TRON (TRX)–TRON is generating a fair amount of publicity for the first time since the coin hit its zenith in pricing in early January. Already the coin is up 104% on the week, trading last Sunday at a relative low of 0.023 USD and now sitting just under 0.05 USD. Some of the price is being driven by bulls who rightly find the TRX token undervalued at 2 cents (TRX was trading at 0.30 USD three months ago, constituting a drop in value of 92%). Regardless of how you feel about TRON or TRX as a currency, the cryptomarkets rarely allow a >90% dip in value to go along without some form of pumping in price.

The other positive press driving TRON’s price is the launch of the Exodus update at the end of this month. Founder Justin Sun, who is a frequent proponent and promoter for his currency on Twitter, has added to the hype with regular reminders and a countdown on TRON’s main site.

This is just a beginning! #TRON Test Net Launch Countdown 7 days, 168 hours, 10000 minutes, 605000 seconds! #TRX $TRX pic.twitter.com/VCVSWoIzll

— H.E. Justin Sun 孙宇晨 (@justinsuntron) March 24, 2018

TRON has dealt with an overwhelming amount of FUD, and still has much to accomplish in order to prove to investors that TRX is capable of disrupting the entertainment industry. The Main Net launch is not going to make that a reality overnight, but it does provide significant advantages for the TRON project.

Top of the Market Usability for TRX

The biggest update for TRON coming out of the Main Net launch is unmatched utility for the TRX token. TRON enters the conversation as a top 5 currency in terms of usability in both transactions and network load. Here are a just a few of the features:

1. Cheap, all but free, transactions. With the Exodus update, the transaction cost for sending TRX drops all the way to 0.00001 TRX. TRON becomes a currency that is essentially free to buy and sell with. At current market prices, one dollar would allow a TRON user to complete two million transactions on the network. Even at a very bullish pricing of 1 USD per TRX coin, that single dollar would still equate to one hundred thousand transactions–or a lifetime of TRX use for any individual. Given the cheap, afterthought appeal to sending and receiving TRX, the currency opens the door for true micro and throwaway transactions, where a user can take advantage of blockchain and cryptocurrency security for almost no cost.
2. Network scalability. If you are looking for a singular cause to stagnation in the cryptomarkets and a possible industry killer, the most obvious culprit is a lack of scalability. Despite the world-changing, revolutionary appeal of Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency has yet to overcome the hurdle of scaling to widespread usability. Developers are working hard to implement lightning network, which could reduce the transaction costs and wait-times to a point acceptable for regular commerce, but network load is a hurdle that almost all coins are going to contend with in order to reach their outlined potential. TRON is getting ahead of the problem, with a network capable of handling 1000 transactions per second on Main Net’s launch. That number should continue to grow as TRON developers add to the platform, thereby allowing for implementations as large as social media and gaming to thrive on the network.

Building the Platform for TRON Industry

There are multiple features coming with the Main Net update that have investors and enthusiasts talking: smart contract implementation, PoS consensus and the coin burn. Let’s address the last point to help clear up any confusion. TRON’s implementation of a coin burn is not going to cut the circulating supply from 100 billion TRX to a lower number (thereby increasing the worth of each investor’s holding), but instead implement a permanent coin execution on each transaction. Ripple employs a similar method for XRP: transactions on the TRON network will consume a certain amount of TRX, as a way of increasing the security of TRON and giving each transaction an irreversible proofing stamp. Likely, this is where the 0.00001 TRX transaction fee comes into play. Unlike Bitcoin and other currencies, where fees are paid to miners as a toll for carrying through with a transaction, TRON’s fee is consumed and the small percentage of TRX is eliminated from the network. Over time, this does have the effect of reducing the circulating supply of TRX, but not to a degree that will greatly impact the price. If the burn fee is indeed the 0.00001 TRX figure listed above, it will take 100,000 transactions to consume a single TRX token. The coin burn is less about appreciating the price of TRX or establishing scarcity (in the way Bitcoin benefits from a 21 million coin hard cap), but instead a method for increased security in TRON transactions.

With that said, the Exodus update provides the framework for TRON’s eventual industry-establishing network. TRON is not trying to be another currency accepted for retail and commerce: it wants to reinvent the landscape of the internet. Rather than have separate outlets for media entertainment, from YouTube to Facebook to PlayStation Network, TRON wants to bring all parties under the umbrella of a single network, unified through the TRX currency (and whatever other cryptos wish to build upon the network, similar to Ethereum’s platform). In order to become a ubiquitous source of online entertainment, TRON must first have the scaffolding to handle such a massive undertaking. Main Net looks good on paper, but will almost certainly go through hiccups along the way to greater adoption. However, the fundamentals are in place: a shift away from being another ERC20 token to a TRON-backed currency, unmatched utility, a top five usable cryptocurrency, and the ability to handle large network loads (at least to the volume that is expected at this time).

A Caution on Price and Investing

The unfortunate effect of the cryptocurrency industry being focused on price speculation is that value rarely aligns with performance. As a word of caution, expect there to be some frustrating price changes over the next two weeks, despite the positive press associated with the Main Net update. TRX doubling in price within 7 days is the type of exponential growth we saw the market incapable of sustaining back in January. While TRON is still a far cry from its last ATH of 0.30 USD, there will be traders looking to capitalize on the gains produced by Main Net excitement and hype. Expect a fair amount of profit-taking to occur, which could depress the price of TRX despite the monumental step forward in the update at the end of this month. There will also be a large amount of investor FOMO shaping the price (which may have already contributed to the 100%+ gains), especially with many in the cryptomarkets bored over the lack of price movement in Bitcoin and other currencies.

On a positive note, google trends for TRON and TRON TRX have taken a leap over the last several days, which is a good indicator for the valuation of the currency. If you are taking a long position on TRON, or just interested in the project and what Justin Sun and his teams have been able to create, Main Net is going to be the first milestone achievement on the year.