In the world of cryptocurrencies, there are different categories of coins. Some, like Bitcoin, are “simply” used to carry out transactions. Other coins aim to build an ecosystem to accommodate decentralized applications or Dapps. This is precisely the case for the cryptocurrency Tron (TRX). What is hidden behind this name which reminds us of the Disney film? What is the Tron blockchain? Follow this guide to learn more about this cryptocurrency asset, which will become increasingly popular in 2023.
The Tron network was first established in March 2014 and officially created in September 2017 by Justin Sun. If this name doesn’t mean anything to you, know that he is a very well-known crypto personality in Asia. A whimsical character but also very gifted, Justin Sun gets a lot of attention, both good and bad! Justin Sun studied at Hupan Uni, a business school in China. This school was started by the founder of Alibaba, one of the richest people in China. Justin Sun notably wrote an end-of-study thesis on the decentralized Internet.
Later, Justin Sun created Peiwo, a Snapchat equivalent for Chinese users. He also served as representative of the crypto network Ripple in China. Justin Sun attracted some criticism at the start of the Tron adventure. Tron’s initial white paper was considered by some to be a crude plagiarism of other cryptos like Filecoin. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, was among the people behind this criticism. Later, Justin Sun was also accused of selling $300 million worth of TRX before its price collapsed by 30%.
On the professional side, Justin Sun notably bought the BitTorrent platform in 2018 for $140 million. As a reminder, BiTorrent is a decentralized platform where users can exchange peer-to-peer content. Justin Sun’s feat was to buy the platform to tokenize it. He has indeed introduced the BitTorrent token (BTT) to finance transactions. He also bought the social network Steemit to take inspiration from his consensus model. As you will have understood, Tron and its founder are linked to many projects in the world of cryptocurrency (see course) and decentralized Internet.
The Tron cryptocurrency was created by the Tron Foundation in 2017. Originally, the Tron coin was an ERC-20 token, meaning it used the still very popular Ethereum blockchain for trading . Then in 2018, developers launched their own blockchain. The initial goal of the Tron network was to compete with global content providers like Amazon, Netflix, YouTube, etc.
With its blockchain technology, the Tron network offers its users a decentralized network that gives users sovereignty over their data. Concretely, when a user posts content on the Tron platform, they keep all of their copyrights and they do not need to pay intermediaries. The Tron roadmap foresees implementations until 2027.
The Tron token has three main uses:
Even today, the public blockchain maintains its objective of becoming one of the major blockchains in web3 and therefore wants to be a pioneer in the use and development of dApps. For this, Tron has always offered smart contracts. In conclusion, Tron (TRX) was designed to decentralize content, unlike what we can see with key players on the current web like Facebook or YouTube . By removing intermediaries thanks to the procedure just explained, Tron wants to provide a file sharing market and thus offer decentralization of content according to the needs and desires of each user. This also offers better remuneration to content creators than on the traditional platforms just mentioned.
As you can imagine, this general principle fits perfectly into the ambitions of Web3 and in this sense gives Tron a real interest in the future in its development.
Note that the Tron network has a limit in the number of coins in circulation. The limit is 100 billion tokens. Around 40% of these 100 billion TRX tokens were distributed during the ICO (Initial Coin Offering) which took place between the end of August and September 2018. According to data from CoinMarketCap, more than 90 billion Tron tokens are in circulation in May 2023.
As mentioned above, since 2018 the Tron network has been operating on its own blockchain. Discover the characteristics of the Tron blockchain and its main functionalities below.
The Tron network highlights its robust scalability. Moreover, according to its website, Tron defines itself as the “fastest public blockchain in the world”. According to the Tron white paper, the scalability mentioned is 2,000 TPS (transactions per second). Compared to Bitcoin and Ethereum, the scalability of Tron is, therefore, much better. And on the Tron website, the figures given are even better. Thus, the developers mention block creation every three seconds and scalability of up to 10,000 TPS.
