Exactly one year ago, TRON celebrated its independence day. On June 25, 2018, TRON moved off Ethereum as an ERC-20 token, launched the TRON mainnet and generated the first genesis block. I am as deeply moved today as I was a year ago.
In just a year, we’ve had many ups and many downs, starting with an exhilarating crypto summer that saw valuations soar — and ending in the bleakest of crypto winters that caused many in the community to question blockchain’s worth. We’ve persevered through continuing regulatory challenges from around the world, while at the same time collaborating with many in our industry to highlight charitable causes and the change for good that is one of our founding aspirations.
Through it all, we at TRON can confidently say that each of us is devoted to one thing — decentralizing the internet.
Some of you ask what exactly that means. It means shaking up the existing power structure of the internet, where privacy and ownership rests in the hands of the few instead of the many. It means enabling developers and the community through apps and infrastructure to make the critical choices about what they share and with whom. In this new sharing economy, more people may profit off those choices by demanding payments for what they share than just a few government bodies or large companies who don’t share their wealth with the vast majority of their users.
This isn’t an easy undertaking. We know a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. But we’ve started building the road. It sometimes will involve twists and turns, but we’re confident we’ll find our way.
The changes we seek start with TRON and BitTorrent.
In the past year, TRON has grown exponentially, from a founding team of 10 to about 400 people around the world. That number could grow to 600 by the end of the year, helping us work around the clock on bringing new products, technology and solutions to the market.
Speaking of technology, I’m proud that in just a year the team has completed 22 updates of the TRON Protocol. TRON boasts more Github code commits than Ethereum and EOS combined. We have 3.1 million mainnet addresses and process 1.5 million transaction requests a day, with a cumulative total of 460 million, exceeding in just a year Ethereum’s total transactions over a five-year period! We have never encountered any security issues caused by the TRON mainnet.
All credit goes to the 27 TRON Super Representatives, elected via a democratic voting system. We’ve had 148 candidates, and 1,367 online nodes located across five continents. Super Representatives are responsible for generating over 10 million blocks, ensuring that the TRON network is decentralized, while maintaining high efficiency. We have also seen initial success with protocol governance. The TRON Committee, consisting of 27 Super Representatives, has drafted 17 proposals, of which 10 were passed via democratic voting.
Democratic governance is the key driver of the TRON ecosystem. Since the TRON Virtual Machine was voted through by the TRON Committee on October 20, 2018, our DApp ecosystem rose to the top of the charts in just eight months and is positioned to take the crown. Daily transaction volume peaked at 100 million USD, with a steady average of around 20 million USD. TRON exceeded 50,000 daily active users, with a cumulative total of 370 million contract calls. We have over 500 DApps, of which 43.73% are active, far exceeding EOS’s 39.16% and Ethereum’s 14.02%.
To further improve TRON’s network performance, the TRON Foundation submitted a proposal for the Sun Network in April 2019. The Sun Network will provide TRON mainnet with infinite scalability. Notably, the network’s dApp Chain will help dApps run on-chain via a customizable system, featuring low energy consumption, robust security and high efficiency. The Sun Network testnet went live in June.
TRON has also secured partnerships with 110 exchanges and 33 wallets around the world. Many exchanges have enabled designated portals for TRX transactions. Opera, a major browser, announced its integration with TRON and will support TRX and TRC tokens. TRON is the third public chain after Omni and Ethereum to be selected by Tether. Tether is currently issuing stablecoin assets on TRON, with more to come. Stablecoins will be a major focal point moving forward, since the stablecoin ecosystem is a foundation on which decentralized finance will take off.
BitTorrent is just an integral to TRON plans. TRON acquired BitTorrent and all its products on July 20, 2018, incorporating the company and its 1B+ global installed base (300 million monthly actives) into the TRON ecosystem. Through the acquisition, TRON became the largest decentralized internet ecosystem in the world.
