What's Untron?

Untron, or Untron.finance (opens in a new tab), is a unique marketplace-based platform that allows people to seamlessly send money between Tron and Ethereum ecosystems using USDT on Tron. It's powered by zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs of Tron blockchain, verifying the authenticity of all transactions happening there using advanced cryptography. This allows Untron to provide a secure and trustless environment for users to transfer funds without the need for intermediaries.

Why untron?

At most conservative estimates, over 50 million people around the world use USDT on Tron Network to pay for goods and store life savings. However, the current state of Tron is deplorable. The network is totally centralized, expensive to use, and lacks the ecosystem around self-custody, forcing users to rely on centralized exchanges for their funds.

In contrast, the Ethereum ecosystem continues to thrive. Following the Dencun upgrade, transaction fees on rollups have drastically decreased to less than a cent per ERC20 transfer. Combined with L2s, Ethereum DeFi now comprises >80% of the entire DeFi TVL. Rollups alone consistently handle upwards of 100 TPS, with theoretical limits of 400-800 TPS depending on the specific rollup. At the time of writing, OP Mainnet has upgraded to Stage 1 trustlessness with all OP Chains and ZKsync catching up. Arbitrum is working towards Stage 2.

People in developed countries are already integrated with Ethereum. By allowing them to seamlessly move into it from Tron, we can unite these disparate ecosystems and mitigate the risks associated with increasing centralization and monopolization of Sun’s machine.

Why Untron?

Unlike existing, centralized bridges, Untron is trustless and marketplace-based. This means that Untron is akin to a peer-to-peer USDT-USDT exchange, where users can buy and sell USDT on Tron with crypto tokens in the Ethereum ecosystem at market-based prices. Fair competition of rates, in turn, lets users always get the best return.

Powered by ZK proofs, Untron ensures that all orders in the system are secure and tamper-proof, as long as Ethereum and Tron are. Moreover, due to its two-way exchange-friendly design, Untron also lets people to send USDT on Tron from the Ethereum ecosystem wallets and receive it from any USDT TRC20 exchange.

In short, Untron creates ideal conditions for Ethereum's vampire attack on Tron.

Why two-way bridging?

The common misconception is that a vampire attack only requires one-way bridging to an objectively, as people think, better ecosystem. However, this is not true from the economic standpoint.

In order for a better solution to gain the leader's market share, these two solutions must perfectly interoperate with each other. This would open free, unimpeded market within the ecosystem, allowing people to actually choose the solution which is better for them, not the one which has more users and adoption.

This phenomenon is better known as the Network Effect (opens in a new tab), first applied in Metcalfe's Law (opens in a new tab). According to it, the value or utility a user derives from a good or service depends on the number of users of compatible products. In other words, the significant portion of the product's value comes from its adoption in the ecosystem. In our case, Tron's value doesn't come from its low fees, DeFi, or decentralization (none take place), but rather its high adoption in various countries and regions around the world. Dogan Alpaslan, the cofounder of Clave, has described applying this concept to the Tron ecosystem as the Tron's Network Effect (opens in a new tab), taking Africa and Turkish Cyprus as an example. Such examples, however, can be found all over the world, where USDT on Tron is still used.

One-way bridging doesn't make two platforms compatible, as two users of those platforms can't utilize them to interact with each other. Specifically, there is no point in moving to, say, USDC on Base, if you can't send funds to your friends, most of which are still on USDT on Tron, even if the migration from Tron to Base is very cheap and straightforward.

This is why only two-way bridges can perform a meaningful "vampire attack" on the ecosystem standing on its network effects.