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What is Tron and what problem is it solving?

The official white paper says it the best:

“Tron is a blockchain-based decentralized protocol that aims to construct a worldwide free content entertainment system with the blockchain and distributed storage technology. The protocol allows each user to freely publish, store and own data, and in the decentralized autonomous form, decides the distribution, subscription and push of contents and enables content creators by releasing, circulating and dealing with digital assets, thus forming a decentralized content entertainment ecosystem.’’

Tron aims to heal the internet. Wait, the Internet? Yep, in 1989 the world-wide web was created by Tim Berners-Lee with a vision:

Our success will be measured by how well we foster the creativity of our children. Whether future scientists have the tools to cure diseases. Whether people, in developed and developing economies alike, can distinguish reliable information from propaganda or commercial chaff. Whether the next generation will build systems that support democracy and promote accountable debate. I hope that you will join this global effort to advance the Web to empower people. Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, Founder of the World Wide Web Foundation.

From being a network to share academic research and a hub for the academics, over time, the majority of the internet has become “commercial chaff” with large corporations defining the rules of the internet. With the corporate giants such as Facebook, Google, Apple, and WeChat owning the internet and the enormous amounts of personal data generated, with the ability to choose “what users read, gain and desire.” Tron wishes to create a decentralised environment where this cannot occur. Additionally, Tron can theoretically can also hinder the control of the government (See below). Now, with the recent Net Neutrality decision, the need for Tron is even greater.

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The Tron whitepaper was partially created so content creators solely “have ownership of and control the data they create” and to distribute information at the user’s choice. Alongside, Tron combats the influence of commercialism — the emphasis on maximizing profit — and wishes to bring about an era where “Cultural and creative industries should be driven by the pursuit of the quality of art and content by content creators, artists and scriptwriters.”

Some Short Term Potential and Upcoming Events

Q1 2018

TRX Dogs released. Potentially Big, especially in Asia as it’s the year of the Dogs and cute aesthetics are preferred. The likes of CryptoKitties has produced $18,000,000 of sales (As of Jan 2, 2018) before calming down and now being relatively forgotten. If Tron can learn from the mistakes that CryptoKitties made (namely oversupplying kitties and the breeding mechanism) and develop a game playable for a continued period of time, the demand for Tron will most likely increase and result in gains. Also, a mobile app was recently released, if it gains traction we could see then next mass adopted cryptocurrency game.
Sometime in Q1 2018— A coin burn mechanism is going to be implemented. This means that the value of a single coin is going to become higher as there is less total supply while there is demand.
March 31st — TRX Main net release (Beta version). This is extremely exciting and is awesome to be up in such a short time, however, I hope they don't rush to release it. I'd rather good than on time.

Major updates

- Incredibly low fee to be implemented

- Main-net release ahead of schedule and hence, pushed forward.

- New whitepaper coming soon

- Technical updates/developments

Exodus — Data Liberation

Currently, Tron is in the Exodus stage until December 2018. Exodus’ aim is to solve the fact that companies have the ability to access and use your personal data. Exodus will be “A mechanism of upload, storage, and distribution which is based on peer-to-peer and distributed content,” and “ TRON will provide users with a completely free and reliable platform for data publication, storage and dissemination.”

Odyssey — Content Empowerment

January 2019-June 2020. Odyssey will provide the incentives for content creators to use the Tron platform “with fair returns for content creation, distribution and dissemination.” It attempts to reduce the fees of being a content creator such as paying “high channel fees to centralized platforms like Google Play and Apple’s App Store” and the ineffective profit yield for them due to the lack of a proper paying system.

Later Development

After Odyssey, Tron’s roadmap has 4 more stages — Great Voyage, Apollo, Star Trek and Eternity — spanning up to 2027. If you want to find out more about these, there is information on the official Tron Website.

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Tron 20 Token

Content owner ICO: Content owners (IPs, individuals, and groups) can freely issue their digital assets, using TRON 20 standards, while others can buy these digital assets and enjoy the benefits and services brought by the constant growth of data contributions. Tokenization is a way of defining value in blockchain and is used to benchmark financial or digital assets. On TRON, we suggest all tokens use the same standards, TRON 20, which will make it easier for the token exchanges and DAPP support. -Tron Whitepaper

Long-term Potential and Incentives

Personally, I think it has awesome long-term potential. Firstly, its purpose is something that is a relevant issue to date and most likely will continue to be. Secondly, the people behind it are awesome, looking at the team from Justin to the former Alibaba experts to the backers and partnerships, wow. These people must be in it for a reason right? The founder of Clash of Kings — an immensely popular game currently with insane revenue — is on board for a reason, Tron is a game-changer. Thirdly, its roadmap: A roadmap unlike others that spans years of development with a clear purpose, consequently along those years, growth should follow.

Lastly, a big incentive — Tron Power.

Tron Power (TP)

“TP is locked TRON. Users can acquire TP by locking their TRONIX. TP, in nature, is TRONIX with voting rights, which means TP holders have more privileges in the ecosystem… TRON tries to build an ecology under the full control of TRON holders who are optimistic about TRON on a long-term basis, and we hope TRON could be controlled by those whose values are consistent with TRON’s over the long term. As time passes, we’ll give TP holders more TPs as a reward, and the reward will be dynamically allocated. This means that those who hold and lock TP for the long term will be rewarded. TRON POWER’s balance cannot be transferred nor sold, which means TRON POWER is not tradable.’’ — Tron Whitepaper

Note: Tronix is the coin behind tron.

