TRON: Roadmap and Beyond

Introduction

TRON's mission is to decentralize the Internet with blockchain technology and decentralized applications (dApps). Entrepreneur Justin Sun is the founder, and he, along with the TRON foundation, led the platform's launch in September 2017. This drive for decentralization has remained the core of Tron's mission and attests to its success. TRONSCAN data recently reported that total value locked (TVL) in the TRON network hit historic highs passing $25 billion, making it the second-largest blockchain in terms of TVL.

Besides helping to build a decentralized web with the number of TRON users surpassing 222 million, another goal is to create a platform for content creators to distribute their creations without intermediaries. So, although TRON supports a broader range of applications, its primary market is content creators. That is why many applications on the platform involve games and video streaming.

Furthermore, TRON did not introduce any revolutionary technology until recently, so the team has had more time to focus on delivering a high-quality user experience (UX). Decentralization, content creation, and UX play vital roles in TRON's success, and this article will cover those topics, some of its recent developments, and take a look at TRON's architecture.

Content Creators on TRON

TRON is unique in that it empowers content creators. Moreover, it has a fee-free transaction system with high throughput, which makes it appealing to developers and users alike. However, the benefit to creators is that by keeping transactions free of fees, users can directly pay content creators to access their applications. TRON developed its networks native utility TRX token primarily to compensate content creators while empowering them to own their projects.

What Is the networks native utility TRX Token?

TRON's native utility token is TRONIX (known as TRX), and it entered the market through an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017. This fundamental unit of accounts powers the applications and transactions on the TRON blockchain. Furthermore, all values derive from TRX, with the smallest denomination being "sun," named after founder Justin Sun.

Latest News on TRON

Recently, on-chain analytics provider IntoTheBlock integrated TRON into its Market Intelligence Suite, and yesterday, TRONSCAN tweeted that the total number of accounts exceeded 222 million.

🎉🎉🎉Congratulations!!! #TRON’s total accounts have reached 222,047,382, exceeding 222 million! #TRON ecosystem has developed rapidly and continues to make efforts to decentralize the web.

🥰Appreciation to all #TRONICS! pic.twitter.com/9K86zcC0ZQ

— TRONSCAN (@TRONSCAN_ORG) April 4, 2024

Additionally, TRONDAO launched HackaTRON Season 6, which builds on the momentum of earlier seasons. HackaTRON invites developers, designers, and entrepreneurs passionate about making a decentralized web and looking to showcase their talents. This year's stakes have increased to a total prize pool of $650,000, and the deadline for entry is May 7, 2024.

Bitcoin Layer 2 and Ordinals

In February, Justin Sun tweeted that he wanted to "make Bitcoin fun again" by unveiling Tron's "Bitcoin Layer-2 Solution and Road Map." The goal is to interweave various tokens in the TRON network with the Bitcoin network and its Layer 2s, like Bitcoin Ordinals.

Ordinals are the latest way to create NFTs on the Bitcoin blockchain. Although Bitcoin NFTs have been introduced previously, using Layer 2s on top of Bitcoin to enable NFTs brings a different architecture to the mix.

Notably, integrating TRON with Bitcoin grants access to over $55 billion to inject vitality into Bitcoin. TRON's roadmap is as follows:

Road Map Stage α

With cross-chain connections between TRON and Bitcoin already available and exchanges already facilitating token conversions, if the roadmap goes as planned, there should be an increase in Bitcoin-based assets bridged to TRON. Integration efforts will continue via cross-chain technology, with more TRON tokens such as TRX, USDT, USDC, BTT, SUN, and others interacting seamlessly with the Bitcoin network.

TRON DAO's venture into Bitcoin Layer 2's includes investing in UX-friendly tools and a wallet to support BRC-20 tokens. BRC-20 is the standard for fungible tokens on Bitcoin.

Road Map Stage β

TRON will collaborate with various Bitcoin Layer 2s in this stage while gradually building more partnerships. These collaborations will allow TRON users to participate in restaking initiatives across Bitcoin Layer-2 networks. TRON's diverse asset portfolio will also help spur the growth of the Bitcoin Layer 2 ecosystem.

