New projects are emerging rapidly in the crypto industry. One of the brightest representatives was the TRON platform, which has been under development since 2017. The project is a platform for the operation of decentralized applications, which in many ways surpasses Ethereum. To understand all the features of TRON, we suggest you dive deeply into its ecosystem.
What Is TRON?
TRON is a high-performance decentralized blockchain-based operating system that allows developers to build highly efficient smart contracts. Initially, it was positioned as a social network, but only for a new generation — independent of any centralized management. However, TRON has gone far beyond its original vision. And to date, TRON is a popular smart contract-capable platform within which developers launch their decentralized applications and issue custom tokens. TRON solves the scalability problem inherent in Ethereum by increasing throughput and shifting gas fees. But, it isn't easy to compare TRON with Ethereum because their architecture differs directly. TRON has a hierarchical system of accounts and many management functions available to network participants.
For the developer of smart contracts, if we leave aside the blockchain, TRON offers, in fact, a database with an accounting system, access, and logic that the contract developer controls. TRON allows you to focus exclusively on the business logic of applications, giving the developer almost all the necessary tools to work with accounts and their data. That is why TRON can be called practically an operating system on the blockchain.
TRON Benefits
- Scalability. The number of transactions processed per second is a significant problem for most blockchain platforms. The limitation is that operations require each node to have a consensus for everything that goes through them. Low speed negatively affects users. TRON can provide about 10,000 TPS due to the DPOS (Delegated Proof-of-Stake) mechanism.
- TRON Virtual Machine (TVM). TVM is a smart contract execution environment supporting the universal JavaScript language. Initially, TVM was a fork from EVM, so it is almost 100% compatible. Thanks to EVM compatibility, Solidity developers can easily transfer decentralized applications and benefit from the scalability and cost-effectiveness of TRON. The crucial difference between TVM and EVM is that it uses the concept of Energy. That is, when performing transactions on TVM, TRX is not consumed. In addition, the developers promise that in the future, TVM will be compatible with all mainstream VMs.
- The platform has the properties of an operating system. The creators declared Ethereum the main competitor. Ethereum works as a decentralized supercomputer. TRON is an operating system, a complex of interconnected programs convenient for developers and users.
How Does TRON Work?
TRON operates based on the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPOS) protocol. This is a consensus algorithm in which coin holders choose a group of network validators by voting. As a result, a large list of candidates is created. Participants have their rating (the number of votes received). The final block producer group is created, consisting of 27 Super Representatives.
Voting is one of the types of transaction. The user signs the transaction with a private key indicating the candidate and sends it to the network as a regular transaction. To participate in the procedure, it is necessary to constantly maintain a fixed number of tokens on the account. If you withdraw coins, the results will be canceled.
Every 6 hours, Super Representatives are re-elected. Super Representatives receive rewards for verifying and packing all transaction data broadcasted on the network. A new block is released every 3 seconds and contains 16 TRX (Block Rewards). Nodes selected by users share part of the reward with those who voted for them.
TRON Transaction Fees
The difference between TRON from other cryptocurrencies is that transactions are free. There are no fees charged for the transactions performed. Instead, some of the system resources are reserved for processing outgoing transactions.
TRON differs from other platforms by its architecture. From a technical point of view, it is a server with multiple hardware (processors, RAM, bandwidth). Users can reserve resources for their needs. 5000 bandwidth points are allocated to the user every day. The regular transaction consumes part of the bandwidth points. In case of exhaustion of daily points, users can freeze their TRX to get more bandwidth points. If the user has not frozen TRX and his bandwidth points have been exhausted, the protocol charges TRX from the sender’s account. Smart contract transactions consume Energy. Users need to freeze TRX to get a daily energy limit to make a smart contract transaction. This solution allows the network to increase capacity without changing the cost of transactions.
TRON Tokens
The native TRX coin is issued on the TRON blockchain and is compatible with the Ethereum blockchain and its virtual machine. TRX does not have a maximum limited supply; at the time of writing, about 93 billion TRX are in circulation. TRX is used to issue rewards, receive bandwidth points and Energy, participate in voting, as a medium currency for all TRC-based tokens, and as a unit of calculation in the products of the TRON ecosystem (NFT marketplaces, DeFi lending markets, and so on).
To counteract inflation, in addition to staking, a burning mechanism is used. As mentioned, transactions in the TRON network consume bandwidth points and Energy. If users do not have enough bandwidth points or Energy to cover the resources needed to complete the transaction, they must burn TRX. Thus, TRX is permanently removed from circulation.
In addition, TRON provides several TRC token standards to enhance the capabilities of all types of transactions inside and outside the network. The main TRC token standards are:
- TRC-10. The most developed token standard initiates transactions in the blockchain. It allows you to perform operations at a low price without using the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM). To issue TRC-10 tokens, the user must pay 1024 TRX.
- TRC-20. An improved version of the TRC-10 standard. The standard allows for cryptocurrency transactions on the TRON blockchain (for example, USDT TRC-20, USDC TRC-20, BTT, etc.). Its function is similar to TRC-10. The only difference is that it is connected to the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM). This token standard is compatible with ERC-20.
- TRC-721. This is the standard for issuing non-fungible tokens (NFTs). TRC-721 is fully compatible with ERC-721.
Closing Thoughts
Many DeFi projects today are moving away from Ethereum towards less loaded blockchains, and TRON is one of them. It has several advantages:
- Freedom of data. Users have power over their smart contracts, applications, and content. Safe and censorship-resistant.
- High throughput. Up to 10,000 transactions per second.
- No fees. Zero fees for everyday needs and freezing TRX for resource-intensive tasks with the possibility of a refund.
- Popularity. TRX is listed on many cryptocurrency exchanges and is used by developers.
- ICOs. Users can conduct fundraising on the platform.
- Support for the universal JavaScript language. Compatibility with Solidity.
Developers are working hard to make the network easy to use. For example, TRX has successfully integrated some services, allowing users to tip content creators with TRX (Peiwo), pay for travel (Alternative Airlines, Travala), pay for purchases (Spend credit card, Coinsbee), and even pay for adult services (Pornhub). In addition, many popular DeFi protocols have been launched on the TRON, for example, the decentralized stablecoin lending platform — JustStable, SunSwap DEX, oracle project WinkLink, and others.
Moreover, such popular stablecoins as USDT and USDC function on the TRON blockchain, allowing users to make fast and cost-effective transactions.