TRON DAPP Developer Confession
I was in the cryptocurrency/blockchain space for the last couple of years. Throughout that time I did different things — marketing, trading, investing, but I was always inspired by the idea of creating my DAPP.
At some point, I thought I found a perfect idea. I will gamify trading!
Skipping the easy part:
I used recently acquired skills from my MBA degree to do market research and create a deck to raise money. Quickly found a team to do the programming and design.
Now the fun begins
After using whiteboards on the floor and on the wall I felt compelled that we find the perfect concept.
I had to choose a chain to build my DAPP on. We had pretty standard requirements:
- Fast & Cheap transactions
- Active community
- DAPP developer support
I like Ethereum’s community the most, but it was to slow to do everything on-chain. Yeah, we could transfer some computations to the back-end, but it was against my concept. The next best option was TRON, and they had a pretty nice player base.
But the tipping point was — Support!
Tron is offering a bunch of things: Free energy, Marketing support, Developer community. Everything to bring developers of promising DAPPs to the ecosystem.
I want to outline from the beginning, our app was not a cheap rip-off of TronBet or another shady dice2win clone. We invested in design, style, and technology to introduce some new experiences on the platform.
First Troubles
Our first problem was the documentation. When we started building smart contracts, we found out that some developer documentation is incomplete or outdated. Some really easy tasks, as registering your token caused me severe pain.
Energy & Funding Support
I had no illusions about receiving any additional funding from the TRON, but common. When our new DAPP burning hundreds of MILLIONS of energy every day, the least you can do is to subsidize some of it.
But instead, they launched tronlending, the energy leasing app, and funneled my requests there. The funniest thing though, that sometimes, leasing energy could be even more expensive than just burning TRX.
Marketing & Community Support
So, I’m using their network. I pay energy to run smart-contracts. I attract users, they pay a fee with every bet and trade.
When we started talking marketing, their basic response was:
You either give us a stake in your DAPP (aka equity) or we need a revenue-sharing deal.
No tweets, No telegram posts, No nothing. I do not know, but in my opinion, that is not how you treat your partners.
The Bottom Line
If we put aside shady practices of the Tron Foundation and their technical stack and consider things only from a user’s perspective:
- The gambling/igaming ecosystem is booming, and if it is your thing, Tron is a good fit
- The chain is fast, transactions are cheap and could take less than a second to confirm
- Lots of exchanges with good liquidity for TRX
- A bunch of wallets with DAPP browser for mobiles phones
- The off-ramp from TRX to fiat is not a simple task, you need some extra steps and they will cause you a headache
So where does it puts us?
Tron needs to stop focusing on profits so much, trying to squeeze extra margin from their ecosystem. They need to support and work hand-to-hand with their developers and members.
As of now, I’m choosing another chain for my future projects.
P.S.
If you are interested in reading about the progress of my project, clap or comment to let me know.
And follow me on Twitter: DanilMyakin