The Tron network has many similarities to Ethereum. The two blockchains thus allow the development of decentralized applications. Tron, like Ethereum (see how to buy ETH), has its own “virtual machine,” which will enable it to read and execute smart contracts. On the Tron network, smart contracts can be coded in Solidity language (the language of the Ethereum blockchain) or Java.
In 2023, the main tokens evolving on the Tron blockchain in terms of capitalization are the following (according to CoinMarketCap):
The Tron network uses a consensus algorithm which is inspired by the Proof-of-Stake (POS) used on Cardano for example. On Tron, this is the model called “delegated Proof-Of-Stake” or dPOS. The story goes that Justin Sun bought the Steemit platform to plagiarize and apply this consensus algorithm on Tron. This algorithm is also used on the EOS crypto network (EOS).
Unlike POS, it is not enough to stake your tokens to participate in block validation. You must also delegate your powers to certain nodes, called “ super representatives ”. What do you mean ? Concretely, by staking your TRX coins, you get TRON Power (TP) tokens. These tokens allow you to participate in the election of the “super representatives”. There are a total of 127 super representatives on the Tron network. Each is elected directly by the owners of Tron. The 27 people who receive the most votes will then take care of the “mining” or the creation of the block. These validators are appointed in turn since they change every 6 hours.
The block validation process involves two types of rewards:
Since Tron (TRX) is one of the most popular cryptocurrencies today, it is easy to find a platform to acquire this asset. We find possibilities in a decentralized or centralized manner and in particular, on Binance or Bithumb.
Additionally, KuCoin is also a platform that offers the purchase or resale of TRX. In this sense, we guide you in the process to follow to buy TRX on KuCoin.
Step 1: Register on KuCoin
Go to the KuCoin platform and click on the “register” button. The procedure will be usual and common in the world of cryptocurrency with a requested email or mobile phone number.
However, this means of contact will be verified immediately and not once the first information has been transmitted. You will therefore need to request the confirmation code before you can move on to the next step.
Step 2: Perform security obligations
Once validated, you will be able to take part in all security obligations, as is customary on all reliable and secure exchange platforms.
KuCoin will want to verify your identity and will also ask you to establish a trading password and recovery phrase for your assets.
Step 3: Make a deposit
With a bank card, an already existing balance or by transferring assets from another platform or a storage wallet, there are several ways to transfer money to your KuCoin account. Be careful however, the fees may differ depending on the method chosen and also, depending on the total value of this monetary transfer.
Step 4: Buy TRX with KuCoin
Once the money is available in your account, you can take advantage of the trading section to be able to buy your first TRXs. Select the asset from the list, the values to trade and confirm the operation. Within minutes, your first TRXs will be available in your wallet.
The price of the crypto Tron experienced three major periods of increase between its creation and 2023. Shortly after its creation, the price started to rise and reached €0.1737 on January 5, 2018. This is the historical record for the Tron crypto. But the price did not last long at this level. The price went down as quickly as it went up. Thus at the beginning of February 2022, the price of Tron had fallen back to around €0.02.
Since then, the price has stagnated around this same value and this is still the case in 2023. It is also interesting to note that the fall in the cryptocurrency markets has not impacted Tron as much as other cryptocurrency assets.
Today, buying TRON seems particularly interesting as the model and development of the cryptocurrency are focused on the future and its implementation within Web3. Decentralization sounds like the future of our actions on the Internet and Tron seeks to gradually offer a real alternative on this subject. The opinions are more than positive and although investing in crypto can remain dangerous and volatile, Tron seems to have a bright future, like its capitalization placing it as the 12th cryptocurrency in the world.
Not a week goes by without Justin Sun or the Tron foundation announcing new features or continuity in the development of this blockchain. Today, blockchains with real utility and promising projects are becoming increasingly rare and naturally, Tron (TRX) is one of these positive features. At the end of this guide on this asset, our opinion is resolutely positive thanks to continuous progress and above all, a strong project recognized by the community . Without a doubt, Tron has everything to become a major player in Web3 in the coming weeks…
