Tag: justin sun

Justin Sun Finally Got His Long-Awaited $4.57 Million Dinner with Warren Buffett

Founder of TRON, cryptocurrency entrepreneur Justin Sun had his long-awaited $4.57 million charity auctioned meal with Warren Buffett. 

Sun announcedin a Facebook post that he had dinner with Buffett at a private country club in Omaha, Nebraska, in the United States on Jan. 23. Other guests, invitees of Sun, including Litecoin creator Charlie Lee, eToro CEO Yoni Assia, Chris Lee, the CFO of Huobi, and Helen Hai, the head of the Binance Charity Foundation also joined. The meal had been initially scheduled for late July 2019; Sun reportedly postponed the dinner due to health issuesfollowing the rumorsof Sun barred from leaving China.

Source: Justin Sun’s Facebook page.

Sun presented several gifts to Buffett, including one Bitcoin, stored in a Samsung Galaxy Fold phone. He wrote in a Facebook post,“Since I gifted him this #Bitcoin, $BTC has increased 16%! Hope it continues to moon!” He also presented Buffett with a bronze horse,as they were both born in the Year of the Horse, according to the Chinese zodiac. As 2020 is the year of the mouse, Sun also gifted Buffett a traditional Chinese paper cutting of a mouse.  

Buffett has made his stance on Bitcoin clear, that the cryptocurrency is benefiting from an investment bubble, and is not suitable for long-term investors. Buffett previously compared Bitcoin to “rat poison squared,” and urged long-term investors to stay away from the bubble that was created, which he predicts will eventually collapse. 

The original goal of the dinner, according to Sun, is that he hoped that the meal would “bridge the gap between institutional and traditional investors and the realm of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. Sun said in a statement after the dinner that it was “really an honor, and I’m grateful for Mr. Buffett’s dinner, wisdom and vision.” He added that he would like to take Buffett’s advice and guidance to make TRON a better business with the whole crypto and blockchain ecosystem. 

Image via Ian Kerins

Vitalik Buterin: Time will Tell Whether the Hive Blockchain will Surpass Steem

Justin Sun’s entry into Steemit is not going down well with the community. They have created a hard fork of the blockchain and named it Hive. Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum Founder, tweeted that Hive stands a test of time in demonstrating whether self-independence will be achieved. He trusts that the Steemit community seeks to have full autonomy and decentralization through the hard fork.

Vitalik Weighs in on the Hive vs. Steem issue

As per Vitalik’s tweet, blockchain governance ought to be enshrined in autonomy, and this will be achieved if Hive surpasses Steem. This will be a perfect indicator of the community being at the helm as decentralization is not for sale. 

The general sentiment of the community towards Vitalik’s tweet was that an 80% drift towards Hive could be witnessed. 

The conception of the Hive blockchain

After Justin Sun acquired Steemit, the community members were not impressed, and this is the reason why they created the Hive blockchain as a hard fork of the prevailing Steem code, and the upgrade is scheduled for March 20.

The Hive blockchain is to be entirely decentralized and function out of the confines of the Steem network. 

By taking this approach, the message being relayed by Hive entails blockchain-based products being more community affiliated as compared to centralized controllers and investors. 

It is also expected that all legit accounts found on the Steem blockchain will attain an airdrop on the Hive network. Nevertheless, members will have to create a new Hive account that will be independent of the Steem one.  

The Steemit community has shown its commitment to ensuring that the new chain materializes. For instance, a group of 36 experienced developers is working on Hive. 

Justin Sun, the Tron founder, has been making notable steps in the crypto space. As reported by Blockchain.news on Feb 7, he ultimately got his much anticipated $4.57 million USD dinner with Warren Buffet. Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether Sun’s acquisition of Steemit is a case of biting off more than you can chew. 

Image via Shutterstock

Justin Sun's TRON to Receive $2 Million from US Government Aid Coronavirus Relief

Justin Sun’s Tron platform has reportedly obtained US government aid of more than $2 million in coronavirus relief. The ongoing coronavirus crisis has wreaked havoc in the US financial markets. Particularly small-sized businesses are suffering from the economic shutdown meant to slow down the spread of coronavirus. With hundreds of thousands of employees in danger of losing their jobs, the US government created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help small businesses stay afloat. The money does not need to be repaid. 

Prominent figures question Justin Sun’s relief loan

But the small business loan program has had some serious issues to ensure that these funds are distributed properly. For example, many people seem to question the grounds for giving Tron government aid. Even key personalities in the crypto community have questioned the basis at which the controversial 28-year-old entrepreneur could get the aid.