Road Map Stage γ

This ambitious roadmap concludes with a Layer 2 solution integrating TRON, BTTC, and the Bitcoin network. BTTC is the BitTorrent Chain, a blockchain scaling solution and cross-chain interoperability protocol on TRON. It supports the cross-transfer of assets via the BTTC Bridge.

This solution offers a Bitcoin-compatible protocol that brings the low fees and speed of Proof of Stake (PoS) mechanisms together with the robust security of Proof of Work (PoW).

TRON's Bitcoin Layer-2 solution aims to merge its $55 billion market with Bitcoin to boost the synergies and interoperability between these two giants.

#TRON Announces Its Bitcoin Layer 2 Solution and Road Map

Today is a significant day for #TRON.

Let's make #Bitcoin fun again!

As the protocol behind the world's largest stablecoin market, boasting $55 billion, and the decentralized finance Total Value Locked (TVL) of $22…

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) February 15, 2024

TRON's Architecture

Moving onto TRON's architecture, it consists of a three-layered system:

1. Core Layer The core layer has several modules, including smart contracts, account management, and consensus.

2. Storage Layer TRON has a distributed storage protocol with Block Storage and State Storage.

3. Application Layer Developers can build a wide range of dApps on the application layer.

TRON Virtual Machine

TRON developed its own stack-based virtual machine, the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM). Originally, TVM forked from the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), so it's a Turing complete virtual machine that is EVM compatible.

Being EVM compatible allows smart contracts on the EVM to be executable on TRON'S virtual machine. Thus, developers can code smart contracts as they would on Ethereum with Solidity or other high-level blockchain languages.

The sequence works as follows: Developers use the TVM to execute smart contracts on the network. The compiler translates Solidity smart contract code into executable bytecode on the TVM. The TVM processes data via opcodes, similar to the EVM's stack-based logic. However, the TVM uses " Energy " instead of the Gas mechanism on Ethereum.

TRON Smart Contracts

Smart contracts on TRON facilitate, verify, and enforce the performance of transactions or agreements. As noted, they're compiled into bytecode, and the TVM reads the compiled bytecode.

Once the smart contracts are deployed, API calls can trigger their functions. Note that state-changing functions require Energy, while read-only functions execute without it.

What Is TRON Solidity?

In the context of TRON, Solidity is a contract-oriented programming language for creating smart contracts on the TRON network. It's similar to Ethereum's Solidity for creating dApps and executing smart contracts.

Features of TRON Solidity include:

1. Object Oriented: TRON Solidity is an object-oriented, high-level language for developers to create smart contracts.

2. Efficient Execution: Solidity on TRON uses a stack-based virtual machine for smart contract execution. Since it supports various smart contract applications, it is a versatile tool for those looking to build on TRON.

3. Developer Friendly: The syntax is similar to JavaScript, which makes development more accessible for those familiar with web development.

To sum up, TRON's version of Solidity modifies the original code to support TRX and sun units while leaving the remaining language syntax compatible with Solidity. Thus, the TVM is nearly 100% compatible with the EVM. Once again, TRON focuses on UX. Their developer-friendly environment reduces costs and makes interfaces for contract deployment more convenient.

TRON DAO

Tron's TRX holders govern the DAO and get to vote on proposals such as electing representatives, allocating resources to new projects, and opportunities to change the TRON protocol itself.

Delegated Proof-of-Stake

TRON uses a Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) consensus mechanism to ensure efficient transaction processing, community participation in governance, and a balance between scalability and decentralization.

Like other PoS networks, users stake the native TRX token to get rewards. TRX holders can vote for candidates by generating a voting transaction. They can also apply their funds to elect network validators and delegates. Elected delegates get to make impactful decisions that affect the network, while voters select network validators that change every six hours (see below).

Node Types on TRON

TRON uses three types of nodes:

1. Super Node These nodes are also called Super Representatives. They propose new blocks and verify and record transactions in them.

2. Full Node These nodes control on-chain data, storing and synchronizing all blocks and transactions. Full Nodes also support the TRON network by providing data and API services to other nodes.

3. Solidity Node A Solidity node specializes in querying blockchain data and synchronizing data from Full Nodes.

Super Representatives

Super Representatives are the TRON network's key block producers and are elected by the community. They run a full node on the TRON network and play a critical role in its operation by validating transactions, securing the network, and maintaining the transaction ledger. They also can participate in governance and receive block and voting rewards.

