component-based solutions for security and identification.
Another important development was TFA Labs announced a solution to secure IoT devices at the hardware level using the Factom blockchain. Their solution works with the Factom blockchain out of the box, and currently has support for Python, C# and JavaScript. I reached out to the team to ask why Factom's design is "perfectly suited" for IoT like they said in their release and they responded with
The Factom protocol is well suited for IoT-based data because of its chain-oriented design. Every device is confined to its own chain, meaning light nodes can more easily ignore entire data sets without having to validate the individual entries. These entries can contain device identity, datastreams, data proofs, and maintenance history all linked through the device's sub-chains. Additionally, manufacturers can establish chains for their devices. Through the use of the Factom(r) Protocol's proof-of-publishing, an authentication source for validation of firmware can be established, thus providing a countermeasure against device hacking and installation of malicious firmware on the IoT device. Finally, chains also work well with the future scaling methods the Factom protocol intends to pursue, such as sharding, which enables higher TPS required by IoT devices."