Some blockchain startups have been denied grants. It was reported that ConsenSys, which was founded by one of the Ethereum co-founders also applied for the small business relief money, but could not get it. Zach Herring, program director at ConsenSys said that while several hard-working Americans are struggling with the complicated application process to get a loan and face rejection without a valid reason, Sun is walking away with a lot of money.

Furthermore, the US Federal Reserve has also been accused of engaging in dubious practices by allowing companies, which had used the widely-abused accounting techniques in the past, to get loans.

Critics argue that Justin Sun is a wealthy individual who does not appear like he needs the aid to survive the crisis, especially when putting into consideration of his multi-million-dollar acquisitions of crypto-related firms like Steemit, Poloniex, and BitTorrent. He recently had paid $4.5 million to have lunch with Warren Buffet.

Sun’s wealth is considered to be valued at $200 million. He shifted business operations of Tron to San Francisco after Beijing banned local cryptocurrency exchanges and all ICOs in 2017 to keep a tighter rein in the financial system.

Recently the US Attorney’s Office for The District of Rhode charged two men for attempting to take advantage of the Small Business Loan Program meant for the coronavirus relief. It remains to see whether Justin Sun will face such similar scrutiny.

Sun’s $4.57 million lunch with Warren Buffet

While Tron remains one of the leading blockchain platforms by user activity and market capitalization, its founder Justin Sun has continued attracting controversies. He has become one of the most controversial personalities in the blockchain space. More recently, he paid $4.57 million in a charity auction to have lunch with Warren Buffet, one of the most successful investors in modern history.

Before Sun revealed to his Twitter followers that he had won a lunch event with Warren, he created suspense by making many pre-announcements, saying that something big was about to take place. But just a few days before the lunch meeting, Sun posted on social media that he was suffering from sudden health complications. He, therefore, mentioned that he would not be able to attend the meeting with Buffet. Soon after he cancelled the meeting, many sources reported that Sun was accused of alleged money laundering and involvement in pornography.  The reports also claimed that the Tron founder had been barred from leaving China because of his involvement in gambling and illegal fundraising activities.  

While it could be difficult to confirm everything, which occurs in the crypto space, Sun has become famously known for his marketing and publicity stunts. In the past few years, Tron has attracted several controversies, mainly because of its CEO’s excessive hype and marketing. Tron has several vocal supporters who are adamant that the company is gaining market share, and active users are rising. Many people know Justin Sun for his controversial headlines and keen to follow his activities.

Image via Elevenews

Justin Sun Tweets Tron just Issued $1.3 Billion in Tether, Here's What it Means for Crypto

While the broader cryptocurrency market is still reeling from a multi-year bear market since 2017, stablecoins like Tether are seeing action. Billions of dollars in USDT have been issued since its launch and the addition of Tron-backed stablecoin issuance, coupled with the now-concluded Bitcoin halving, signals a volatile period ahead for crypto traders and investors.

Nearly $3 Billion Issued to Date

Tether issued on Tron’s native blockchain has exceeded the latter’s market cap. To date, approximately $3 billion in USDT in Tron has been issued, almost three times Tron’s $1 billion market cap. 

On May 12, Tron founder Justin Sun tweeted:

The thread received mixed responses. Some state the move brings forth much-needed liquidity and Tether-backing to the crypto market, infamous for its volatility. Others suggest the move is unneeded — excessive printing of USDT leads to unfair prop ups of Bitcoin prices, suggesting artificially inflated coin values similar to pump-and-dump schemes. 

Tether has been printing at an alarming rate since late-2017 when Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market crashed more than 60 percent. Altcoins like Tron were crushed, falling as much as 90 percent from all-time-highs.

The bear market was an opportune time for Tether, and other stablecoins like Paxos and USDC, to serve investors and crypto traders as a relatively stable asset to protect against volatility and capital. 

Tether was initially, in 2017, issued on Omni-layer Bitcoin, shifted to Ethereum, and then ended up at Tron due to the latter’s scalability, network heuristics, and secure algorithm. As of today, the amount of Tether (USDT) tokens issued on the Tron (TRX) blockchain now accounts for nearly 20 percent of all USDT tokens.

(TRC20-based USDT on Tronscan)

Bitfinex and Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino explained Tether’s “chain swap:”

“This process allows traders to obtain access to the various blockchains that support the cryptocurrency that they are holding, thereby enabling the use of their digital assets on these other supporting blockchains.”

Each time Tether prints large volumes, an initial surge in cryptocurrency prices follows. This usually precedes a drop, as traders presumably use stablecoin as collateral to enter “short” positions and contribute towards volatility. 

