Over the past few months, TRON has made monumental strides within the blockchain industry. After the test net and main net was officially launched in late June and July this year, TRON continued their efforts and pushed out the first version of the TRON Virtual Machine (TVM) in August 2018.
Since then, the team has been working diligently to create the necessary tools for developers to use. This toolset includes the TronGrid, TronBox, TronStudio, and TronWeb. These tools are aimed to help developers integrate innovative DApps into the TRON ecosystem with ease.
Furthermore, the team pushed out Version 3.1 of the TRON main net on October 8, 2018. Shortly after the launch, the community elected SR CryptoGuyInZA set forth Proposition 1 for the activation of TVM on the new version of the main net. Based on the community consensus, the TVM will be activated on the main net and developers may start deploying smart contracts on to the main net. This is an exciting time for TRON as the company officially enters the beginning of the Smart Contract Era. TRON will be 200x faster vs. ETH, 100x cheaper vs. EOS. dApp developers & users, this one is for you!
With this month’s recent uproar of events — main net 3.1 launch, TVM activation, and the introduction of the developer toolset — TRON has been creating significant waves within the industry. We are now entering a historical moment where developers can create real working Dapps on the network. Let’s take a look at what is in the developer tool suite.
1) TronWeb
The main purpose of TronWeb is to connect the developers to the blockchain. This tool aims to deliver a unified and seamless development experience. Even though this new tool is influenced by Ethereum’s Web3, TronWeb has a very different implementation process. TronWeb requires both a Full Node and a Solidity Node that runs on the HTTP API. In addition, you may use TronWeb to send, purchase, and freeze/unfreeze TRX and other tokens.
2) TronBox
TronBox is essentially a framework or environment that allows developers to test and deploy smart contracts. It uses the TronWeb API. You can find an example tutorial project on how to deploy smart contracts on the TRON network here. (link: https://developers.tron.network/docs/tron-box-contract-deployment)
3) TronStudio
TronStudio is a comprehensive IDE with an embedded TRON Virtual Machine (TVM). It has an internal full node that creates a private local environment for the developer to test their smart contracts before deployment. Developers may choose and specify which environment they would like to use for deploying the smart contracts. Although TronStudio overlaps with many features of TronBox, TronStudio’s defining feature is the ability for developers to interact with their Solidity smart contracts within a user-friendly environment.
4) TronGrid
TronGrid offers a similar use case with Infura on the Ethereum platform by providing developers access to the TRON Network. TronGrid allows developers to build and release their dapps and smart contracts. By providing a load balanced and hosted API service for developers on the cloud, developers may save time from having to run their own node. TronGrid also offers an alternative test network, codenamed “Shasta”. Below is a screenshot of how you may use the Shasta test network within TronBox.
For more information and documentation of these developer tools, please visit our new repository https://developers.tron.network.
Updates and new tools will be announced there. If you have any questions about the developer tools and implementation, feel free to join our new Discord group for developers at https://discord.gg/GsRgsTD.
