Introduction to TRON
To fully understand what TRON coin is, we need to start from the very basics. TRON is a decentralized entertainment and content sharing platform that uses blockchain and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology. You can think of it as a next-generation social media outlet on which you can create and share content with anyone anywhere in the world. TRONIX is the basic unit of account in TRON’s blockchain. It is the currency that pays you for your content and is often referred to as its ticker symbol TRX.
TRON’s Ecosystem and Monetization Model
People who enjoy social media, online gambling, and other forms of online entertainment will enjoy TRON. Using the TRON cryptocurrency’s ecosystem, not only can you share content with other people, but you are also compensated as a content creator for the content and data that you create. This model serves in direct opposition to how traditional social media companies, such as Facebook, monetize user data. They often do it without the user knowing, reaping the benefits for themselves. When you use TRON cryptocurrency, you are in full control of your data, and you will be compensated for your content.
Major Partnerships and Real-World Utility
TRX already has some big partnerships, such as the one with oBike, the largest bike-sharing company in Southeast Asia. oBike, based in Singapore, launched its own token, oCoin. The token was launched on TRON’s network. oCoins have real-world utility as they can be used to buy rides on the oBike platform, and the company enables users to earn oCoins just by choosing to ride oBikes.
Other major partnerships include the one with Bitmain, a semiconductor giant who is a leading producer and designer of ASIC chips used for Bitcoin mining. Bitmain’s Antminer S9 is one of the hottest products used in the Bitcoin mining community. So, when anyone asks you what TRON coin is, don’t forget to mention their huge network of partners. Zagg SNW is another one of TRON’s partners and is a leading international law firm focusing on commercial and corporate law. This is a promising addition because the firm is part of the Legal 500, an extended network to some of the biggest companies in the world. This partnership will offer comprehensive support in digital asset transactions, operations, risk management, and legal adoption across jurisdictions.
TRON Foundation and Its Leadership
The TRON Foundation is a non-profit entity based in the Southeast Asian industrial strong arm of Singapore. The foundation mainly engages in operating the TRON crypto network in the principles of openness, fairness, and transparency in supporting TRON’s development team. The team behind the TRON Foundation considers regulation and compliance to be the highest of values. They have approval by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority and are under the supervision of the Company Law of Singapore.
Justin Sun and His Background
Still wondering what TRON coin is? Learning more about the founder, Justin Sun, will help you understand the coin better. The leader of the TRON Foundation is the young Justin Sun, who has an insanely impressive background from someone at any age, let alone someone who is 27. To start with, he founded the PayWoah app, which already has 10 million users. Justin Sun has led people to become the first live streaming app to receive cryptocurrencies. The PayWoah app is one of the leading members of the online audio content community. Forbes lists Sun as 30 Under 30 in Asia.
So when someone asks you what TRON coin is or why to choose TRON coin, always keep his successful background in mind. He is also the protégé of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba Group. Jack Ma hand-picked Justin Sun to study at the prestigious Jack Ma Houpan University, which has a lower acceptance rate than Princeton. Justin Sun is also a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. While the relationship between Alibaba and TRON is still unclear, some of the top developers from Alibaba are leaving Alibaba to join TRON, which makes the issue even more clouded. Beyond Jack Ma, Sun surrounded himself with an even wider team of all-star mentors, including Feng Lee and Tim Berners-Lee. For those of you that don’t know, Feng Lee is an advisor of Ripple and led investment at Coinbase. Tim Berners-Lee is famous for inventing the World Wide Web.
TRON’s Vision for the Future
Beyond the team, there are a growing number of key influencers in crypto that believe the TRX coin will succeed, including Hacker Noon. The biggest benefit of using TRON crypto is that you are empowering artists and content creators all over the world into having ownership over the content they create. TRON is leading a movement that some refer to as the Third Web. Although it sounds futuristic, the Third Web, or Web 3.0, will enable people to use the internet as it was originally intended to be used: as a decentralized open network. During the dot-com bubble, the internet had taken a turn away from its decentralized origin. Social media giants in Silicon Valley built on top of the infrastructure that was given to them and rewired it so that tech giants could make money from user data. Cambridge Analytica is the case in point of this system. However, in the Third Web, TRON will put the power back in the user’s hands so that they are in control of their own data. By using TRON crypto, you are leading the internet back down to its original path. You are putting data back under your control, where you have the choice of not disclosing or monetizing data for your own gain. So one of the answers to what TRON coin is, is something that will lead the internet back to its original purpose.
Developer-Friendly Features
From a developer’s standpoint, TRON is also special because it is currently being built in a way that allows the use of any high-level language for smart contracts. This means developers in the future will be able to use whichever programming language they prefer to build on top of the open software design. One of the biggest products developed on TRON thus far is Crypto Puppies. Just after CryptoKitties were released, TRON attempted to play off the upcoming Chinese Year of the Dog. TRON Dogs are still selling for the equivalent of $18. This is just one of many examples of successful products on the network.
