Tron Co-Founder & CTO Leaves Venture, Blaming Too Much Centralization

Lucien Chen— the former Chief Technical Officer (CTO) and co-founderof Tron (TRX) blockchain protocol — has announced that he is departing from the venture stating it has become overly concentrated and deviated from its founding values.

Chen disclosed his choice in a blog article on May 10. In his official statement, Chen describes the Tron project background and TRX’s successful rise to turn into the 11th biggest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.

Yet the outgoing CTO said, notwithstanding this achievement, irresolvable misunderstandings between himself and co-founder Justin Sun pushed him to quit.

Chen asserted that the initiative is no longer loyal to its core concept of decentralizing the internet— becoming allegedly overly centralized and neglecting to promote internet-focused business apps in its environment.

Chen said

“During my two years in TRON, I felt the wheel of destiny turning rapidly and I also went forward under the drive of the wheel…in my efforts, the formation of the domestic team and the coding all started from scratch, and the currency began to soar from ICO. Until now, looking back on the past, it seems like a dream…It has gone through the stages of open source, testnet launching, mainnet launching, the acquisition of BTT, ecological expansion of TRON DAPP.”

He criticized the Delegated proof-of-stake [DPoS] Consensus Mechanism of Tron and Super Representative Governance and block manufacturing nodes. Chen provides three explanations for his exit from TRON: that TRON is no longer decentralized, is not linked with the web and has “deviated from the blockchain’s mood and initial purpose.”

“The DPOS mechanism of Tron is pseudo-decentralized. The top 27 SR nodes (block nodes) have more than 170 million TRX votes, and most of them are controlled by Tron. It’s hard for other latecomers to become block nodes, so they cannot participate in the process of block production.”

Regarding the problem of centralization, Chen said that some nodes had “more than 90% of the ballots with only a few electors,” and that the normal retail investor’s vote was thus supposedly sidelined.

Regarding super representative votes, Chen opined as follows:

“The total number of TRX in Tron is 100 billion, while the total number of votes for the super representatives is just less than 8 billion.”

He further said

“Token distribution is centralized, Super Representatives are centralized, code development is centralized. Even the community is organized under centralization.”

Chen sees his new project, Volume Network, as a solution to the problems,

I am deeply sorry to see the project that has grown up in my hands has become like this. The dreams and visions that Justin told me have been ruined. After several months of thinking, I decided to start the Volume Network (VOL) Project.

Besides his objections about centralization, Chen also stated that as the former CTO who assisted in establishing the platform, he understands that real internet applications in the Tron network cannot work as of now. Thanking TRON co-founder Justin Sun, he then starts talking about the “irreconcilable contradiction,” saying “TRON is no longer the initial TRON,”

“Thank Justin for providing me with this platform to grow up with TRON. But because of the irreconcilable contradiction between us, TRON is no longer the original TRON. I chose to leave, hoping to regain my original mind and rebuild my new TRON.”

After leaving Tron, Chen is now starting his own decentralized blockchain venture named “Volume Network.” He argues the fresh undertaking will remain more loyal to his ideological values and concentrate on mining-based decentralization — especially by allowing consumers to mine without any custom-built equipment to reduce the involvement limit.

As stated previously this month, the Tron Foundation lately solved a critical problem that could have hit its blockchain, presenting the cybersecurity study that found it with a $1,500 reward and divulging results after fixing the problem.