Tutorial – What Is TRON (TRX)?

Standing at eighth place on our list of top cryptocurrencies is TRON, which uses the TRX ticker symbol. This digital asset has an impressive market cap of over one and a half billion dollars, with hundreds of millions of dollars of daily volume… but what what does it do, how does it work, and should you invest in it? In this article, we’ll answer those questions and many more as we walk you through the details of this unique cryptocurrency project.

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TRX and The TRON Network

Known to some as Tronix, TRX is the official currency of the TRON network. The TRON network, which was launched in late 2017, is an Asia-based cryptocurrency project which has quickly grown to become one of the world’s largest blockchain-based networks.

The goal of the TRON network was to revolutionize the way we share data on the internet, by using the TRX currency to tokenize the publication, storage, and consumption of content. This would allow content creators to share their work with consumers directly, cutting out the need for middlemen like YouTube.

In mid 2018, TRON made headlines as it announced it had acquired BitTorrent – one of the world’s leading peer-to-peer file sharing clients. With more than 170 million active monthly users, accounting for a significant portion of the internet’s traffic, it’s hoped that BitTorrent will be a key tool in the adoption of TRON.

The TRON Team

Development for TRON is managed by the TRON Foundation, which was launched by TRON founder and CEO Justin Sun in September 2017. Further details about the TRON Foundation are mostly unknown, but group photos suggest a team of more than 100 members between its headquarters in Beijing and San Francisco.

About Justin Sun

The most advertised member of the TRON team is, of course, its founder Justin Sun. Justin Sun, born in 1990 (age 29), completed a Master of Arts in Political Economy at the University of Pennsylvania. Shortly after, he joined the Chinese branch of Ripple Labs, eventually gaining the title of Chief Representative. In 2013, he launched Callme – China’s most popular voice streaming application – before starting work on TRON in mid 2017.

How Does TRON Work?

Before the TRON Network was launched, TRX was represented by an ERC-20 token running on the Ethereum network. In June 2018, the mainnet for the TRON Network was launched, and at that point all TRX tokens were migrated to the new network.

In terms of technology, TRON uses a consensus mechanism known as Delegated Proof of Stake (DPoS) to manage the network. This means that TRON users can vote for certain nodes to run the network (known as witnesses), with their votes weighted according to the number of TRX tokens they hold. In addition to its basic functionality as a cryptocurrency, TRON offers developers the ability to build decentralized applications (DApps) onto the network – much like on the Ethereum network.

Why Use TRON?

Although we touched on this above, you might be wondering what exactly the purpose of the TRX token is. In fact, there are at least three of them!

TRON Use Cases

• As a currency – The most obvious use case for TRON, or specifically TRX, lies in its inherent cryptocurrency nature. Like many other cryptocurrencies, TRX has a limited supply and is governed by the secure principles of blockchain technology. What’s more, TRX is claimed to be faster and cheaper than alternatives like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
• For DApp usage – There aren’t many blockchain platforms giving developers the chance to publish their own DApps, but TRON is one of them. Although some believe the TRON network isn’t as secure as the Ethereum network, TRON is currently a significantly more popular DApp platform, with thousands of active daily users.
• For content sharing – Although the original purpose of the TRON network was to change the way we share content online, it’s still unclear how exactly users can use TRON to this end. However, you may also be able to use the TRON network to share content in the future.

Should I Invest in TRX?

TRON has an extremely passionate community, and you may already have heard bold claims about the future success of the project – but should you invest in this cryptocurrency?

Unlike many other projects, TRON does in fact have a working product, which makes it a much more attractive investment proposition than other cryptocurrencies. With that said, much of the project’s progress is clouded by the hype surrounding it, and it’s difficult to verify some of the claims made by the official team and community.

Also of note, TRON became the topic of many controversies when, in early 2018, it was revealed that parts of TRON’s whitepaper had been plagiarised from cryptocurrency projects Filecoin and IPFS.

In any case, it’s impossible to predict the exact future of a potential investment, but research can definitely help! As such, we highly recommend you check out the resources listed on our TRX page if you’d like to learn more about TRON and its proprietary token.

TRX ICO and Price History

The TRON project raised funds for its ambitious plans by means of an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), which took place in the first week of September 2017. The token sale raised over $68 million for the team, with TRX tokens sold at an average price of $0.0019 (0.19 cents).

Our price history for TRX goes as far back as mid September 2017, shortly after the ICO. From then until early December, the price of the TRX token hovered at a similar price to that of its ICO. By mid December, the token had reached a valuation of just under $0.05 (5 cents), representing a percentage increase of more than 2500%.

The madness didn’t end then: by the fifth of January 2018, TRX was trading at just over $0.22 (22 cents) – a more than 100x increase from its ICO price. Since then, the price of the TRX token has followed a steady downtrend to its current price of just $0.025 (two and a half cents).