TRON Use Case

What is Tron?

Tron is a decentralized blockchain platform that utilizes its own token TRX to attract creators and investors via a network of dApps, Smart Contracts, and Defi. Created by founder and CEO Justin Sun in Singapore in 2017, the platform originally focused on the Asia markets, heralding from the Tron Foundation.

With a strong focus on bringing certain western Defi concepts to the vibrant Asain markets, while also creating a media platform for the creative media sector. Today Tron and its boisterous CEO aims to improve relations with China in the face of tightening crypto regulations. According to Tronscan as of 2021, it boasts an impressive 63 million accounts worldwide and continues to grow in popularity.

Tron Use Case: Global Entertainment System

Tron functions as a decentralized blockchain platform that uses P2P communication so as to create a global entertainment system. By using P2P, Tron aims to remove third-party middlemen, to allow creators to sell their content directly. Aiming to be a challenger to larger media and entertainment hosting platforms such as Amazon or Netflix or the Google Play Store.

For content creators and dApp vendors, the platform offers many incentives and advantages over other more standardized hosting services. Ranging from greater degrees of control, lower cost, and speed. These factors make Tron an attractive proposition for creators and investors alike. 

Investors are attracted to Tron by its transaction speeds, low fees, and impressive if sudden growth. With a thriving ecosystem and a healthy level of activity from smaller wallets, Tron shows many of the hallmarks of a solid investment with good potential.

The process of investing in Tron is relatively simple and has a low bar of entry, making it attractive for smaller operations. By joining Binance and using an amount of BTC or ETH, an investor can purchase an amount or TRX for a market price.

Tron Use Case: Low Transaction Fees

The platform in many ways resembles the Ethereum platform, but with key distinctions in gas prices, block creation speeds, and energy consumption.

TRX boasts an impressively low transaction cost of 0.82% TRX and no transaction cost for on-platform content creators. Coupling this with a block creation speed of roughly 3 seconds, the token easily outpaces both BTC and ETH. By using Smart Contracts Tron and its native token benefit from the security and stability offered by the TRC-20 model and its TRX token standard.

Tron operates with a PoS or Proof of Stake validation system, which is earmarked to become to block validation standard for future cryptocurrencies. This system outstrips the more antiquated PoW or Proof of Work validation system still used by Bitcoin and that is currently being phased out by Ethereum.

Tron Use Case: TRC-20 Token Standard for Developers

By using a three-tier protocol operation, featuring storage, core, and application layer, Tron mimics Ethereum’s ERC-20 standard with its own TRC-20. This mimicry has led to some criticisms of Tron, with some pointing to its original whitepaper, even going so far as to claim plagiarism. These accusations have been summerly denied by the company. Regardless, this functionality offers an interesting interplay of the Reward/Burn Dynamic.

TRX initially created a genesis supply of 100Billion TRX. Further tokens are minted through a reward system offered amongst the platform. This rewards system offers node operators and stakeholders the chance for rewards in the form of native TRX. This incentivizes the maintenance and activity of the ecosystem in the form of healthy democratic actions, block maintenance, and validation. At the time of writing the current supply of tokens minted in this fashion was roughly 1.8%.

To offset this minting TRX functions with a Burn system. Which simply means to send a certain amount of tokens to unusable wallets. Tokens burnt are established by the amount fees used by On-Chain transactions. This dynamic between reward and burn allows for a flattening of the supply curve of tokens and the prevention of instability amongst the token.

Tron Use Case: Gambling and Streaming

Tron has increasingly focused on gamers and gamblers, seeking to innovate alongside this market with its adaptation of Refereum.

Refereum is a streaming platform that allows gamers a chance to host streaming content and view streaming content while earning tickets/tokens. This system represents the exciting potential for blockchain/gaming streaming system integration by creating a positive feedback loop between creators, consumers, and blockchain technology.

Another exciting development for the Tron platform is its addition to Samsung Blockchain Keystore. This addition represents a huge step in association, legitimacy, and potential for Tron. Samsungs Blockchain Keystore is found on many of the more advanced and upscale Samsung phones available. By hosting Tron on the Keystore, Tron developers may now find themselves increasingly exposed to larger markets and greater potential.

In Southeast Asia Tron has also linked with oBike, a massive supplier of bike-share services that are rapidly increasing the scope of its operations in both Europe and Australia. oBike seeks to incentivize users to the bike share service by offering a token reward system, which is now hosted on the Tron platform.

This partnership represents a broad scope of Tron’s potential, existing both in and out of the media sphere. 

Currently, Tron operates 6 Billion daily transfers and a growing basis of active users, moving into Defi spaces with encouraging results. Offering a lending platform, a Tron Browser, and aiming for a social platform. These are indicators of a healthy, scalable, and efficient crypto ecosystem, although TRON has also been heavily criticized due to accusations of whitepaper plagiarism and shady business practices.

Tron Moving Forward

Tron and its native TRX is an open-sourced platform that stated its mission goal to ‘Decentralize the Web’. This goal, certainly in keeping with much of the ethos and culture that defines the cryptocurrency community, is a high bar to reach.

Yet despite initial concerns and critical speculation Tron has proven itself to be a healthy, if abrupt, competitor amongst the market. The platform attempts to focus on enabling creators via a content platform, lowering the bar for entry via low prices, and incentivizing their developments by rock bottom operating costs.

Evidenced by a good dispersal of token ownership levels that continue to regularly engage with the platform, and a growing list of wise partnerships, Tron has indicated that it intends to compete with long-standing cryptocurrencies and entertainment media platforms.