And we’ve moved fast to maintain our lead. The TRON and BitTorrent teams came together to launch BitTorrent Speed, a decentralized bandwidth project supported by the TRC-10 token BTT, and BTFS (BitTorrent File System), a decentralized storage project. BTT was successfully launched in the first quarter of 2019 by Binance Launchpad, listed on over 50 exchanges around the world, and airdropped to TRON holders globally as a token of our gratitude.
BitTorrent Speed rewards user participation, seeding, and bandwidth-sharing with the cryptocurrency BTT, proving a better download experience for users around the world. Over 100M users in the BitTorrent ecosystem will have the opportunity to join in our efforts on decentralizing the web by supporting content creators. We will launch the beta version of BitTorrent Speed in one week, at the tail end of Q2. The official version will launch in the third quarter, and we will continue to make improvements throughout the end of the year.
BitTorrent File System (BTFS) is a protocol, but also a network application. It features a content addressable P2P mechanism targeted at storage and digital content sharing within a decentralized file system. BTFS aims to distribute storage resources globally via BTT. It will provide a low-cost, high-performance file storage solution for TRON DApps, greatly lowering developer costs for file storage, thus creating new business opportunities. The BTFS Mainnet is set to launch in Q3, and will have TRON Mainnet support by the end of the year.
2019 is a major milestone for the integration of TRON and BitTorrent protocols. The TRX and BTT ecosystems will work in tandem to lay the foundation for a decentralized internet. We ‘re on the hunt for synergistic acquisitions to continuously expanding the TRON ecosystem, fostering a decentralized environment around the world.
TRON has worked tirelessly on brand building and social responsibility. Our niTROn Summit, held in January, featured a talk with NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, and panels and workshops for more than 1,000 community members. Planning is underway for our 2020 niTROn Summit, to be held in Seoul, and we are confident that it will be an even bigger success. I’ve given in my name and on behalf of TRON nearly 10 million USD to charitable causes. We would like to thank Binance Charity Foundation, Glide Foundation, Hupan University, and the ALS Association for providing us the opportunity to give back to society.
On July 25, I’ll be co-hosting a lunch at Quince restaurant with Warren Buffett, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway and one of the world’s most successful investors. I’ve been extending invitations to blockchain leaders and others to join in this unique conversation. While the lunch first and foremost benefits GLIDE through my $4.6 million charitable donation, I also hope that takes a step to bridge the divide between the blockchain industry and traditional investors. I look forward to updating the community afterward on the tone and substance of these conversations.
As the TRON ecosystem continues to grow, our community is very much focused on TRON’s Buy-Back Program and our subsequent plans for foundation holdings. We will launch the industry’s largest and most widespread secondary market buy back program to drive community activity and market stability. The program will run for a year, and will have no less than 20 million in funding, buying back TRX from secondary markets in batches. Buy back has already begun for TRX. The TRON Foundation’s holdings will be unfrozen on January 1, 2020. At this point, TRON Foundation has no specific plans for this unlocked amount of TRX. The Foundation will increase TRX holdings in secondary markets to express its confidence in the TRON ecosystem’s development.
Lastly, I would like to reiterate TRON’s vision.
We will be the founders, buidlers, and evangelists for a decentralized, autonomous ecosystem.
The TRON ecosystem is decentralized and autonomous , using transparent, open-sourced computational programs to establish rules. It is co-governed by token holders and immune to centralized powers.
As the quintessential decentralized and autonomous ecosystem, TRON has already incorporated our resolve into the genesis block this quote from Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the internet.
“A new system must allow existing systems to be linked together without requiring any central control or coordination.”
It is time to return to that original intention, to continue on the path to creating an internet owned by the people, governed by the people and for the people. We aim to make people around the world aware of the existence of such an internet, and to realize that they have a choice in which method they prefer.
TRON to the future! We will see you again on this date a year from now. I can’t wait to see how far we have come.
