Factom and Bitsapphire Partner: Adding Data Protection to Record Keeping

Originally a business development studio, developing websites and brands for crypto-currency startups, Bitsapphire has since moved to developing Know Your Customer (KYC) solutions. Compliance in general is one of the biggest difficulties for any startup, especially in bitcoin. Together with Factom they will build an identity management system, targeted at financial institutions seeking more reliable KYC solutions. The product will first be used by Bitsapphire’s crypto-currency wallet, Moonstone.

According to a Factom press release, the partnership will also be producing a data storage solution for municipalities in Bitsapphire’s homeland of Kosovo.  Bitsapphire will be adding their unique KYC solution to Factom’s data recording product to test a new “anti-corruption” version.

“Factom will be notarizing the checkpoints and be the independent encrypted storage of the databases and spreadsheets.”
— – Factom

Bitsapphire co-founder Taulant Ramabaja added, “We are happy to announce that we are using new blockchain tech to solve old problems, and that Kosovo Municipalities will be among the pioneers in this space. Kosovo is in our opinion the perfect place to test these new approaches due to its recent history and struggles, but also because new and thoughtful majors are looking to streamline their operations through technology.”

The Technology

Factom, which launched earlier this year, provides a service where large amounts of data can be verified using the Blockchain, the distributed ledger that makes Bitcoin possible. No one can change the data recorded on the blockchain, which gives it potential as a record keeping technology. The data is secured with a single cryptographic hash, allowing large amounts of data to be recorded in a single bitcoin transaction.

Factom thinks its technology could be used by banks, governments and other large institutions to more reliably store data, but so far has yet to on-aboard any major customers. Bitsapphire’s KYC solution could make Factom’s data recording software more attractive by providing a working example of the technology.

“Bitsapphire is building some of the most innovative solutions to KYC, data protection, and real time auditing on the blockchain. Factom makes it simple for them to create these products without bloating the Bitcoin Blockchain or building a complicated incentive system around a private blockchain,”
— – Peter Kirby, Factom President