TRON

TRON is a network, which is based on its own Blockchain Dapps mainly in the area of games and entertainment. TRON’s native crypto currency is called TRX, with the BitTorrent Token (BTT) TRON has meanwhile launched a second crypto currency. The inventor and public face of TRON is Justin Sun, whose erratic behavior in the crypto scene is known to fans and critics.

Quick Facts

Abbreviation: TRX
Maximum Number of Coins: 99 billion
Protocol: Delegated Proof-of-Stake (dPOS)

Historical Background to TRON

When TRON founder Justin Sun went public in 2017 with his vision of a new crypto-currency, social networks led by Facebook had long since become a global issue. This is where TRON and its crypto-currency TRX wanted to take action: Why should centralized networks pocket the profits that come from privately created content and small applications framed by a platform with advertising? Unlike Bitcoin (BTC), TRON did not and does not focus solely on the payment function of TRX, but is intended as a complementary detail to create incentives in the TRON ecosystem for offering dpps and to handle payment transactions in them securely and in seconds. TRON itself sees its beginnings in March 2014 with the founding of Raybo in Beijing, allegedly the first Internet company in China to focus on block chain technology.

2017 also marks the year in which Bitcoin’s share price for the first time climbed steadily to over 1,000 US dollars, from where it took off for the first time, thus ensuring that the topic of crypto-currencies received increasing attention from the wider public. TRON and Justin Sun organized a private sale in January 2017 for around 30 million US dollars as seed capital, founded the TRON Foundation and went to market with an ICO for TRX in the summer of 2017. 40 percent of all TRX ever planned were sold at the ICO against Ethereum (ETH), depending on the exchange rate, this results in revenues of up to 150 million US dollars. At the private sale, 25.7 percent of all TRX had been sold and 34.3 percent of all TRX were held back by the TRON Foundation and the founding team around Justin Sun. The TRON Foundation promises not to launch its TRX before 2021.

The private and public sale of TRX looks modest compared to EOS, which started almost simultaneously. EOS raised the equivalent of around USD 4 billion between summer 2017 and summer 2018. But the more than USD 100 million made available to TRON after the ICO was enough to fulfil the first important promises. The protocol of the own blockchain was published at the turn of the year 2017/18 and on 31 May 2018 the Mainnet went live. June 25th 2018 is celebrated by the TRON community as Independence Day, because that’s when the Genesis block in TRON’s own blockchain was created. While TRX was organized as an ERC20 token until then, TRX and the TRON ecosystem stood on its own technological feet from that day on.

Shortly thereafter, in July 2018, TRON purchased the popular file sharing service BitTorrent for 140 million US dollars. This was a landmark move, as the acquisition of the market leader for (often illegal) sharing of music, movies, games and more created a usage scenario for TRX. In practice, however, TRON decided to monetize BitTorrent with its own token called BTT, which is based on the TRON block chain TRC-10. To make the TRON network ready for dapps for third-party developers, a virtual machine for TRON went live in the fall of 2018 and with DappHouse a separate App Store for applications at TRON. Between the first quotation in September 2017 and all-time highs in early 2018, TRX had to accept significant losses even before the crypto winter 2018/19. The reason for this were various affairs around Justin Sun, which we will discuss in more detail in the chapter “Criticism of TRON”.

Three recent milestones for TRON are noted in the crypto year 2019 until late summer: At the end of January 2019, the BitTorrent Token (BTT) was launched via the crypto exchange Binance. With a sellout within less than a quarter of an hour, TRON’s BTT set off a trend, namely IEOs instead of ICOs. BTT has now established itself in the TOP 50 of the most important crypto currencies in terms of market capitalization, is quoted above issue price and has arrived in practice as a utility token via BitTorrent Speed.

In March 2019, TRON was able to convince the leading stablecoin tether (USDT) to be represented in the TRON block chain, making it easier for TRX users to buy and sell. With the release of Sun Network as the side chain for TRON in August 2019, TRX and its ecosystem appear to be technologically future proof. TRON’s fate will continue to be determined by the TRON Foundation, which, however, also seems to be keen to pay its team well and not so much as a foundation according to the German understanding, where charity is the main focus.