Anyone on TRON can apply to become a Super Representative candidate, but the election process is competitive. Further, to be eligible for the election, they must first put up 9999 TRX.

Luganodes has been a top 13 TRON Super Representative since 2023.

TRX holders elect these Super Representatives, and these voters must stake tokens to participate. TRX holders continuously cast votes to elect Super Representatives from a pool of candidates. The TRON network selects the top 27 Super Representatives based on the most votes from a pool of 127 candidates. Elections occur every six hours to help ensure decentralization and community involvement in governance. Participants who vote for Super Representatives also receive voting rewards.

Candidates who don't make the top 27 but rank between 28th and 127th place are designated Super Representative Partners. Partners do not participate in producing blocks or packaging transactions, but they do receive voting rewards. Similarly, those who vote for Super Representative Partners also receive voting rewards.

Before being allowed to vote for Super Representatives, participants must obtain TRON Power (or voting rights) by staking TRX. Staking TRX earns voting rights in addition to Energy. The ratio is one-to-one, so accounts that stake 1 TRX will get 1 TRON Power. Likewise, an account that unstakes its TRX loses the corresponding amount of TRON Power.

As mentioned, votes get counted every six hours. Thus, Super Representatives and their partners change every six hours as well.

TRX Rewards

Each block produced on the network earns TRX rewards for the Super Representative and Super Representative Partners. The rewards are divided as follows:

1. Block Reward:

The TRON network rewards 16 TRX to the Super Representative who produces the block. Since the network generates a block every three seconds, 460,800 TRX can be generated in one day.

2. Vote Reward:

The TRON network also rewards 160 TRX to Super Representatives and their partners with each block produced, for a total of 4,608,000 TRX in one day. These representatives share the 160 TRX in proportion to their votes. Furthermore, the voting rewards obtained by the Super Representatives and Super Representative partners will also be distributed to voters based on their voting ratio.

The Super Representative Brokerage Ratio is deducted from the rewards of Super Representatives and Super Representative partners. The default ratio is 20%. Thus, 20% of all the rewards generated by voting go to Super Representatives or their partners as commission compensation. Super Representatives and their partners can check and modify the brokerage ratio through Tron's "updateBrokerage" interface.

With 27 alternating Super Representatives producing blocks and a brokerage ratio of 20%, a Super Representative's daily block reward is 3,413 TRX. After deducting their commission, they will distribute the remaining rewards to voters based on their voting ratio.

Summary

TRON is a decentralized blockchain transforming digital content distribution, consumption, and sharing. It's a home for entertainment applications, providing creators with a platform to publish, store, and own their content while directly interacting with consumers.

TRON wants to expand its user base by appealing to those seeking an alternative blockchain with lower fees and quicker transaction speeds than Ethereum. With transaction fees as low as $0.000005, it can handle 2,000 transactions per second (TPS).

Content creators concerned with the censorship so prominent on centralized content platforms can find a home here, as the TRON blockchain is set up for creators to share content and get paid for their contributions.

TRON competes with other projects vying to be the blockchain of choice for developers desiring a scalable, cost-effective blockchain, such as Ethereum and Cardano. And TRON has shown good traction. It’s continuously growing and its ambitious roadmap to integrate with Layer-2 solutions on Bitcoin has set it on an even more progressive path.

If you hold the TRX token, you can enhance your portfolio by staking to earn rewards. Leverage Luganodes' institutional-grade infrastructure to stake your holdings and create a passive income. Staking with us ensures ease of use, support, and safety while you earn, and also contribute to the security of the TRON chain.

Learn how to stake TRX tokens using this guide. You can learn more about staking on our website, and feel free to contact us for any queries!

About Luganodes

Luganodes is a world-class, Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider that has rapidly gained recognition in the industry for offering institutional-grade services. It was born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano. Luganodes maintains an exceptional 99.9% uptime with round-the-clock monitoring by SRE experts. With support for 40+ PoS networks, it ranks among the top validators on Polygon, Polkadot, Sui, and Tron. Luganodes prioritizes security and compliance, holding the distinction of being one of the first staking providers to adhere to all SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 standards as well as offering Chainproof insurance to institutional clients.