Tron

Note: Data in this section last updated August 26th, 2022

Tron was founded in 2017 by billionaire Justin Sun, a controversial figure in the crypto space that nevertheless has a penchant for marketing and a history of entrepreneurship (he previously founded Peiwo, a live chat app in China with over 10 million registered users and was one of the early representatives of Ripple in China).

The blockchain uses a modified form of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism (PoS) known as Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS). Unlike traditional PoS systems, which randomly select a new set of validators for each and every block, members of DPoS-based systems vote to elect a limited number of “representatives” (called delegates) that are responsible for validating all blocks over a given time period.

In Tron’s case, the network elects 27 “super representatives” to serve for a period of six hours (after which voting begins anew).

Proponents of DPoS networks such as Tron argue that limiting the number of validators make the chains more efficient, faster and cheaper. There appears to be some merit to this claim as Tron is theoretically able to achieve a TPS of up to 2,000 and fees that range from zero to a fraction of a cent.

Notable dApps in the Tron ecosystem include:

Tron Ecosystem Overview

Source: CryptoRank

While the project is often heavily criticized, it has demonstrated remarkable staying power. As one of the oldest smart contract platforms, Tron maintains a loyal cadre of fans and has recently elevated to the number two position in DeFi, increasing its market share in TVL from 3% in February to almost 10% today.

Some of the more common praises and criticisms of Tron are listed below:

Tron is a very peculiar project. A lot of people in the crypto space really hate the protocol, claiming that both the software and the white paper were plagiarized and that the project is essentially vaporware.

Much of this may be related to Sun himself, who is a very polarizing figure with an aggressive marketing style and a personality that some find off-putting (e.g. many poke fun at the fact that his Twitter handle is now “H.E. Justin Sun” – for “His Excellency” – given his position as an Ambassador to Grenada).

That said, he’s also a notoriously entrepreneurial individual, is rumored to have an unbelievable work ethic and his marketing style has undoubtedly brought a lot of publicity to Tron.

Whatever one’s thoughts are on Sun, however, it is undeniable that the project has achieved significant traction across a variety of metrics – it is one of the cheapest chains, ranks #3 in achieved TPS, ranks #2 in the number of daily average transactions and, perhaps most importantly, is now the second largest player in DeFi with nearly 10% market share.