While the crypto wealthy have been known to be generous (just look at the Pineapple Fund), their charitable habits have diminished over the course of the ongoing bear market, which has pushed Bitcoin from $20,000 to $4,000. But, Justin Sun, the chief executive of the Tron blockchain project, doesn’t seem to be abiding with this unspoken rule.
The Chinese cryptocurrency entrepreneur recently announced a multi-million dollar giveaway to his fervent community. And from the looks of it, there are surprisingly no strings attached. Sun doesn’t seem to be yanking anyone’s chain either.
Related Reading: Exclusive: Why Tron CEO Expects Bitcoin, Crypto Assets To Rally In 2020
The $20 Million USDT Giveaway
Last week, Sun announced what he dubbed a “global appreciation campaign,” in which he promised to give away one Tesla (model not designated) and $20 million worth of “free cash.” At the time, details regarding the sudden initiative were scant, leading to some to classify the airdrop either a “scam” or an “early April Fools’ Day prank.”
To celebrate #BTT & #USDT–#TRON success, I am planning a $20m free cash airdrop. Good news-it’s coming, bad news-I may decide to give away more! First, I will randomly pick 1 winner for a #Tesla up until 3/27! To apply, follow me and RT this tweet! Simple! #Blockchain pic.twitter.com/wFyzwtB3ur
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) March 12, 2019
Some skeptics even joked that the Tron chief executive was harnessing the power of Twitter cryptocurrency scammers, who were so effective that they once even elicited a response from Tesla’s and SpaceX’s Elon Musk.
But, Sun seems to be decidedly serious about giving away such a wad of cash. In a follow-up tweet posted Thursday, the Ripple Labs alumnus unveiled the giveaway’s details. According to the image (seen below), holders of the version of Tether (USDT) on Tron’s blockchain will receive interest for holding the asset during certain periods. From April 30th to May 4th, USDT holders will receive 20% APR on top of what they already own.
Although 20% APR may seem delectable, especially considering that BlockFi’s interest account offers a mere 6.2% on Bitcoin and Ethereum deposits, the interest offered dwindles over time. By the last period where the giveaway is ongoing, June 15th to August 7th, APR falls to 1%.
#Hodl USDT-TRON to earn initial 20% APR in USDT-TRON. 100 day campaign. $20M initial budget no hard cap. Just sayin’. ? $TRX $BTT pic.twitter.com/jyo7QcrtbE
— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) March 21, 2019
But, this doesn’t diminish the fact that Sun has decided to give upwards of $20 million away. Only in crypto, huh.
Justin Sun Explains
In an exclusive interview with NewsBTC, Sun gave his team’s reasoning for issuing a $20 million giveaway — a feat likely hard to execute, even for a renowned cryptocurrency project like Tron.
First, he explained to us the reasoning for enticing Tether to issue its infamous stablecoin, recently revealed to be not 100% backed by U.S. dollar or Euro reserves, on Tron:
“The Tron Network is faster, free, and smarter than the Omni Network (a Bitcoin-based chain). So that means, the stablecoin will have a better infrastructure. And at the same time, our DApp ecosystem will have a native stablecoin.”
The industry insider, trailed by a man-turned-avocado, remarks that the Tron and Tether team set this up to “reward people,” meaning that the giveaway isn’t meant for his 1,000,000+ Twitter followers as some previously suggested.
In other words, Sun & Co. are aiming to bolster the adoption and usability of their blockchain through the adoption of the USDT stablecoin, which could provide benefits in some smart contract systems.
What’s Next For Tron?
Sun was far from done though. He asserted that this giveaway is only a small, yet still important facet of Tron’s long-term vision to bring blockchain technologies to the mainstream. NewsBTC was told that the San Francisco-headquartered Tron Foundation intends to further BitTorrent’s blockchain integration by 2019’s second quarter, which Sun claims will bring 100 million crypto virgins, so to speak, into the decentralized world.
This integration will purportedly see blockchain addresses and transactions natively embedded into the UTorrent client, which will allow users of the peer-to-peer network to reap Tron-related rewards through seeding files, offering bandwidth to the torrent ecosystem, and uploading files.
Sun closed off his comments by explaining that Tron’s developers intend to add ZK-SNARKS and Web Assembly to the blockchain in the near future, bolstering transactional throughput, privacy, and the cost of issuing transactions and executing commands. This may have been done in a bid to poke a bit of fun at Vitalik Buterin’s keynote, in which the Ethereum creator mentioned the aforementioned advancements as things on his radar.
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