Factom creates a Protocol Stack for Bitcoin 2.0 applications. Factom constructs a simple, standard, effective, and secure foundation for Bitcoin 2.0 style applications. Bitcoin provides a "ledger of record" where hashes for a Factom server can provide proof of record for its own record of entries. At the most basic level, Factom provides "Proof of Exisence." Any digital artifact can be reduced to a signature that proves its existence at a point in time.
Factom extends this idea. Each Factom subsystem in the group provides a "Proof of Process." Proof of each step in a process can be entered into a "Factom chain" of provable events. One obvious sort of Factom chain is a log. A security camera can log a stream of signatures, proving video was taken at a point in time, and that the video has not be altered. A Coin is also a process, one proving that coins existed and were exchanged. The the steps in processing a title for Real Estate is a process, and one where the documentation can prove decisive in court.
Factom chains are constructed from entries crafted to support a wide range of applications. An entry can be used to prove data existed at a point in time. And other Factom chains and demonstrate their reaction to such data. In other words, a Factom chain is a sequence of entries that define some progression of state, and the data that drove that progression. Each Factom chain has its own rules, and entries in these chains are constrained by those rules.
The architecture for Factom allows for the easy construction of tokens or coins, securities, smart contracts, etc.
Continue to the full Factom whitepaper.
Continue to the Factom wiki.