Hello everyone, I am Justin Sun. It’s been a while since the last BTT live streaming event. Recently, TRON has made another major move: Tether has issued TRC20-based USDT-TRON, TRON’s version of stablecoin. The cooperation between Tether and TRON not only represents a new version of stablecoin, but also brings about profound and far-reaching influence on the TRON ecosystem, as well as the entire cryptocurrency circle; it is also a major improvement of USDT itself, equivalent to the evolution from the age of steam to the age of electricity.
Next, I will talk about the advantages of TRC20-based USDT, why did Tether choose TRON? , what improvements will USDT bring to TRON? In addition, I will also share with you how to conduct the TRC20-based USDT exchange and the upcoming $20 million incentive plan.
1、 What are the advantages of TRC20-based USDT?
The existing stablecoins are mainly stablecoins designed for added liquidity by exchanges, which are single-use, slow in transfer and expensive to transfer.
TRON’s stablecoin aims to become a globally universal stable currency with a wide range of usages. USDT-TRON is fundamentally different from the stablecoin designed for added liquidity at exchanges. It also inherits the strengths of the TRC20 protocol: instant delivery, no traffic and zero transaction fee.
Following the issuance of TRC20-based USDT, users will be able to enjoy a stablecoin with fast transfer and zero transaction fee. USDT-TRON enables interoperability with TRON-based protocols and Decentralized Applications (DApps) while allowing users to transact and exchange fiat pegged currencies across the TRON Network.
Meanwhile, because all the USDT-TRON are issued by Tether, USDT holders will be able to view the distribution: Has there been an additional issuance? How many more did they issue? Where did these new tokens go? Everything is crystal clear.
2、 Why did Tether choose TRON?
Market position is the first thing to look for in this cooperation and Tether is an absolute leader in the stablecoin market. According to CoinMarketCap, Tether coin or USDT, reached a market cap of ¥13,635,092,926, ranking 8th. Its 24-hour transaction volume, on the other hand, reached ¥60,205,815,884, ranking just second to Bitcoin (¥69,025,771,824) and doubles that of Ethereum (¥30,710,624,498) which follows closely after USDT. The trading volume of USDT is 4.6 times its value, and the demand far exceeds its supply. It is fair to say that USDT is the cornerstone of market price to some extent.
We also looked at the stablecoin team, its compliance and future vision. We remain open for more stablecoins to run on TRON in the future. The TRON community needs a stablecoin ecosystem, and Tether needs a more stable, reliable and technically more advanced public chain. We found ourselves on the same page and reached a win-win cooperation.
We know that so far Tether has issued three types of USDT: BTC-based Omni-USDT, Ethereum-based ERC20-USDT, and TRON-based TRC20-USDT.
You are probably already familiar with the Omni version of USDT. Most USDT in the market now are Omni-USDT, but it has high transaction fees, and the transfer channels are often congested. The ERC20 USDT, on the other hand, is solely issued by Tether. There was no cooperation, nor was it supported by Ethereum. Only very few exchanges and wallets support Ethereum USDT.
While USDT-TRON is a combination of Tether and TRON’s best moves. It is supported by major exchanges and wallets around the world. At the same time, we are going to launch a 100 billion RMB incentive plan to promote the use of USDT. I believe that TRC-20 USDT is the future.
Many people may not know the difference between TRC-20 and TRC-10 tokens. To put it simply, TRC-10 is the native token on TRON. The difference between TRC-10 and TRC-20 is that the former doesn’t have smart contracts, whereas the latter has a smart contract. 10 is more closely integrated with the protocol itself, and the transfer fee is lower. It is completely customized. 20 is a smart contract, and everything can be programmed according to your own needs, but the fee is higher. 10 is suitable for payment and transmission-oriented tokens, whereas 20 is suitable for application-oriented and programmable DApps. Meanwhile, TRC-20 is also fully compatible with ERC20. Developers can easily migrate the ERC20 contract to TRC20, and the migration cost is zero.
I think TRC-20 tokens will eventually stand out among Omni, ERC20, and TRC-20 tokens. It’s simple: People are no longer maintaining the Omni public chain. It supports very few wallets and lacks scalability and infrastructure. Not to mention it costs a fortune to transfer funds. It’s the same with Ethereum. Few exchanges support their tokens, and transferring funds is also slow and costly.
With TRC-20 USDT, it’s a totally different situation. TRC-20 USDT is supported by most exchanges around the world. Transfers are completed within seconds with zero transaction fees, and the system is equipped with smart contracts that is easy to scale. I have a hunch that in the future, most exchanges will upgrade to the TRC20 version, and the Omni version will be slowly phased out.
