TRON (TRX)

As the cryptocurrency craze continues to grow, and the ‘crypto-verse’ expands unabatingly, with Bitcoin leading the crypto-race, newer and sometimes cheaper, smaller and better alternatives have emerged in the market. One of them is Tron (TRX), whose founder created the technology with the sole intention of pursuing a dream of decentralized entertainment industry at large while rendering the middle-party content providing platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix, etc. insignificant. The technology aims to build a decentralized platform that offers free, global, digital content directly to the consumers (Seth, 2019).

To put things into perspective, what someone might say is an issue with the present-day entertainment industry is that it runs the network of middle-men. When a user wants to download an app, for example, he gets it through App Stores, or if a consumer wants access to movies or series, he has to subscribe to content providing platforms like Netflix or Amazon Prime. This is exactly what Tron aims to eliminate, by providing a digital platform where users can create, publish, store and access their content while having full authority over their creation (Tuwiner, 2018). The protocol strives to develop an ecosystem where the creators can engage with the consumers directly by means of issuing and trading the digital cryptocurrency Tron (The Analyst Team, 2018).

Tron Foundation has created and launched a fully working wallet for Tron coins. The wallet is available on app stores by the name of TronWallet. Apart from Tron(TRX), this wallet also supports many other tokens that are based on Tron protocol.

Tron Foundation has also rolled out a website known as TronScan which serves multiple purposes. Firstly, it is an official exchange to trade Tron tokens. Secondly, it is a platform where users can vote to elect the Tron Super Representatives of their choice. Also, the users can gain all insights into the recent health and activity of the Tron network, user volume and its value.

However, creating wallets and a decentralized DApp platform was never part of the main task of Tron. Tron is yet to create the application that they were dedicated to building, a decentralized platform for entertainment content.

The focal person behind this cryptocurrency is Justin Sun, an ambitious 29- year tech-entrepreneur from China (Seth, 2019). Some people refer to Justin as the protégé of Jack Ma, the founder of Ali Baba. It was due to the untiring efforts of Justin, and his vision and passion to develop a decentralized web, that he founded the Tron Foundation. Justin Sun is heading the team with himself as the CEO of the foundation, taking upon the challenge of promoting the development and marketing of Tron protocol and its products. Unfortunately, Justin Sun has been caught in a lie a couple of times as can be read in the part about Highlights/Scandals.

Tron’s team has grown from 10 people to a staggering 400 people in 2019. The Tron foundation is headed by Justin Sun, who is one of China’s most famous tech-entrepreneur.

Tron’s protocol is available as an open-source code provided by the Tron Foundation on GitHub. The code is regularly updated and upgraded by the team.

A lot of positive development has happened since it broke away from the Ethereum Blockchain but there is still a void to be filled. The leader of Tron, Justin Sun, seems to have good relationships with many market leaders and recent partnerships with exchanges like BitForex and OTCBTC, and companies like Oracle and Aurora, has paved way for Tron to remain popular for years to come.

The most talked-about and visionary project under the umbrella of Tron Foundation is Project Atlas, which aims to shake the entertainment industry and shatter the outdated Web by bringing in a new network of Web 3.0. This involves the decentralization of the whole web community through the use of Tron protocol. Now with the acquisition of BitTorrent and an expanded network of around 3 million users, the hopes of dismantling the web mechanism are high (Down, 2018).

The potential for Tron would be outstanding if the entertainment content platform was completed and the Tron Foundation doesn’t suffer major loss due to scandals.

On June 25, 2018, Tron Foundation observed a major development as they launched their own main-net. Tron was previously based on the Ethereum Blockchain. This shift towards a Blockchain especially designed for Tron by its developers is now celebrated as ‘Tron Independence Day’ among Tron’s community (Holman, 2019).

Tron has rapidly gained popularity among the many different cryptocurrencies and currently, it has persistently ranked in the top 10 cryptocurrencies on many exchanges. Tron Foundation has transformed into a full-house development center since its creation, housing around 400 employees as compared to only 10 at the time of its inception. The team has committed a total of 22 updates to the Tron protocol, more than that of Ethereum or EOS, indicating the regular and fast development of the protocol (Masnavi, 2019).

Tron Foundation, in an exemplary turn of events, recently succeeded in acquiring BitTorrent. This means that with its user-base of up to 100 million active users, Tron has become the “largest decentralized Internet ecosystem in the world”. This is a major step towards the vision of a decentralized Internet and Web 3.0 as defined by Tron’s founder, Justin Sun (Holt, 2018).

However, when everything is going in your and your technology’s favor, then the setbacks and scandal are just close by, waiting to strike. Tron’s price took a major hit when Justin Sun was accused of plagiarizing Tron’s technology from many other peer-to-peer Blockchain technology’s whitepapers. Tron Foundation, however, pointed out that the apparent similarities between the different whitepapers are due to the poor English translation, as the original Tron Whitepaper was published in Chinese and is an original authentic work of its developers (Brown, 2018).

In yet another controversy, Tron’s CEO, Justin Sun, was accused of money-laundering, illegal fund-raising, porn transaction facilitation and gambling by the Chinese media. Tron Foundation released an official statement, disregarding and disapproving the claims while asserting that it is a core policy of Tron Foundation that their protocol should not be used for unlawful purposes (Zmudzinski, 2019).

Justin Sun was also scheduled to co-host a lunch with Warren Buffet in presence of many Blockchainleaders in July. However, the event was postponed by Tron Foundation who claimed that Justin was diagnosed with kidney stones and had to attend to his medical procedures. Some argued otherwise claiming that the postponement was made in wake of the negative news about Justin Sun, who supposedly laundered money, circulating in the media (Steven Russolillo, 2019).

Tron has already captured a network of more than 3 million users. The community is increasing rapidly with each passing day. The community contributor team is led by the Blockchain Welfare Foundation who actively works towards the development of the Tron ecosystem. Another online platform by the name of Tron-society has emerged which is made of engaged people who pursue a common goal of expanding a community by making the Tron Blockchainmore reachable to people (Tron Society, 2019).

This year, Tron held a summit in San Francisco and called it niTRON. The event featured a number of exciting announcements regarding Tron. Among them were partnerships with Steemit, Aurora, Oracle and Pantera. Apart from that, Tron is already a partner with notable apps like Peiwo, oBike and Gifto (Qamar, 2019).

Since Tron was based on a side chain of Ethereum Blockchain, the main substitute of Tron are all other similar technologies which are based on Ethereum Blockchain. Ethereum itself is considered to be a competitor of Tron, only that it is currently a lot more known safer to use option than Tron.