Technological Background to TRON

At the heart of TRON’s ecosystem is its own block chain. According to TRON, it has solved the problems of scalability that hinder further scaling for Bitcoin and other crypto currencies based on proof-of-work. With TRX the magic word is Delegated Proof-of-Work. There, so-called Super Nodes decide which actions and money transfers are valid and are tamper-proofed in the next block. For the decentralization in DPoS, a permanent voting process of the Super Nodes is to decide in itself. In the TRON case of TRON (TRX) there are 27 Super Nodes (also called Super Representatives), which are theoretically re-elected every 6 hours and thus should guarantee decentralisation. In practice, however, it turns out that the election process of the Super Nodes, in which each TRX means one vote, hardly finds any active participation and thus the lucrative occupation of the Super Nodes changes very little. In addition, the crypto exchanges, in particular, manage large amounts of TRX and thus eliminate the voting positions.

TRON sees itself in a position to validate at least 2,000 transactions per second in the block chain and is thus far ahead of Bitcoin with about 12 transactions per second and Ethereum with about 15 per second. With the Sun Network as a side chain, TRON expects unlimited scalability in principle, as this trick outsources microtransactions and the processing of details in smart contacts to a second block chain. This procedure is comparable to the Bitcoin Lightning network. From there, these smaller details are only transferred back to the actual TRON block chain when they are self-contained. This protects the TRON block chain from excessive load. With DPoS à la TRON the question of scalability is no longer a real problem and is powerful for dapps. But scepticism about decentralization is quite appropriate due to the 27 Super Nodes and the little dynamic change of their line-up. After all, TRON’s staking program receives about 500 million TRX annually, which guarantees considerable rewards for the Super Nodes even at low prices.

The third crucial question in block chain technology, in terms of scalability and decentralization, is security. Here TRON has so far been able to point out that it has not been conspicuous by security holes or hacks. The TRON blockchain uses a system called UXTO, similar to Bitcoin, to document transactions. This system has proven itself in combination with DPoS so far. The danger of a 51 percent attack is rather theoretical with TRON, since the Super Nodes, which mainly originate from the TRON ecosystem, could at any time again raise enough votes to correct manipulated transactions. Skeptics once again criticize the limited decentralization of TRON.

In principle, there are two main applications for TRON: First, the own block chain should become a standard like Ethereum once did with ERC-20 and attract further projects. The roadmap outlines that TRON hopes from 2020 onwards to attract free projects to TRON as a block chain. This phase is called “Great Voyage” and is also to be accompanied by ICOs and other crypto-currencies. Parallel to this, the approach is running under the name of “Apollo” to make TRON the leading platform for decentralized ideas and applications through more and more Dapps. In this context, the use case for TRX arises virtually by itself as a native payment method for all initiatives and dapps running under TRON. However, the BitTorrent Token (BTT), which uses the TRON block chain but is a payment method for itself in the fileshare service, has already deviated from this concept. In the beginning TRON also often presented itself as a decentralized Internet.

Criticism of TRON

Critics do not find it difficult to cast a negative light on TRON. They simply focus on Justin Sun as the figurehead – and Justin Sun always delivers actions that shake your head. In the first half of 2019 alone, Justin Sun made the headlines four times with PR ideas that backfired. Whether it’s a raffle for a Tesla that turned out to be manipulated or the pompous announcement that the famous football club FC Liverpool wants to cooperate with TRON – many things that Justin Sun blurts out don’t stand up to closer scrutiny. He buys a dinner with investor legend Warren Buffet for more than 4.5 million US dollars and cancels at the last minute, allegedly due to illness. Shortly thereafter, Justin Sun posts strange messages in China and deletes them immediately. Conservative investors will have a hard time getting used to the bird of paradise Justin Sun.

Even if their concerns are “only” based on a world view that doesn’t like loudmouths, the news about Justin Sun is always proof of TRON’s dependence on its founder Justin Sun. The highly talented entrepreneur sometimes moves between genius and madness. Sun, for example, develops the important sidechain for TRON and names it after himself. Such one-man shows with a high vanity factor can scare business partners away simply by reminding them: What would TRON do without Justin Sun? There is no second mastermind for TRON in his kingdom, and if Justin Sun goes underground, the price of TRX falls. So an important question for the future is whether Justin Sun will be able to hand over responsibilities as TRON expands and form a team of strong project managers.

Technologically speaking, TRON came under criticism because parts of Ethereum’s white paper were copied. ETH Zurich inventor Vitalik Buterin himself pointed out plagiarism in 2018 and Justin Sun tried to talk his way out of it with a translation problem. The rumours that Justin Sun had privately retained TRX for more than 1 billion US dollars at an early stage also leave a stale aftertaste. Sun explicitly denies these allegations. However, criticism of the Super Nodes is more serious, as they claim to be decentralised in TRON and TRX, but do not guarantee this in reality. And last but not least, investors should be aware that TRX and TRON have a focus on the Chinese market. If the government in Beijing starts to see free crypto currencies as a problem, TRON will face considerable risks there.

