FACT0RN Blockchain, a recipient of the 2022 Coinbase Crypto Community Fund grant, has implemented an innovative approach replacing hashing by integer factorization as PoW; a problem of interest to both the private sector, the public sector, and the academic community. The FACT0RN Blockchain was officially launched on April 20, 2022, at 6:09 AM EST and has been successfully operational for over a year. Currently, it boasts more than 120 active nodes, and a rapidly increasing difficulty level.
The PoW mechanism employed by FACT0RN Blockchain involves integer factorization of brilliant numbers in base 2. The process of mining a block is structured in a way that the most cost-effective method is to sieve random intervals given out by the nodes for brilliant numbers based 2. On average, several nonces and 10's of thousands of numbers will need to be factored before a brilliant number in base 2 is discovered by a miner.
Due to the widespread interest in factoring within the cryptographic community and among over a dozen hobbyist communities, FACT0RN Blockchain is introducing a 'deadpool' feature. Users can participate by paying a fee in FACT coins and submitting a number to be factored in the deadpool. Additionally, others can contribute more coins to any number already in the deadpool. This feature is currently under development.