What is Tron (TRX)?

Tron is a cryptocurrency and one of the most popular smart contract platforms. The Tron project started in 2017 through an ICO. Tron aims to return the internet to Tim Berners-Lee’s original vision. Tron is a Proof of Stake blockchain that uses a PoS variation called Delegated Proof of Stake. Tron is a challenging investment prospect due to the role of founder Justin Sun.

What is Tron (TRX)?

Tron is a cryptocurrency and one of the most popular smart contract platforms. Tron is an operating system for smart contracts and decentralized applications. Tron’s most significant competitors include Ethereum, Solana, BNB Chain, and Cardano.

Tron came to the general public’s attention during the altcoin boom of 2017. At the peak of its popularity, it even became one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies. In recent years, it has solidified its place in the top 20 cryptocurrencies.

Tron’s native currency is TRX. Since Tron is a Proof of Stake-based blockchain, TRX tokens are used for transaction fees and staking.

Below is information about Tron:

You can find the real-time price of Tron on this page: Tron price. Tron is probably one of the few (if not the only) cryptocurrencies with the lowest and highest prices within a few months of each other in 2017-2018.

Justin Sun is the founder of Tron and gives a face to the project. Many of the critical pieces of the Tron ecosystem are connected to Justin Sun in some way.

In recent years, Tron has become a popular stablecoin payment system. Over half of the USDT stablecoins created by Tether circulate on the Tron platform, and most of the payment traffic occurs in Asia.

This article is a beginner’s guide to Tron. We go through Tron’s history, technology, and potential as an investment.

History of Tron

The Tron project started in 2017 through an ICO. This was the most common way to raise funding for crypto projects then. Tron’s ICO was organized on the Binance exchange, which means it was, in fact, an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering).

The TRX token was born in Tron’s ICO. It was initially an ERC20 token operating on the Ethereum platform. This was very common in 2017-2018. Most of Ethereum’s competitors organized ICOs on the Ethereum platform because it was the most popular option.

The Tron MainNet was released in June 2018. After that, the TRX tokens were transferred from the Ethereum blockchain to the Tron blockchain.

The launch of Tron was full of uproar, as many criticized the project as lacking substance. There was already drama when the white paper was published, as Tron seemed to have plagiarized the white paper’s texts from other projects. Justin Sun said that this was due to the English translation work, but the explanation did not sound plausible

The founder of Tron, Justin Sun (pictured below), has been at the center of many controversies over the years.

Justin Sun received his education at Peking University. Next, he moved to the United States and went to the University of Pennsylvania. At the end of 2013, Sun joined Ripple. This connection is probably new information to many. Ripple eventually sent Justin Sun to China, where he served as the company’s chief representative.

Justin Sun left Ripple in 2015. After that, he founded a media app called Peiwon, which has over 10 million users. Sun has twice made the prestigious Forbes 30 under 30 list, which names the world’s stars under thirty in different categories.

Sun has also invested in the crypto sector. Under his leadership, the Tron project acquired BitTorrent in 2018. BitTorrent launched its own BTT token in 2019. Today, Sun is also one of the owners of the Poloniex exchange.

Tron has not reached major global popularity in the 2020s. The project seems to be a bit of a bubble in Asia. You don’t hear popular crypto influencers shill the TRX token, and Tron’s DeFi applications don’t make headlines either.

Despite this, Tron’s position has remained stable. Its DeFi sector has by far the most dollars locked up after Ethereum. The TRX token has also held its ground in the top 20 cryptocurrency list during both bull and bear markets.

Tron’s strength is its popularity as a payment system in Asia. More than half of all Tethers (USDT) have been issued on the Tron blockchain (source: data from The Block ).

Tron is going to fix the internet

Tron aims to return the internet to Tim Berners-Lee’s original vision. The internet, founded by Tim Berners-Lee, completely differed from our current system. Today, the data on the internet is controlled by giant companies such as Meta and Google, which practically determine the rules of the internet.

Tron wants to create a decentralized internet where content control is returned to its producer.

Giants, other than users themselves, own the ability to control data. The data no longer belongs to its creator. Due to the inappropriateness of an attempt to retake data initiatives and the difficulty in building websites and Apps, we have to adopt the rules of WeChat and Facebook and the distribution mechanisms of Weibo and Twitter, thus losing our own features. Although an App can be self-made, Apple can easily withdraw it from its platform.”

TRON is an attempt to heal the Internet. We believe users should have ownership of and control over the data they create, rather than have to cede that ownership and control to the platform; users must freely own all digital information. (Tron white paper)

Tron wants to “improve the internet” and returns power to the people. In practice, the Tron protocol will eventually enable content to be shared on the internet without intermediaries so that users have complete control over their publications and receive payment directly in the form of TRX.

However, more than six years after the publication of Tron’s white paper, the project has not profiled itself as a defender of the free internet. There are already several dozen similar blockchains on the market today. Tron is just one of many options trying to gain as much market share as possible in various sectors.

Tron is a fast DPoS blockchain

Tron is a Proof of Stake blockchain that uses a PoS variation called Delegated Proof of Stake. In the DPoS system, a small group of validators (delegates) is selected from among stakers to maintain the blockchain.

In Tron’s case, the network’s validators are called super representatives. There are 27 super representatives, and new ones are selected every six hours. You can enter the super representative selection process with a stake of 9999 TRX tokens. This is a modest amount in euros compared to many other blockchains.

Other network operators can delegate their tokens to blockchain validators and receive a share of the block rewards.

From a technical point of view, Tron is a competitive blockchain. It can handle more than 1000 transactions per second with a block time of only three seconds and near-zero fees. Tron’s network already has more than 8000 nodes, which is a good number compared to its competitors.

Below is a screenshot from the tronscan.org website, where you can find more information about the network.

The Tron Foundation, responsible for developing the Tron project, paid the block rewards in the first years. The rewards are now created through inflation. In practice, however, TRX is a deflationary currency due to its mechanics, where different blockchain operations burn TRX tokens.

The more the Tron platform is used, the more TRX tokens are burned. A similar logic also works in the Ethereum blockchain.

Tron as an investment

Tron is a challenging investment due to the role of founder Justin Sun. He has a hand in all critical functions of the Tron ecosystem, which is not good when we are talking about a world that relies on decentralization. Justin Sun has also been the subject of many negative news stories and theories.

For example, more than 90 percent of Tron’s DeFi sector liquidity is in Justin Sun-backed projects, JustLend, and JustStables.

Tron’s strength is its EVM compatibility, which means it would be easy to clone Ethereum’s popular DeFi apps to Tron’s blockchain. Yet, none of the popular Ethereum apps have migrated to Tron.

However, it is indisputable that the Tron platform has the most liquidity after Ethereum when locked. Tron has held this position for years, keeping the competitors far behind.

Tron’s native token, TRX, is also an interesting case. In the 2022 bear market, its price fell only 75% from its 2021 peak, making it one of the best coins to hold its value.

On the other hand, TRX has not been among the biggest gainers. In 2023, the price of Tron increased by about 98 percent, which is half less than that of Bitcoin.

TRX’s relatively stable price development is probably due to the use of the Tron platform. Tron has not become an object of speculation among the general public, but the platform is used for payment, especially in Asia. Tron transactions are fast and almost free of charge. The market-leading stablecoin, Tether, is used the most on the Tron platform.

If you believe in TRX’s positive price development and want to purchase some, check out this article: How to buy Tron. The article provides detailed instructions on how to buy TRX tokens on the Binance exchange.