3、 What improvements will USDT bring to TRON?
The USDT on TRON’s network is a measurement system as well as a vehicle for users’ assets. It allows users to avoid risks and transfer funds, and fast, affordable, and safe transfer is utterly important for a stablecoin issuer. The TRC20-based USDT is the perfect solution to all those potential issues that could happen during funds transfer. Also, there will be more DApps on TRON network, which means TRC20 USDT could also be used in the TRON DApp ecosystem, forming a closed loop of application and transaction.
Four areas on the TRON Protocol will benefit from USDT — Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), DApps, liquidity of TRON’s TRC20 & TRC10 tokens, enterprise-level app development. With stablecoin trading pairs, DEXs can meet hedging and trading demands; DApps will have more leverage to persuade ordinary users to join the DApp ecosystem; TRC20 and TRC10 tokens and applications can better integrate with the traditional world.
Decentralized exchanges and DApp games will be the first ones to be benefited after the introduction of TRC20 USDT, because these two types of DApps have the highest demand for deposit and withdrawal as well as locking in value.
According to Tronscan.org, the recent average daily transfer on TRON network marked 1,700,000–2,100,000, 3.3 times higher than that of Ethereum. At this point, there are over 2.5 million TRON token holders, three times higher than that of EOS. In addition, DApp-related data is looking increasingly optimistic- there are over 6000 smart contracts running on TRON’s network and over 14 million calls of contract. Accoding to DApp Review, TRON network now has over 300 DApps. With an active, increasingly growing user base, USDT has a bright future ahead of it. It has a similar concept as US dollars, which makes it easier for users to use it in the DApp ecosystem and experience different DApps. Meanwhile, the stablecoin provides those apps with reliable methods for deposit and withdrawal as well as avoiding risks.
Secondly, for a public chain, the stability of its base token is critical as the token serves as the fuel of its ecosystem. A public chain with stablecoin owns a price scale, which allows holders to measure their assets in a more precise way, so as to better avoid risks and maintain the value of their assets in a more convenient way. Users can convert their holding into USDT-TRON directly without any cross-chain operation; as products of the same company, USDT-TRON is no different from USDT.
For the USDT, we are adopting the TRC20 standard and this cooperation will further reinforce the application of TRC20 tokens for exchanges.
4、 How to obtain the TRC20 version of USDT?
- Exchanges or wallets
1. Contact the official service email of USDT (usdt@tron.network), and you will speak directly with the Tether team to let them know the amount of USDT-OMNI or USDT-ETH that you would like to exchange.
2. It is recommended to keep 2 weeks of withdrawal supply of USDT-OMNI if needed and exchange the rest to TRC20 based USDT. For more details, please go to: https://medium.com/@Tronfoundation/exchange-usdt-reserve-design-document-e4abec6d47ce
3. Tether will confirm the destruction address and ask for the TRC20 based USDT receiving address.
4. The exchange would need to make sure the TRON address is activated. The simplest way is to have 1 TRX on it.
5. Both parties double confirm that the destruction and receiving addresses are correct.
6. The exchange will transfer the amount of USDT-OMNI/USDT-ETH to Tether’s OMNI/ETH destruction address. Normally, multiple confirmation steps would be involved in this process depending on the total amount.
7. At the same time, the exchange would ask Tether to transfer the same amount of TRC20 based USDT to the exchange’s TRC20 based USDT receiving address.
8. Tether would transfer the requested amount of TRC20 based USDT to the exchange’s receiving address.
9. Both parties confirm that the transaction is completed.
- Individual/Small Business Institutions：
1. Deposit USDT-OMNI/USDT-ETH to the exchange/wallet currently supporting the TRC20 version of USDT. For more information, please refer to the following exchanges/wallets that support the TRC20 version.
2. Follow exchange/wallet’s instruction on TRC20 based USDT exchange notification or announcement.
3. Check your USDT balance.
4. Wallets and exchanges that support the TRC20 version
Exchanges and wallets that are currently supporting the TRC20 version of USDT：tron.network/usdt
5、 About USDT’s 100 Million RMB Incentive Plan?
TRON will conduct a 100-day incentive plan for USDT holders of the TRC20 version with a total value of 20 million USDT.
From April 30th to August 7th, TRON will join forces with globally-known digital asset exchanges including Huobi and OKEx to promote the incentive plan, which has four major characteristics：
1. Long duration: the whole incentive plan lasts for a duration of 100 days;
2. Attractive incentives: the annualized interest rate is as high as 20%
3. Free of charge: users are expected to pay nothing to receive the incentives
4. A large amount of incentives: based on the current total amount of USDT, the total amount of incentives will be $20 million and will not be capped under any special circumstances.
