Threespeak put together a nice post welcoming users from Tron and offering them free accounts to get started on Steem. While the nature of the message was generous, it appears that it might not be reciprocated by the Tron Foundation.
In the comment section, @drakos posted a link to a very enlightening article.
This article details the efforts of a team that was looking to move their project from Ethereum to Tron. This is a sensible move on the surface yet it did not work out well for them. In fact, it appears they were sabotaged for their efforts.
The Tron Foundation was, at first, open to assisting them. Then, as time passed, they were ghosted by the foundation, including having their token "disappear" completely from the Tron ecosystem.
At the root of this change in behavior, was the fact that the Tron Foundation acquired Bittorrent.
Tron Foundation would single out our project as competition to BitTorrent Token (BTT) and go on to erase our presence from the Tron blockchain.
The story is a worthy read because it details the experience of one group of developers with Tron. In the article, there is this tidbit:
Right on cue, Tron announced the $1,000,000 dApp Developer Contest to “…continue fostering innovations in the blockchain industry (and) empower developers and start-ups to develop Dapps based on TRON protocol.”
Sound familiar?
The Tron Foundation owns Bittorrent, Steemit Inc (Steemit.com), and Dlive. These are applications that the foundation has a vested interest in. Thus, any other applications that join the ecosystem which are similar can be viewed as competition.
@threespeak is obviously a competitor for Dlive. This is what makes it so interesting. An application like that, along with @steempeak and the tribes, could run into similar issues. Both these projects are very open about their dedication to Steem yet how many others would think of switching?
Sun stated that he wanted to bring Steem DApps over to Tron. Why would he want to do that when there are over 700 DApps already on there? They are far ahead of Steem in that regard and you would think the developers there could create some terrific stuff.
The reason is nobody is really using the DApps. Steem, on the other hand, has activity.
A challenge with all of this is that, if an application does switch, it could face the same peril. Presently, there might be nothing that the Foundation owes that rivals a particular application. But what about the future? What happens if an Actifit makes the move and then Sun buys a decentralized fitness application? Do you think there would be similar treatment as in the article?
Obviously, this is all speculation and based upon the experience of a small group of people. Perhaps the article is 100% genuine. Or maybe there is some type of personal vendetta? I have no way of knowing. Nevertheless, this is something to think about.
When a blockchain Foundation owns applications, it is easy to see how it can be a problem. This takes on more importance when the chain is struggling with activity. Steemit.com, in theory, was competing against the other front ends. However, as we noticed, Steemit Inc did not view that as a negative. The key for them was growth.
The Tron Foundation does not appear to have the same perspective.
Good money was paid for the entities it now owns and a return is going to be sought. This does, however, raise other issues about decentralization and the control that is wielded over everything on that chain.
Food for thought.
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Posted via Steemleo