Importantly, such periods also see increased activity in the altcoin market. Coupled with Bitcoin’s now-concluded halving, the Tether issuance could mark another surge for Bitcoin and altcoins in the coming weeks, possibly even shifting BTC’s current 65 percent market dominance to under 50 percent if 2016’s post-halving trading conditions are replicated. 

Image via Shutterstock

TRON Founder Justin Sun Offers Bounty Reward for Twitter Bitcoin Scammers

As distressed Twitter users scrambled to get a sense of the recent Bitcoin attack that happened earlier this week, TRON founder Justin Sun spoke up and offered a $1 million bounty reward for whoever was able to uncover the identities of those behind the Twitter mass hack.  

The Founder of the cryptocurrency platform TRON and BitTorrent CEO was among the many big-name influential figures that saw their Twitter accounts compromised and used as a Bitcoin laundering platform by scam artists. Through BitTorrent’s Twitter handle, his leading software company that deals with multi-tech companies such as Windows, Android, Mac and more, the young entrepreneur announced that he will “personally pay those who successfully track down, and provide evidence for bringing to justice, the hackers/people behind this hack affecting our community.” 

During the massive Twitter hack, the spam attacks demanding Bitcoin funds constantly kept surfacing on all handles, despite the spam tweets being perpetually removed as they rolled in and the security settings of celebrity accounts – set as a two –factor authentication process. 

BitTorrent was quick to address the issue and warned its crypto followers at the time of the incident to disregard whatever posts, comments, and/or DMs from CEO of Binance – CZ, from Binance’s official account, from TRON founder Justin Sun and his TRON foundation account, seeing as they were all under widespread attack from hackers. 

Twitter Goes Down & Sparks Reaction 

Following the huge Bitcoin scam attack, Twitter stocks fell in just under 15 minutes, going from $35.60 to $34.70 during after-hours trading, which is a decrease of around 2.5%.  

Many influential figures spoke up about the incident and were quick to criticize social platform Twitter’s way of dealing with the hack attack. Head of cybersecurity firm SocialProofSecurity Rachel Tobac said that she was quite surprised that Twitter did not go “completely dark to prevent misinformation campaigns and political upheaval.” The Bitcoin scam sneak attack was known to have also affected political candidate Joe Biden and former President of the United States, Barack Obama, among many others.  

Another influential figure, Scott Melker, a former music producer turned crypto trader, spoke about Twitter’s tactics in dealing with the situation, and said that this was an example of why centralized platforms were not reliable. He said that there were “single points of failure that you do not control.” Melker was also unsure of how Twitter could tastefully handle this massive hack outbreak in a way that would appease its users and wrote on one of the last tweets he could post on his verified Twitter account before his platform accessibility was restricted: 

“Imagine having the most powerful people and companies in the world all angry at you at once.” 

Justin Sun: Tron Network is Holding 3000 Bitcoin

Tron network, a blockchain-based decentralized operating system, is hosting 3,000 Bitcoin (BTC) configured as BTCTRON, according to its CEO and founder Justin Sun.

8,128 transactions

Sun tweeted this milestone to the crypto community, noting that the wrapped version of Bitcoin, BTCTRON, had 838 holders who had undertaken 8,128 transactions. This number is continuously increasing, depicting the growing adoption. 

This follows the launch of its sidechain solution, the Sun Network, in August. The Sun Network is a scaling solution that aims to provide unlimited scalability to the Tron MainNet.

The Network incorporates several scaling projects such as DAppChain, which is a sidechain scaling project that offers unlimited scalability to the Tron MainNet.  Furthermore, it focuses on improving the transaction processing systems of the smart contract transactions as well as lowering transaction fees.

Later in September, Sun indicated that BTCTRON could be deployed on the Tron DeFI ecosystem, which materialized earlier this month. As a result, users can utilize a swap feature on crypto exchange Poloniex to exchange their Bitcoin for BTCTRON.

Aiding transfers

The wrapped version of BTC enables users on the Tron blockchain to make different transfers. Moreover, it can be utilized on DeFi platforms found on the Tron network.

In May, Tron received $2 million from the US government in releif funds due to the coronavirus pandemic. This news emerged after the American administration created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to help small businesses stay afloat.

Earlier this month, another distributed-ledger technology developer IOTA Foundation introduced  IOTA Access, an open-source DLT framework, for decentralized and automated smart device access control capable of managing billions of machines. It was expected to enable smart device owners and users to request or grant access to their data stream or device in an auditable, contactless, permissionless, and remote manner.