Partnerships

Tron boasts a total of around 150,000,000 users altogether with its current partners: Peiwo App, Gifto/Uplive, Obike, GSC and more to come.

Peiwo App

The partnership came around as a result of Justin Sun — the CEO of Tron — founding the Peiwo App and is now implemented.

Peiwo APP is the largest voice content community in China, even in the world with over 10 million global registered users and more than a million monthly active users, including a large majority of users are young born after 95s. This platform with its focus on “good looking first” mode of voice content, live and social, has significantly reduced the barrier for users to show their individualism and achieve self-value and has become the best gathering for the younger generation, especially for those preferring and having a good voice. -Tron Labs

The integration of TRX into the app will allow users to use TRX and tip others and access paid content.

Gifto/Uplive

Gifto — created by Uplive a very popular lifestreaming platform using the Tron platform — has 20,000,000 users. It boasts fantastic revenue and a massive amount of transactions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96q6NWmuDUk

Find out more here.

GIFTO Protocol allows for the creation and exchange of virtual gifts, built on smart contracts and blockchain technology, that in turn will create a decentralized consumer-driven virtual economic system.

Obike

oBike announced that it will be partnering blockchain platform Tron to officially launch oCoins in the first quarter of 2018. A blockchain is a digitised, decentralised, public ledger of all cryptocurrency transactions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsXgv0F3Tew

“In a world’s first of its kind, users will soon be able to ride and earn, thanks to the new partnership,” it said. oBike users will be able to pay for their rides and top up their oBike wallets using oCoins, the statement said. oCoins can also be used to buy online content or be used on any application that is on Tron’s platform. This includes audio content community Peiwo and popular live-streaming app Uplive. Users can generate oCoins when they use oBikes, with more coins earned the longer they ride."

Source.

Obike consists of over 10,000,000 users.

GSC

"GSC Foundation has a long-term relationship with Mico as the most important Strategic Partner. Mico is a mobile social platform for the global market, which was launched in February 2015. With its original “intelligent social recommendation system based on interest”, Mico has created its own territory in the giant global social market, quickly accumulating hundreds of millions of users and entered the top five social tables in more than 60 countries, becoming the world’s premier open social platform. A social matrix is built around the social platform on Mico, including Mico, Kitty Live, Waka, and YAY.Mico is the largest social platform among strangers in Southeast Asia and Middle East and owns more than one hundred million registered users. It was once rated as the best App by Google. Kitty Live is one of the most popular streaming Apps in Southeast Asia and owns 20 million registered users. The cooperation between TRON and GSC means that at least 120 million users of social and streaming platforms will get access to TRON Network. This will significantly expand the blockchain-based online entertainment business" - Tron Foundation.

Major Players on the Tron Team

Justin Sun

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Justin Sun known for his active twitter is the CEO of Tron. Apart from that, he is on the list of Forbes 30 under 30 for three times from 2015 to 2017. He is the only millennial student of Hupan University and became a protégé of China’s tycoon Jack Ma, Chairman of the Alibaba Group. Justin obtained a Master Degree from the University of Pennsylvania after he received a bachelor degree from Peking University. He was the Chief Representative and Advisor in Greater China for Ripple.

Zhao Hong (Marcus)

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Former Alibaba Chief Data Mining Expert. Zhao Hong assists/in charge of the overall structure of block chain, research and development of smart contract design. He served in major companies such as Alibaba and Dangdang. he possesses extensive experience in data mining, big data platform, high concurrent online architecture and mass data storage. In Dangdang he gained was responsible of the overall architecture and strategy of advertising and gained much team management experience.

“It is the strong technological atmosphere and good vision of TRON that makes me leave Ali and join TRON, and I believe TRON will definitely stand out from many block chain projects.”

— Zhao Hong

Lucien Chen

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Lucien Chen is a data expert who previously worked at Tencent and Alibaba. Lucien has rich experience in big data, advertising algorithms, DMP systems, BT systems, CTR platforms and high concurrent system framework design.

“I believe that the blockchain is the base for all future technological developments, and the TRON project is the right starting point for the online entertainment scene. I am looking forward to growing with TRON, and working together to create a new world.”

-Lucien Chen

Go to the official Tron website for all of their amazing members on the team.

REPOSTING with updates and because it didn't get the recognition it deserved.

My Thanks and a Disclaimer

Thanks for reading it, its really appreciated. I wrote this because of my passion of the project and it means a lot for you to just read it and simply know about it even if you don’t invest. The main intention of this was to educate.

Disclaimer — I’m definitely not a professional and am obviously giving my own opinion, not advice. Never invest what you aren’t willing to lose. Always research on your own before investing . There’s things I wasn’t sure on so please correct me if I’m wrong — I’m sure I’m wrong somewhere. Also, I wrote this when I was half sleep deprived (comment please if there’s something wrong). If you liked it follow! :)

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