Overview & History
TRON is a multi-purpose smart contract platform that enables the creation and deployment of decentralized applications (dApps). It features a delegated Proof-of-Stakes (DPoS) consensus mechanism, a system that offers an increase in performance while maintaining true decentralization and censorship resistance.
TRON is arguably most famous for its low-cost ability to make transactions in comparison to other layer-1 solutions such as Ethereum, though it still lags in developer adoption to be considered a serious rival yet.
History
Tron is the brainchild of notorious crypto celebrity Justin Sun, who through Tron also acquired the peer-to-peer file-sharing network BitTorrent in 2018 and launched the BitTorrent Token (BTT) a few months later.
The introduction of Bitcoin in 2009 revolutionized society’s perception of the traditional financial system in the wake of the recession (2007-2008). As centralized hedge funds and banks collapsed from speculation in opaque financial derivatives, blockchain technology provided a transparent universal ledger from which anybody could glean transaction information. These transactions were cryptographically secured using a Proof of Work (PoW) consensus mechanism, thus preventing double spending issues. In late 2013, the Ethereum White Paper proposed a network in which smart contracts and a Turing-complete Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) would allow developers to interact with the network through DApps. However, as transaction volumes in Bitcoin and Ethereum peaked in 2017, it was apparent from the low transaction throughput times and high transaction fees that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum in their existing state were not scalable for widespread adoption. Thus, TRON was founded and envisioned as an innovative solution to these pressing scalability challenges.
What distinguishes TRON (TRX) from other cryptocurrencies?
Tron uses blockchain and peer-to-peer (P2P) technology to emphasize content-sharing and decentralized entertainment.
It is viewed as a new generation of social media outlets that allows you to create and share your content with anyone, no matter where they are. The basic unit of accounts in Tron’s blockchain is Tronix. This is the currency that you are paid with, when you make content, often referred to as “TRX”, which is its ticker symbol.
People who will take advantage and enjoy Tron are mostly the kind that enjoys social media and various other online entertainment forms and sources.
The cryptocurrency ecosystem of Tron is special in the way that it makes it possible for you to share your content with other people but at the same time also get compensation for the content and data that you make as a content maker.
This method of functioning is contrary to how major social media companies operate and monetize user data, for example, YouTube or Facebook.