TRX Coin Transactions
To help you understand what TRON coin is, I will give you a glimpse into how this coin’s transactions work. Like many other digital currencies, TRX coin transactions occur on a public ledger. On this public ledger, the history of each transaction can be traced all the way back to the first transaction. The transaction model that TRX uses is similar to the transaction model that Bitcoin uses. The only difference is that TRON has improved Bitcoin’s model by providing additional security. The model TRX uses is called UTXO. In a UTXO model, there is a basic output, which is an amount of money sent to a TRX user’s address, alongside a set of rules that will unlock that specific amount. The final product is an output called the UTXO. But to fully understand what TRX is, you don’t really have to know too much about the UTXO model. That is more for the developers and nerds who might know more than they should. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. You should focus on the bigger picture, sticking to the overall utility that TRON delivers to people who want to regain control of their data and still use social media.
Potential and Challenges
Since you already have a pretty good idea about what TRON coin is, it’s time to discuss its potential. Justin Sun’s relationship with Jack Ma begs the question of whether there will be a merger or convergence of the two entities in the future. Any such news would be monumental and certainly catapult TRON down an already well-trodden path to success. TRON is still brand new and just getting started, but still, you can’t be too overly simplistic. TRON crypto may fail to grow because of the way Justin Sun handles communication, which at times has angered investors. Sun has a reputation for delivering updates that simply announce that a big announcement will be announced in the future, which is understandably quite frustrating. People also view Sun as being too youthful and perhaps too naive to run a blockchain that has the magnitude of TRON. Other negative shots to TRON and Justin Sun’s reputation surfaced in early 2018 when news circulated about TRON using some of Ethereum’s code and violating Ethereum’s copyright license. This has since been corrected. Around the same time, there were also rumors regarding Justin Sun cashing out $1.2 billion worth of his own coins. This turned out to be a false rumor too. Some consider that string of mudslinging as a FUD campaign in an attempt to destroy Justin Sun’s reputation. Sun’s reputation often comes under fire when people ask what TRON coin is. Regardless, the coin is only at year one of a roadmap that spans all the way until 2023. In other words, it’s still very early days for TRON, so news like this will vanish in time. Look at Jed McCaleb from Stellar. People forgot all about Mt. Gox when news about the Stellar partnership with IBM surfaced. Again, it’s early days for TRON.
Security Considerations
An important question that you may be wondering about is if TRON is secure. If you are using TRON’s platform, the reputation around it has been pretty good thus far. The budget seems to prioritize security, which I can gather from TRON’s recent hire of a highly demanded security engineer, George Guo. He has received acknowledgment for his work from the likes of Google, Qualcomm, and Huawei. Guo will handle all research and development for TRON’s security. He helps answer security-centered questions related to the topic of what TRON coin is. When it comes to holding TRX itself, you just have to be smart, like holding a secure passcode. You need to treat however you store your coins very sensitively. You can choose to store the coins in a wallet like the Ledger Nano S, but if you use a wallet like that, be sure to write down your private key. If you don’t write down your private key, you can lose your coins forever. Since cryptocurrency is decentralized, many wallets do not store information at all. Many wallets do not have backups of your username and password, and you cannot have an email sent to you to reset your password if you forget it. You need to have the private key you are given access to when you sign up, and that’s it. That’s the only way to get into your account. The same can be said about buying TRON coins too. You should always choose a reliable cryptocurrency exchange or a trustworthy payment middleman and make sure that all the security measures are in check. Only by doing so can you remain assured that no harm will come to your funds and assets in the purchasing process and afterward.
Risks and Regulations
Just like any other digital asset, TRON can be exploited, and its security can be breached. That is a risk you have to take in the age of digitization. You can follow basic security techniques, like securing your private keys and using a hardware wallet. Such techniques will increase your ability to protect your assets. However, maybe you are your own biggest enemy when it comes to abusing TRX. Like other digital currencies, you can use it to do some pretty illegal stuff, such as tax evasion or illegal trading. Like many other coins or really just assets in general, TRX can be used for the likes of hiding money or tax evasion. As a matter of fact, up to 36 percent of Bitcoin owners plan to commit tax fraud this year, according to an article by The Motley Fool. As regulation on cryptocurrencies increases, there is less room for criminals to use cryptocurrency illegally. Concepts such as KYC (Know Your Customer) are becoming more prominent to identify and verify people using digital currency. KYC is good for the identification of asset owners, but in a way, KYC also benefits the owners themselves by reassuring them of the legitimacy of the platform they are using. Insider trading can also take place with TRON, just like it may occur for any other coin. Suspicion of insider trading is rampant in crypto, so unusual rumors concerning TRON and insider trading have surfaced. Barring the debunked rumor concerning Justin Sun taking a billion USD worth of TRX for himself, Sun taking money for himself should not lead you to believe that TRON is a bad coin.
