TRON CTO Leaves with Brutal Assessment: ‘TRX Not Fit for Purpose’
The man who built the TRON blockchain recently announced his resignation from the project, and on his way out he revealed some harsh truths about the TRON ecosystem.
The former CTO of TRON, Lucien Chen, says ‘irreconcilable contradictions’ between he and CEO Justin Sun made his time there untenable. Chen, the technical brains of the project, laid out a three-point explanation of why the TRON vision he was sold by Justin Sun no longer exists.
3 Reasons Why TRON Isn’t TRON, According to CTO
Chen announced his resignation is a Medium post, where he described the early days of working on TRON as ‘like a dream’. But something changed:
“…because of the irreconcilable contradiction between us, TRON is no longer the original TRON. The reason for leaving is very simple. As a technical man, I feel very sad that the TRON has departed from the faith of ‘decentralize the web’.”
The reasons for this departure, according to Chen, are as follows:
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No longer decentralized
“In the DPOS and Super Representative node, there is a problem of centralized voting. Some nodes have more than 90% of the votes with only a few voters. Therefore, the vote of ordinary retail investors has completely fallen. The total number of TRX in TRON is 100 billion, while the total number of votes for the super representatives is just less than 8 billion.”
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Not associated with the internet
“The technology platform of TRON was built by me. I certainly know that the real Internet applications cannot function in TRON network at all currently. The TRON ecosystem is still far from commercial applications that users can really apply to. Bad money drives out good. Thus, DAPP in TRON is basically the gambling and funding project.”
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It has deviated from the spirit of Blockchain
“The spirit of the blockchain is decentralized, while TRON project is centralized. Token distribution is centralized, Super Representatives are centralized, code development is centralized. Even the community is organized under centralization.”
A Brutal Assessment
Anyone who has been following the Delegated Proof-of-Stake (DPoS) systems employed by blockchains like TRON and EOS won’t be surprised by the first point. Centralization only counts for so much when there’s a mere handful of Super Representatives or Block Producers overseeing the blockchain.
The second point is one that’s been echoed here previously. For all the noise coming out of TRON HQ about Dapp development, all they’ve really produced are gambling apps. Unlike Augur, which allows people to get creative with their bets, TRX gambling apps amount to nothing more than ‘guess the number’.
It’s the third point which TRX believers should find more worrying. When Chen says the community is organized under centralization, one has to assume he’s talking about Justin Sun. Chen goes on:
“No diverse voices in TRON ecosystem. The whole project has developed into a monetary tool without any “decentralize the web” spirit.”
Say what you want about Bitcoin Cash and all the trouble that its various hardfork sagas have caused. But those hardforks are at the very least a sign of a diverse range of thought within the Bitcoin ecosystem.
TRON appears to be lacking on this front.
Effect on TRX/USD
The news of Chen’s departure appeared to have relatively little effect on the TRX coin price. By Sunday evening TRX was trading around the $0.23 range – only slightly above where it started the week.
It should be noted the Lucien Chen also announced his own new blockchain project in his departure post. Chen says Volume Network (VOL) will be the true realization of his original vision for TRON.
With this in mind, it may be worth taking what he says with a slight pinch of salt. After all, what better way to draw attention to your new groundbreaking project than to set fire to your last one?
Disclaimer: The author owns bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. He holds investment positions in the coins, but does not engage in short-term or day-trading.
Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.
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