TRON Toasts Tether Takeover in Bumper Year for Blockchain Network

2020 will go down as a good year for crypto and a very good year for TRON. While the entire industry came on in leaps and bounds, the progress made within the ever-expanding TRON ecosystem was particularly impressive, giving even its skeptics pause for thought. While there is still much work to be done in selling the decentralized dream to the masses, within the crypto sphere, TRON gained begrudging respect for its progress, amidst a flurry of integrations, partnerships, and new products.

Lunch Buffets and Stablecoin Forays

From a PR perspective, the highpoint of the year for Justin Sun was his lunch with Warren Buffet in January, which he described as a “defining career highlight.” The TRON founder paid over $4.5 million for the privilege of an audience with the investment tycoon, and used the opportunity to redpill Buffet on crypto.

The greatest progress TRON made this year wasn’t on camera, however, but onchain. The metrics posted by the decentralized network make for impressive reading, clocking up 100,000 daily active users and reaching 1,400 dApps, whose daily transaction volume now stands at over $12 million.

The most impressive achievement, however, in terms of driving use cases for TRON, was the arrival of Tether (USDT), $6.4 billion of which is now circulating on the network – and can now be used to pay for Pornhub. As Ethereum fees rose sharply, TRON provided a more suitable framework for routing dollars around the crypto economy, funding everything from exchange trading to defi. Speaking of defi…

JustSwap and Farming

By summer, decentralized finance had arrived on TRON, aided by the launch of the JustSwap DEX for exchanging TRC20 assets. This prompted a string of yield farms to spring up, attracting users on account of the ‘free money’ and the ability to compound gains by reinvesting farmed tokens, thanks to TRON’s low-fee environment.

TRON’s defi foray wasn’t just about food coins and meme tokens though – despite the launch of the SUN cryptocurrency. The development of the Just platform for crypto collateralization and issuance of USDJ stablecoins has provided a framework for building defi primitives on TRON, paving the way for lending, trading, and yield generating opportunities.

Partnerships and Integrations Galore

Justin Sun loves a partnership announcement, and he had plenty to shout about in 2020. His tweetstorm likening BitTorrent to Bitcoin got tongues wagging, not least from YouTuber Crypto Zombie, who deconstructed the thesis tweet by tweet. Sun’s description of BitTorrent as “the most disruptive tech in the history of data itself” may have been tinged with hyperbole, but he does have a point: the network now boasts over 100 million users and is connected to 1,000 TRON nodes following the launch of BitTorrent File System (BTFS), which is viewed as a direct competitor to Filecoin.

Somehow this year, TRON also found the time to acquire micro-blogging network Steemit and partner with Samsung to have its dApps added to the smartphone giant’s app store. There were also partnerships with Waves, to provide cross-chain interoperability, and Band, to obtain decentralized price oracles. To close out the year, TRON struck a deal with Huawei to have BitTorrent apps added to its app store.

All in all, it’s been a prolific year for TRON, and we’ve not even touched on the arrival of WBTC courtesy of BitGo or the forthcoming launch of TUSD. As 2021 prepares to grind into gear, expect more partnerships, integrations, use cases, and headlines for the TRON network, led by the one-man publicity machine that is Justin Sun.

Image source: TRON Media

US Lawmakers Question Tron Founder Justin Sun and DLive CEO on Extremist Content Following Capitol Riots

Two U.S. lawmakers have published an open letter to Tron founder Justin Sun and DLive CEO Charles Wayn in the wake of the Capital riots—asking them to explain how they moderate extremist and white supremacist content.

The letter was published by U.S. lawmakers Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) and Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) on Feb. 9 and it also specifically asked Sun and Wayn whether DLive identified any crypto donations from foreign entities to the individuals present on Jan. 6 at the Capitol Riots.

The pair of U.S. lawmakers—who are part of the House Select Committee on Intelligence—published the open letter on The Verge on Tuesday amd asked Sun and Wayn to explain how they plan to prevent extremist content from being broadcast on the crypto streaming platform in the wake of last month’s attempted insurrection in Washington at the confirmation of President Joe Biden.

The US representatives asked for Sun and Wayn to explain in detail how DLive, the decentralized video streaming alternative to YouTube, can protect younger users from extremist content and whether the company has any methods to identify bad actors financing extremist content.

DLive is a decentralized video streaming platform that aims to disrupt the existing monopolized video streaming services on the internet, which are dominated by a few market players such as Twitch and YouTube. DLive is a subsidiary of BitTorrent, which was acquired by Justin Sun’s Tron Foundation in 2018. Users are paid through crypto from their viewers when the content creator stream videos.

During the Capitol hill insurrection in January, several far-right extremists leverage DLive to live stream their attack on the Capitol building. DLive CEO Wayn announced after the domestic attack that only gaming content would be able to receive payments.

