Abbreviation: TRX
TRON is an open source blockchain with smart contract capabilities. It is a fork of Ethereum after starting as an ERC-20 token.
This uses the Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism for its cryptocurrency transactions.
History
TRON was started by Justin Sun in 2017. In 2018, it went live with its own blockchain.
Since 2017, it is overseen by the TRON Foundation. It had an initial coin offering that raised over $70 million, shortly before the Chinese government outlawed digital tokens.
TRON Mainnet launched shortly afterward in May 2018, marking the Odyssey 2.0 release as a technical milestone for TRON. In June 2018, TRON switched its protocol from an ERC-20 token on top of Ethereum to an independent peer-to-peer network. On 25 July 2018, the TRON Foundation announced it had finished the acquisition of BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer file sharing service. With this, TRON declared its independence with the creation of the genesis block, along with July 2018 acquisition of BitTorrent.
Controversy
Justin Sun is a lightning rod when it comes to controversy within the cryptocurrency industry.
This started with the release of TRON where there were accusations the code was simply copied. Many even went through the white paper highlighting how it only changed the name to TRON.
Sun released a stablecoin in 2022 only to see it breaks it peg for over month. This was in spite of claims that USDD was the most overcollateralized stablecoin on the market.
There are also serious questions about TRON's decentralization. With Sun controlling much of the stake, it is hard to see how the block producers are not under his control. This is a claim that he rebuffed but there is little evidence to suggest the Foundation does not answer to him.