You get 1000 Entry Credits for $10 = $0.01 per EC. One EC can hold up to 1kb of data. A SHA256 hash has a size of 32 bytes. So ~30 hashes fit into one entry.
30 hashes on the Bitcoin blockchain would cost 15x as much = $0.15 (when I use your numbers).
However, transaction fees vary on bitcoin and tend to raise over time. You also don't want to bloat the bitcoin blockchain with billions of hashes.
Thanks for explanation, I believe it is useful for everybody.
I am sorry for my stupid English, please bear with me. With regards to 3/ - the data is not guaranteed to be stored - so what is the reason to try to store hashes or anything with FCT, if it just may disappear ? With BTC I buy the storage in the blockchain forever. Does it make more sense now ?
It's the same in Factom. The hashes, and hashes are data, are stored forever - in Factom and the Bitcoin-Blockchain. But the data that is hashed is not stored by Factom. It has to be that way, because nobody would want to store personal data, like medical records, on a blockchain.
The sense is: Let's say a bank hashes transactions and places the hashes into Factom and Factom into the Bitcoin-Blockchain ---> one year or five years later the bank has proof that nothing was altered or deleted. If there would be a hash in Factom but the file is missing, it would reveal that data was deleted. If there is a file that doesn't match to the hash it was altered etc. Plus: It's also about organizing data and we talk about "big-data" here.
And Factom also can be used to hash access to data. Let's say you work for a bank and you log into your account - Factom can record that as hash (depends on the application, on how the bank uses Factom). And let's say you open a file and change it --> Entry into Factom. So it's not just about the data and hashes but also about responsibility. It makes it much harder to mess with data once it's recorded as hashes. And that is more powerful than most people think because it's not just about objective aspects like:
- Proof of Existence: a document existed in this form at a certain time.
- Proof of Process: a document existed and is linked to this new updated document.
- Proof of Audit: an updated document can be verified to have changed according to a set of rules.
...but also about the way people think and act. That's why it's called "honesty-system". It doesn't prevent dishonest behaviour, it doesn't make it impossible to manipulate or delete data. But Factom would reveal it.
To understand how powerful that is it needs some knowledge about how it's handled today and how much manipulation is going on everywhere on this world with data.