Several of the live streaming extremists on DLive were arrested following the attacks and the open letter addresses these users, it reads:

“Several of these individuals earned thousands of dollars in DLive’s digital currency that day, and a number received large donations through the platform ahead of the event. One individual received $2,800 in a live stream on January 5th, 2021, in which he encouraged his viewers to murder elected officials.”

The letter also asks:

“Did DLive or BitTorrent identify any foreign-based blockchain donations to individuals who were subsequently removed from the platform after the January 6th Capitol riots?”

The two US lawmakers who authored the letter are part of the House Select Committee on Intelligence—one of the congressional committees looking at how the Capitol Riot insurrection occurred and whether crypto played a role in financing it.

A hearing will be held later this month by the House Financial Services Subcommittee on the financing of domestic terror following the Jan. 6. Insurrection on Capitol Hill where the discussion will likely focus on a $500,000 transaction in Bitcoin made by a French extremist and blogger to pay right-wing figures who appear to be heavily involved in the attack.

Tron CEO Justin Sun Denies Allegations of Third-Party Celebrity Promotions of TRX Cryptocurrency

Media reports have surfaced accusing Justin Sun and the Tron Foundation of paying celebrities and influencers to promote Tron (TRX) and BitTorrent (BTT), the two major cryptocurrencies associated with the company. Tron Foundation’s Chief Executive Officer Justin Sun has publicly addressed the allegations that he and his firm paid celebrities to promote the digital currencies.

This comes at a time when the price of BTT soared by over 150% to a new all-time high last week. This has never been seen before of the cryptocurrency. As Tron came under fire by critics who were skeptic that the price pump of BTT may be associated with the fact that celebrities have touted it, Sun refuted the accusations, tweeting:

“There have been rumours lately of third party celebrities being paid to promote #TRON. #TRON Foundation is not involved in these activities. Nor is the foundation aware of the actors behind this. #TRON is used across a variety of networks and communities, many of which includes celebrities and well-known figures. Many of them have used #TRON by themselves due to its fast speed and low cost.”

In addition, Sun said his Foundation relishes transparency and will be obligated to disclose if any celebrity was involved with any promotions.

“TRON Foundation believes that transparency is key. If any celebrities are paid to promote TRON, we require them to disclose. In fact, we believe that all influencers who are shaping public and community opinions about public blockchain networks should publicly disclose if they are being paid,” he noted.

The involvement of celebrities either in the music industry or the sports world is not uncommon in the crypto space. Multi-Grammy award winner Akon is renowned for his crypto projects and his quest in establishing a cryptocurrency-powered city that will change the economic landscape of Africa. Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled also once faced charges from the SEC for failing to declare the payments they received in promoting investments in Centra Tech’s Initial Coin Offering, which was later declared fraudulent. 

Sun’s clarifications may be geared towards averting a similar predicament as what Mayweather encountered. 

Tron Foundation Launches its "Just NFT Fund"

The Tron Foundation has launched its non-fungible token (NFT) fund dubbed the “Just NFT Fund,” an initiative that is targeted to be the Ark Funds in the NFT Metaverse.

In an open letter to stakeholders in the Tron blockchain network, Justin Sun, the Founder of the Tron Blockchain reiterated the revolutionary strides of NFTs in the blockchain and crypto space today, projecting that as much as 50% of the world’s artists and artworks will be recorded as NFTs in the next decade.

Just NFT Fund is positioned to sign up top-notch artists and to help facilitate the growth of all its supported creators.

“The highly sought-after NFT market calls for the birth of JUST NFT fund, which aims to be the ARK Funds in the NFT space to register world-class artworks as NFTs on blockchain. JUST NFT fund was born to build a bridge between top-notch artists and blockchain, and to support the growth of native crypto NFT artists,” said Justin Sun in the Open Letter.

According to additional details provided on the operational dynamics of the Just NFT Fund, only artists whose art pieces have a price tag of $1 million and a median value of $10 million will be signed on. The Tron Foundation said it will operate on the belief that “the art space is also subject to the 80–20 rule, or the Pareto Principle, where only the value of the artists sitting at the tippy-top of the pyramid can stand the test of time.”

Justin Sun has been a renowned fan of NFTs. He lost a bid for Beeple’s Everydays: The First 5,000 Days to MetaKovan but later placed the winning bid for one of Beeple’s artworks dubbed “The Ocean Front”. The piece, which has a climate change theme, sold for $6 million and the proceeds will be going to charity.

The Ocean Front will be the flagship NFT for the Just Fund and will be mapped 1:1 to the Tron Network.

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