Tron has seen better days. A week ago the digital currency was on the rise and was ranked among the top 10 cryptocurrencies in the world. However, Tron was accused Plagiarism two white papers written by Protocol Labs (the owners of IPFS and Filecoin). This has created a lot of confusion for a lot of people, but Justin Sun, the man behind Tron, seems unfazed as he just announced a new partnership with Baofeng, a Chinese company worth billions of dollars.
The allegations regarding the plagiarized papers came after many crypto supporters discovered many similarities between Tron’s white papers and IPFS and Filecoin papers. Founder of Protocol Labs Juan Benet He also got involved when he posted a photo on Twitter claiming that Tron’s English-translated white papers were copied by IPFS and Filecoin. Benet was involved in creating posts for IPFS and Filecoin.
. @ justinsuntron Why is your TRON whitepaper copying @IPFSbot and @MineFilecoin wholesale without a single reference? Bitswap, PoRep, Post, these are not your ideas?
– Bedeho (@bedehomender) January 7, 2018
This is a grave allegation against a digital currency that has held up quite well overall. Tron had a great start to 2018 when it rose to $ 0.3, but it has fallen quite sharply since then. It’s currently at $ 0.11. The Altcoin decline can be blamed for Tron’s sharp drop in value, but such a claim can damage a currency as well. This creates uncertainty among investors who are unsure of the credibility of the people behind the currency. This could also be a reason for Tron’s downward trend in the past few days.
Image: Münzmarktkappe
However, Tron owners, Justin Sun. claims other reasons to be behind Tron’s recent demise and wipes it off as there’s nothing to worry about in the latest tweet:
The recent #TRX fluctuation is due to coinmakrtcap’s decision to exclude the Korean exchange rate from the displayed $ TRX price, resulting in some FUDs. The Korean community is vital to #TRON. We will continue to develop consistently in Korea regardless of the cmc index.
– Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) Jan 10, 2018
The White Paper controversy has definitely harmed Tron in the past few days, with many people showing evidence against Tron as well. However, Justin Sun continues to deny any plagiarism. He claims that a poor translation is the reason the papers appear to be plagiarized. He claims that the original work was in Chinese and many assignments and details were made in the English translation as was done by volunteers and not made officially.
“Our original version of the whitepaper is in Chinese and we have a very detailed reference to the latest Chinese version. The English, Korean, Japanese and Spanish versions will be translated by the volunteers. The translation was missing numerous important details, not just hints. “
He added, “We can provide you with the latest Chinese version of the white paper and hope we can learn from your advice. Here, too, we do not expect numerous language versions to be updated right from the start. After our SF office opens, we will have a better English version of everything soon! “
Despite Sun denying the allegations and making such statements, Tron has removed both the English and Chinese White Papers from its website. It has not yet been confirmed whether the Chinese paper has also been plagiarized or whether the problem only affects the English version.
Also, many people are now claiming that Tron’s success lies not in its technology, but in its marketing. Proof of this is the new partnership announced by Tron. Despite all the controversy surrounding the white papers, Tron announced a new partnership with Baofeng. Sun had this to say about the new partnership:
What’s the best way to clear all FUDs? More partnerships, more developers, more exchanges and more efforts! #TRON #TRX $ TRX
– Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) Jan 10, 2018
Baofeng, also known as “Chinese Netflix,” claims to have over 200 million users. Tron’s goal is to give media owners the ability to own and distribute their own content without worrying about how to get their content on Google Play or the Apple Store. Partnering with a media giant that Sun has dubbed “Chinese Netflix” can definitely help Tron achieve that goal even further.
However, this is a great example of Tron’s marketing strategy at its best. From the information Sun has provided us with about Baofeng, it appears that Tron is nearing its goals. On closer inspection, however, it turns out that this is not the case. The claim that Baofeng is “Chinese Netflix” is incorrect information. Baofeng works to provide people with audio and video playback solutions on the Internet. It’s not a streaming platform in itself. It produces video and audio decoding technologies.
In addition, according to the announcement, Tron will partner with BFC. This is a separate department within Baofeng that manufactures hardware. While this could also benefit Tron in the long run, it’s definitely not the part of Baofeng that has 200 million monthly users.
The actual details of the partnership will be different from what the Sun will market it as. It’s a smart move on his part, as he has more eyes on Tron and that’s exactly what Tron needs. It could be a good strategy for Tron to get more popular through its marketing, after which it can use the immense support to start developing a suitable infrastructure for the currency as well. It could just work for people like Sun.
As for the plagiarized papers, it remains to be seen what happens. We don’t expect the problem to drag on for long, everything should be cleared up in the coming days. Tron building new partnerships (with questionable marketing) shows it won’t stay down after small setbacks. Tron is still a very popular currency even after the huge blow it has suffered with its value. It is still the twelfth best cryptocurrency in the world. Expect Tron’s value to rise again this time around as more partnerships are formed.
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