Fellow chaps,

What an exciting time! Cryptos are popping and pumping everyday. One random piece of news and see, the price takes 25% to 50% in instant, even on coins that are currently not used and probably won't ever be. Well, actually, that is true for all the coin but Factom. I deemed necessarily to get things straight: is Factom an unused Protocol, i.e. do Factoids have currently any utility?

To answer to this question, best thing is at least to list the companies using the protocol. With the Factom slack, we did our fair share of digging through the web. Here is what we found:

Factom has selected Rivetz to integrate world cyber-security for the Factom applications, and that Rivetz has selected Factom to assure the global integrity of attribute data for Rivetz-protected applications. This collaboration will leverage Rivetz’s Trusted Execution model for the secure protection and processing of data and collection of user intent with Factom’s data layer on the blockchain to provide organizations in the financial, manufacturing, distribution and wholesale industries with the efficient means of verifying processes and registering data.

Rivetz - The company aims at providing security through hardware and decentralization, adding. Factom is here to add an additional layer of protection.

Smartrac - The RFIDs stickers made by Smartrac track a large range of properties. The data are then secured in the Factom block chain.

Smartrac is launching an integrated document verification and authentication solution. This breakthrough solution is based on the company’s IoT enablement platform Smart Cosmos, its NFC transponders, and innovative and highly secure blockchain technology provided by partner Factom.

Innola Solutions - Project to ensure data from land registry. Having trusty and immutable land registrations is important as it reduces the risk of corruption tied to lands deals.

Innola Solutions is a company established by a group of land administration experts with worldwide practical experience and talented software developers of unique skillsets and knowledge. At Innola Solutions we are set to become consulting and development center of innovative land administration solutions for different types of customers, fostering collaboration between open source and commercial software for land registration, cadastre and other property management aspects. Integration with blockchain platforms (e.g. Factom) to bring the security of your data to the next level.

GIM International - Another project to ensure data from land registry. They are not directly stating they'll use Factom, but they share a fair mention of it.

Now that it is no longer perceived as a grandiose and singular solution, we have begun to see how aspects of blockchain, applied in conjunction with proven approaches and technologies in the land sector, might make sense in particular situations. Organisations like Prosoft Alliance, Ukraine, have integrated with blockchain platforms (in this instance, Factom) to provide authentication and timestamping of transactions as a component of their land information systems.

Cognizant - Project to ensure and set immutable posted data between several banking ledgers.

"For example, we recently worked with a leading U.S. commercial bank that faced the challenge of having multiple subsidiaries, each with different enterprise systems that frequently needed to share general ledger postings with each other. The bank sought to eliminate manual intervention and automate settlement and reconciliation of transfers between its subsidiaries in real time using smart contracts supported by blockchain. The project created a complete end-to-end solution to achieve these objectives, using Ethereum to store general ledger balances and Factom to store settled general ledger postings"

Kaula - Attris - They want to develop on top of Factom Protocol a data management system to secure the data from the Japanese social security.

Kaula and Atrris Co., Ltd. (Head office: Setagaya-ku, Tokyo, Representative Director, Masanori Yasumitsu), who has been developing personnel, payment, accounting and medical logistics systems, have agreed to jointly develop a “usage record management system” against data involved in the above applications using Factom blockchain. Using this system, you can retain authenticity and tamper resistance of log records generated when the Japanese social security system’s data is processed – when information is added, updated, deleted or retrieved in mission-critical applications. Kaula and Atrris will also jointly promote business around the usage record management system

CrossCat - Translated - Aims at promoting the use of the Block chain. They have a collaboration with Cowra, which is Kaula stated above, with the Japanese prononciation.

The aim of this collaboration is to use Cowra's block chain utilization technology and Yutaka Crosscat By fusing wealthy customers and sales force, and business know-how cultivated through years of system development It is in creating a new service. New business with customers in the financial business area In cooperative development and system construction operation in public and other corporate business areas Solutions to transform the business and society by uncovering the needs of the industry sector System to enter the block chain related market. From Google translate

Thai Banks through Baoquan [1] [2] - Baoquan uses the Factom protocol and is in a strategic cooperation with Factom Inc.

Nearly everything that’s done at a bank requires official records, and all those official records must be validated, confirmed and stored for up to seven years. This sort of complexity requires massive amounts of time and labor to provide accuracy and transparency. A recent announcement by Baoquan technology group indicates that the tech firm is creating and distributing a system for data attestation through Blockchain technology that would allow banks to validate documents in seconds rather than days. The system would also provide a means of trustworthy data protection in an age filled with confusion and fraud. The Thai banking industry has long been flirting with Blockchain technology, and now seems to have embraced it. Baoquan also indicated that the technology would be made available for free to clients who are seeking socialized application. The nature of a distributed ledger system would allow Baoquan to add participants for document attestation, while not requiring a particularly large initial investment.

Sphereon - Offers API on top of Factom to enable people and companies to easily leverage the Factom Protocol.

A good example of sharing APIs is our ProofOfExistence API build using Blockchain technology to register and verify objects, photos and documents using a Blockchain. Sphereon leverages the open source Factom API but has adapted it to our own API to hide the complexities of Factom and its protocol.

Let's also remind everybody with the fact that Factom is part of Hyperledger, has contracts to secure data from Chinese smart cities, is promoted in China by Wanxiang through WanCloud, already helps banks to manage their mortgages through Harmony, working to solve Document Collaborating issues, develops a project for the Department of Homeland Security to secure data from the US border CCTV system, and so on. I may miss some.

No need to speak about the competition, aka Tierion. Peter Todd already did the job, and it's gloomy.

The Factom project might seem dull and dead, with no news. But beware my friends, the Factom team stays awake and works hard. They are disrupting entire fields.