Buy TRON (TRX)

Who would like to buy TRON (TRX) can do this at so-called crypto exchange. It is important to know that not every crypto exchange trades TRON against Euro or US Dollar. At the world’s largest crypto exchange, Binance, for example, crypto currencies are only traded against other crypto currencies (BTC, ETH, BNB etc.). For beginners the easiest place to buy crypto currencies is at eToro. There, all crypto currencies are traded against Euro, US dollar and other currencies and you could even buy them by credit card, PayPal or instant bank transfer.

Alternatives to TRX from an Investor Perspective

Ethereum has been a model for TRON in many ways. TRX also wants to be a crypto-currency that creates entire ecosystems with Smart Contacts and Dapps through an advanced block chain. Although experts confirm that TRON is now superior to Ethereum and its ERC-20 standard in terms of technology, TRX is 10 times the market capitalization of ETH. The ambitious Vitalik Buterin at Ethereum hopes to regain technological supremacy by switching to proof-of-stake in ETH’s protocol. The second serious competitor for TRON is EOS, which has also been able to attract more capital with a similar concept. Rather sporadically, TaTaTu (TTU) is also mentioned as an alternative to TRX for investors. But this crypto-currency with the vision of being a means of payment on a platform for entertainment, has not come out over an exotic status.

Wallets for TRX

The moment you start buying and trading or paying for crypto currencies like TRX, you should also think about how to keep your balances safe. With the Euro, you probably trust both your wallet and a bank account. For TRX and other crypto currencies, there are three options, collectively known as wallets, that pick up old world habits: Paper Wallet, Software Wallet and Hardware Wallet. With a Paper Wallet you write down your private and public keys in a notebook, on a sheet of paper or engraved on a metal plate. The good thing about it: The Paper Wallet method is not connected to the Internet and is therefore immune to online attacks. But if you use TRX, you have to type in your access data and in that moment they are online.

Compared to software wallets, paper wallets are more convenient. Here you park TRX and other crypto currencies on your computer, smartphone or with a third party provider. Although this solution is quite convenient for everyday life, because the constant entering of private keys is largely eliminated. But software wallets are online and therefore vulnerable. TRON recommends as Software Wallets for TRX the solutions developed by its own community, which are available free of charge for all common operating systems. In everyday life Software Wallets are the compromise between convenience and security, they are similar to a credit card linked to a bank account. An overview of all wallets recommended by TRON can be found here. Besides the wallets you use on your computer there are also wallets for your smartphone (iOS and Android). Our personal favourite among the software wallets is the Trust Wallet, which is now part of Binance and available for iOS and Android.

But at the latest when you manage larger credit balances, you will switch to a Hardware Wallet. Here the private keys for your TRX are stored separately from the Internet on a security chip. This is important, because there is no bank for crypto-currencies which is liable for the misuse of your credit card. You yourself are responsible for the safekeeping of your crypto-credits! The market for hardware wallets is dominated by two manufacturers: Trezor and Ledger. Trezor Model T and Trezor Model One as well as the Ledger Nano S and Ledger Nano X support TRX by default. Technically the competitors are on the same level, the differences are in the ease of use and future-proof. From this point of view, Ledger is ahead with a crypto-currency application interface based on Ledger Live. Therefore, as in many other tests, we believe that Ledger Nano S is the best model for beginners and Ledger Nano X is the best model for those who trade crypto currencies like TRX every day.

Conclusion on TRON (TRX)

Investors find themselves in a dilemma with TRON and TRX: The technological development, which positively distinguishes the block chain from the competition, especially in terms of scalability and applicability for dpps, is a positive factor. On the negative side, the personal details of Justin Sun, whose unpredictability sometimes goes so far that one has to agree with critics. In combination, despite the spectacular takeover of BitTorrent and the launch of BTT as TRON’s second pillar, this has not led to TRX being listed as a kind of blue chip in the TOP 10 of the most important crypto currencies in terms of market capitalization. The fate of TRX depends on whether applications can be found that attract new users and whether Justin Sun manages to rein in his temperament. In this mixture, TRX presents itself as an old coin, where everything is conceivable from crash to flight.

Price and Price Development of TRX

Here you can find the current price for 1 TRX and see how the price has developed.

Important Links for TRON (TRX)

Website of TRON
TRON on Twitter
TRX Block Explorer
Whitepaper TRON
Justin Sun on Twitter
BitTorrent Token