TRON Protocol Roadmap 2025

TRON is already a powerful smart contract platform but is still continuously being improved. We are excited to share our roadmap for 2025, which builds on our commitment to delivering a platform with impeccable secure, highly available, and high-performing. Here is our outlook on key areas for future development:

• Stability: TRON will continue to optimize the stability of the blockchain. Recently, we have improved the consensus-level network upgrade logic, accelerated node startup, and optimized network traffic. Going forward, we will continue to push for related improvements. One key initiative is the upgrade of the P2P network layer, which has been running for many years, to enhance both stability and performance.
• Scalability and Performance: We will enrich the TRON protocol and improve node performance to support TRON’s operation in more environments, supporting the expansion of the network. We have made significant TPS optimizations and will continue to focus on multi-platform support, API performance optimization, fast consensus, and parallel transaction execution in the future.
• Economic Model: Transaction trends on TRON change frequently, so it is important to keep transaction fees at reasonable levels in addition to supporting transaction-related feature development. We will dynamically adjust the fee strategies for different types of on-chain transactions and work to optimize existing transaction instructions to reduce resource overhead.
• Others: We are exploring various directions, such as supporting IPv6, DNS, and more. In the future, we will also explore account abstraction, and the expiration of historical state data, providing support for the continuous development of the chain.

While we have released many major updates to improve the key areas mentioned above in recent months, there are still many plans to push forward in the future. Below is our 2025 plan and some long-term outlooks:

Stability

Upgrade and Optimization of P2P Network (Q3 2025)

The Java-Tron P2P network architecture has been in operation for seven years. While the current P2P network implementation largely meets the system and user needs, issues have gradually surfaced as the user base grows and performance demands increase. These issues include problems such as malicious connection occupation causing isolated nodes and risks of traffic amplification attacks. As user activity continues to grow, the system may face unanticipated risks. Therefore, a major upgrade to the P2P network is needed to address current problems and mitigate future risks.

Scalability and Performance

Supprot ARM Architecture (Q2 2025)

The ARM architecture has seen rapid development in cloud computing and mobile devices in recent years. ARM platforms offer advantages such as low power consumption, low cost, and high cost-performance ratios. As ARM becomes increasingly popular in data centers, cloud computing, and edge computing scenarios. So TRON will expand hardware compatibility to support not only x86 but ARM platforms, offering users more flexible usage options and reducing operational costs.

Optimization of API Performance (Q1 2025)

We will focus on performance optimization for the Java-Tron API to significantly improve response speeds, increase throughput, and enhance stability in high-concurrency scenarios, offering dApp developers and end users a smoother, more efficient experience.

Parallel Execution of Transactions (Long-term)

TRON processes transactions sequentially during validation, limiting full computing resource utilization of hardware during processes like block validation and generation. After analyzing historical transactions and execution logic, it is identified that there are possibilities for parallel execution when processing transactions. TRON will gradually support parallel processing for all transaction types and extend this to block validation and generation, improving overall network throughput and benefiting from future hardware advancements.

Fast Finality (Long-term)

TRON currently uses DPoS for consensus, where a block needs confirmation from more than ⅔ of Super Representatives before it becomes solidified, typically taking about one minute. Although this finalization time is fast enough, certain use cases require even faster finality.

To address this, TRON is considering the introduction of a Fast Finality mechanism using a dual consensus model (DPoS + pBFT). This will reduce block finalization time from one minute to approximately 6 seconds, enabling better support for high-frequency trading and future expansions like cross-chain communication and SPV nodes.

Economic Model

Transaction Fee Optimization (Long-term)

Currently, TRON charges bandwidth and energy as transaction fees for smart contract transactions, while non-smart contract transactions are charged only for bandwidth.

For smart contract transactions, we will analyze popular contracts and instructions, optimize the implementation of instructions, and adjust the fees based on efficiency and performance considerations. We will also refine the fee model for non-smart contract transactions, as there are some mismatches between transaction fees and execution consumption due to different transaction types. By continuously optimizing the fee model, we aim to foster sustainable growth in on-chain transaction volume.

Others

Incremental Consensus Mechanism for On-chain States (Q4 2025)

Blockchain is essentially a consensus state machine and different chains use different methods to achieve consensus on their chaindata. After analyzing mainstream industrial solutions, we are designing a new incremental data consensus scheme. This scheme calculates the incremental state root based on change data in a block, avoiding the need for full state root calculations. This solution enhances computational performance without compromising security.

State Expiry (Long-term)

Running TRON nodes on regular hardware is essential for decentralization, as it allows users to verify information independently through cryptographic checks rather than relying on third parties. If this capability were only available to users with expensive hardware, it would hinder decentralization.

As TRON’s chaindata grows, the devs have developed a `lite node` feature that allows nodes to prune data like blocks and transactions, significantly reducing storage space. TRON will introduce a state expiry solution to manage the growing state data. Using the concept of state leasing, the paid data will remain while moving expired data to cold storage or decentralized storage, ensuring performance stability without sacrificing data integrity.

Account Abstraction (Long-term)

With the proliferation of various dApps, users are currently limited to interacting with the TRON network using EOA accounts, which restricts user flexibility and dApp integration. Account abstraction allows users to have a better experience and more control over the security and functionality of their accounts.

The implementation could involve

• upgrading EOA wallets to smart contract wallets
• Adding an independent transaction system running in parallel with the existing protocol

Either of the implementations will enable users to interact with TRON via smart contract wallets, and TRON will try various feasible plans to expand the functionality of account abstraction.