Tron: A Useful Technology Which Suffers From a Poor Image
By: Daniel Goldman
Tags: Crypto, Marketing, Blockchain, Tron, Technology

Tron: A Useful Technology Which Suffers From a Poor Image

There’s a lot of room for improvement, but Tron is likely to be an important component of the blockchain and crypto ecosystem.

Photo by Clint Adair on Unsplash

The Tron blockchain has been a successful fork of the Ethereum network. It offers numerous advantages, including cheaper gas fees. But it is unfortunately seen as inferior, and even a scam. Part of the problem rests with the Tron Foundation itself, and the lack of quality projects utilizing the blockchain, while much of the concern is wholly unfounded.

The Benefits of Tron

One of the best features in Tron is freezing tokens for energy. Using this method, interacting with smart contracts can be very inexpensive. Ethereum gas fees range considerably, but during times of ETH volatility, they can skyrocket and the network can lag considerably. It’s for this reason that I largely switched to Tron in the first place, and why my projects are on the Tron blockchain rather than the Ethereum blockchain.

Sidechain Support

The Tron Foundation has also produced a sidechain scaling solution, while the Ethereum Foundation is still in the process of creating sidechain support. The sidechain further improves speed and scalability, and is fairly straightforward to work with.

TRC-10 Tokens

However, probably one of my favourite aspects of Tron is the native support for tokens. While it didn’t take long for Ethereum developers to realize that they can use smart contracts to create their own tokens, these tokens are not supported natively by the platform, and the smart contracts that manage them can be pricey and require a certain degree of trust. At the very least, the contracts that manage these tokens need to be audited to ensure that they don’t allow for exit scams.

Downsides of Tron

Centralization

Every technology has a downside. One of the major drawbacks of Tron is that it’s not quite as decentralized as Ethereum and many other blockchains. There are Super Representatives that have significant authority over the blockchain. And while it’s true that individual users can vote for and support SRs, a lot of the SRs are not only in China, but under the control of the Tron Foundation. The foundation also hoards a significant supply of TRX.

Low Quality Dapps

Probably one of the greatest issues with Tron is its public image. A lot of the applications that utilize Tron technology are gambling dapps that rely on a lot of FOMO. While there’s nothing wrong with gambling, and a digital casino can be a lot of fun, without other types of applications on the platform, it starts to feel like Tron is just for gambling and shady operations.

Improving Tron

Tron hasn’t turned out to be the Ethereum killer that some thought it would be, however that’s not too surprising. Blockchain isn’t a single technology. Crypto isn’t a single asset. The blockchain and crypto ecosystem is still in its infancy and as it grows, there will be room for even more standards. There’s no need to kill Ethereum.

That being said, there are plenty of areas where Tron can be improved, either through modifications to the platform or through another fork. For now at least, I’m more a fan of simply improving Tron. And that’s what World Builder is trying to do. Tron needs a think tank to produce quality applications. Games are a good option, as game assets are a perfect option for tokenization. However, there are plenty of other ways to create a healthier ecosystem, and not all of them need to actually utilize the blockchain technology itself.

One example is financial analysis tools. We need more tools to keep track of all the assets being moved around. We need accounting applications to manage our crypto finances. That’s one of the potential apps that will be developed by World Builder. We also need more organizations, both decentralized ones and centralized ones. A major service that is still lacking in the crypto world is a crypto focused credit union. Advancements like these will not only help Tron, but they’ll also help the broader crypto ecosystem.

Greater Third Party Support

Probably one of the greatest downfalls right now is the lack of third party support. A lot of companies are focused on supporting ERC-20 tokens and other crypto projects. Even though TRC-20 and TRX acceptance would be easy to implement, it does still take time, and various businesses do not want to take the time to support Tron. It’s frustrating. Third party support would help legitimize Tron, but Tron needs further legitimization to get widespread third party support.

Platforms that would end up benefiting from supporting Tron, in the long run include publish0x and TERNIO. Support by these platforms would also go a long way to improving the Tron ecosystem. TERNIO has already voiced its willingness to include support for TRX, at the very least, if enough Tron users join the platform, so it’s worth voicing your support for the blockchain in their discord group. It’ll take a lot more work to convince publish0x, which isn’t looking to support anything other than ERC-20 tokens, in the near future.

Tron Will Likely Succeed

While it’s impossible to know the future, Tron itself is a decent blockchain technology that offers a number of improvements over Ethereum, including native support for altcoins through the development of the native TRC-10 token standard. And while there are some issues with the type of projects that tend to be developed for Tron, new dapps and other Tron related projects, as well as increased third party support will hopefully improve the health of the Tron ecosystem.

And so, I will continue to support the blockchain technology, and develop projects utilizing it, while the World Builder project itself will continue to focus on improving the Tron ecosystem. There are of course always risks, and I am probably biased by the fact that a lot of my projects rely on the technology, but I do see a lot of potential for future growth in the project.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional investment adviser. These are my own views. Use them at your own risk. Originally published on the BCU Times blog on publish0x.

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