The decentralized ecosystem sometimes pops up the enigma such as Tron which even though claims to decentralize the web is caught in some blatant marketing hypes akin to any pyramid scheme or centralized investment programs.
Justin Sun the Tron founder seems not helping matters with his tweets that blatantly promote the network, sometimes at the expense of other competing networks such as EOS, Ethereum and Cardano.
A Competition Fuelled Decentralization
This keeps a casual observer wondering if decentralization is not morphing into another phase of capitalism and the quest for monopoly. In comparison to the unassuming Bitcoin inventor, some of today’s players are a sharp contrast.
It may have been a good idea if token development continued at GitHub level without the commercialization brought about by ICO which have mostly proven scams.
Sinking Ships
For instance, a view of Sun’s timeline shows tweets that sometimes deride and minify the accomplishments of other competing networks while exulting Tron, such as a December 6 tweet in which he offered to rescue developers from Ethereum and EOS networks from their platform which he referred to as sinking ships.
The tweet elicited responses from followers and developers from the platform with some implying Tron not immune to the general market condition of the ecosystem.
What Would Satoshi Do?
The Bitcoin Cash hash war may have accentuated the lack of synergy among decentralized networks, nevertheless there is no doubt that industry leaders such as Tron’s Justin Sun sees the ecosystem from the competition prism.
This is why his speeches and tweets are seen as marketing hype for the Tron network. Some coin enthusiasts wonder what would have happened if Satoshi Nakamoto were active on the coin market promoting Bitcoin.
A look at the charts shows that EOS and Tron are up 1.6 percent in the past 24 hours while Ethereum which hosts the most dApps in the ecosystem is down 0.04 percent.
Developers Should Prefer Tron
Although Sun seems to have mellowed a bit on his rhetoric this year he did not lose the occasion of the Tron’s niTron summit this week to announce there’ll be more than 2000 decentralized apps in 2019 urging developers to build on the Tron network.
Sun who doesn’t lose an opportunity of projecting Tron network above all others said he didn’t care where the developers come from, taking a swipe at Ethereum and EOS networks which are his latest focus of derision.
During the Constantinople hard fork, he had used the fork interregnum to encourage ETH developers to move over to Tron in what could be described as a client grab.
Network Competition Just Like Corporations
The recent development makes observers wonder what the concept of decentralization is all about if entity networks will compete the same way centralized corporations do.
Sun’s tweet on the Tron dApp weekly report stated:
“TRON #DApps has increased by 25 compared with last week. DApps total number is 142 and the weekly growth is 20%. Total number of accounts on #TRON registered 1.42 million and daily transaction reached around 3 million, maintaining a rapid growth.”
Former BitTorrent Employees Keeping Aloof
No one is left in doubt that the Tron network is experiencing a measure of adoption especially since its acquisition of the file-sharing site BitTorrent. Nevertheless, Sun’s promotional approach of the network has left many former employees of BitTorrent distancing themselves from Tron.
It is not yet clear if the planned connection and tokenization of BitTorrent will be as successful as the Tron team claims. During niTron2019, Justin Knoll who is in charge of Tron’s BitTorrent project spoke on the blockchain connection about which Sun tweeted:
“Proud to unveil BitTorrent Speed! With this game-changing #blockchain based application, we aim to strengthen the @BitTorrent protocol and deliver more features that inspire innovation across industries! Let me know what you think.”
“Largest Blockchain Application”
Tron termed the project “Largest Blockchain Application Powered By BitTorrent”. The network also announced that the integration would be live in Q2 of 2019.
A former BitTorrent employee has a divergent opinion to the Tron claims. According to him, the Tron network doesn’t have the capacity to host the file-sharing site on its blockchain sustainably.
Tron’s Scalability Suspect?
Simon Morris who was BitTorrent’s strategy officer said that Tron’s scalability and capacity is suspect in terms of hosting the project on its blockchain. He stated that the high transaction rate of BitTorrent will literally clog up the Tron network causing its collapse.
He said that pressure on the platform will be so high that the Tron team would move the project to a central server claiming it is Tron’s version of the Lightning Network.
Meanwhile, the founder of BitTorrent Bram Cohen is having a tough time dissociating himself from the platform that has been acquired by Tron. In a tweet, he made it clear that he is no longer involved with the platform. He also specifically mentioned non-affiliation with Justin Sun.
He is routinely tagged by users of the platform to projects associated with Tron’s BitTorrent, prompting him to pin the message on this Twitter feed saying,
“I’m no longer in any way affiliated with BitTorrent and have never been affiliated with Tron or Justin Sun.”
The aggressive marketing method of the Tron network led by Justin Sun creates adversaries more than friends for the platform among industry leaders.
Morris said that the Tron network is rather a very thin layered technology while Ryan Selkis, the CEO of Messari said that the Tron network fakes it just to make it a success story. The onus rests on the network to prove that it is as good as it claims since the industry has had its share of hype.
What do you think of the Tron marketing strategy? Send in your comments below.
