Sam Elfarra - Exploring the TRON Ecosystem - TOKEN2049 Singapore 2025

I first off want to give a big shout out to the token 2049 organizers for allowing us to be sponsors. This has been a great event and it feels like every single year we come here it just gets bigger and bigger and and hopefully we can continue to move in that direction. Um so I'm Sam Al Farra. I'm a community spokesperson for the Tron Dow and lead a lot on the ecosystem development initiatives. And today we're going to be really exploring the Tron ecosystem, but also looking at um some case studies within the payments industry and where things are really moving.

So just to show off some numbers as to how big the Tron network is, uh we are a delegated proof ofstake consensus mechanism with over 300 million users. Uh our cumulative transaction count has exceeded 11 billion with a B. Uh and we have about $21 trillion in transfer volume that has accumulated since the course of our inception. 21 trillion. So 21 trillion.

That's a lot of value that we've moved that we've moved at nearly 100% rate. We're extremely trusted. We are reliable and we are secured. And we're averaging around 8 to n million transactions on a daily basis. Uh we have about 27 super representatives.

That's a part of our consensus mechanism with some really big names scaling from Google Cloud, Nansen, OKX, Binance, HDX, and KN and many more very very reputable uh super representatives as well. Uh for anyone who isn't aware on Tron when you use the native utility token and you stake it, you're in voting rights and you can delegate your voting rights to super representatives or validators in other words. And so we've had some really really big names doing some really really big things. Um and as you can see our global distribution of Tron nodes because it's decentralized. Anybody can spin up a node has been only accumulating and moving in the right direction globally.

Uh and then moving on to here just some other numbers I'd love to gloat while I'm up here. Uh the Tron network has exceeded or nearly got a billion dollars in quarterly protocol revenue. So for every transaction that occurs on the Tron network, a portion of it goes into burning the network utility token or in other words generating revenue. And so that's how we measure revenue protocol. And we've been one of the most active public blockchains to date both on the layer 1 side and the layer 2 side and have only been continuously moving in the right direction.

And I think we can all agree next to probably events and crypto conferences, stable coins and payments are one of the largest product market fits, if not the largest within the entire web 3 space. Now, here is uh just a little bit about our stable coin dominance. About a quarter of all stable coins in circulation are on the TR network. Um, in terms of USD supply, USDT supply specifically, it ranges around 55 to 57% are across ERC20 or other chains. And then the other 43 to 45% are just sitting um on the Tron network being utilized for every single day retail payments, business payments, remittances, um, etc.

And it's only been moving in the right direction as this has been probably our biggest year that we've grown in dollar value amount. Uh here is a stable coin transfer volume uh via Artemis that we've seen right here exceeding about $650 billion just in the month of July 2025 and I believe recently in the month of September. It's around the same exact amount. So that's $650 billion of value that has been transferred across the Tron network at a 100% runtime. So absolutely no delays, no downtime, everything running uh fluently and at low costs if any costs um and completely trusted as well.

And what I really like to point out, I love this graph u from the the CryptoQuant team. If you look at the transactions that happen on Tron and you were to look at the amount of dollars that are used per transaction, over 60% of the transactions that are happening on the Tron network, as you can see by the graph, um are less than $1,000. So over 60% of that $650 billion that I just showed earlier is $1,000 or less. That's huge. That's called retail adoption.

That's called mass adoption. Um, and so the Tron network is very proud to obviously gloat this, but we're also very humble in the sense that there's still a lot more that we have to do. The payments industry as a whole does trillions of dollars a day. Um, and I'm sure everyone here is extremely excited to continue to to explore this industry and I'm proud to say, you know, the Tron network has really been leading on that. Now, here's a little bit about our resource model.

Uh, when you utilize the TRX uh, native token um, and you stake it, you also earn energy and bandwidth. This energy can essentially be used to reduce your gas fees. And businesses all across the globe are us utilizing this model in order to create a proper and better business user experience uh for their users. And then bandwidth is usually utilized for peer-to-peer users. Uh typically the first couple of transactions per day are offset because of that.

And here are just some numbers in terms of how much energy units have been used in the past uh couple of months um in the month of September and and August. Um and then uh bandwidth used as well and then votes delegated which really points to the decentralized nature of the Tron network. 43.3 billion votes have been delegated just in the past month. Now we are one of the most inclusive payment options for underserved populations.

A lot of people ask you know why has so much growth happen on the Tron network? And that's because we actually are solving a problem that is occurring in underserved populations. Whether that problem be hyperinflation, whether that problem be uh delayed banking fees, or whether that problem be no banking infrastructure whatsoever, the Tron network fills that gap. We provide that said solution, and I'm sure everyone here is familiar with those problems that occur in those emerging markets. And it's a disservice that the world doesn't push put more effort into solving those or providing those solutions.

But again, I'm proud that the Tron network as well as various other blockchains are are are filling that gap. uh with the Tron network being a very very big leader in that you can see our daily active user count has exceeded on average around three million and then our daily transaction account as I mentioned earlier um has exceeded around 8 to nine and at some months over 9.3 million daily active users coming in and conducting either retail payments uh business payments sending money overseas and just being able to transfer value without having to worry about it not being sent and it it it settles instantly. and at relatively extremely affordable rates. Uh, and here's a little bit more about our daily active user count by quarter.

As you can see, since Q1 of 2022, we have been skyrocketing, not just showing the growth of the Tron network, of course, but also the broader payment industry as a whole with fintech companies continuingly to adopt blockchain, rails, and everything moving in that sector. And then, of course, our TVL, our token value locked is extremely important. Um, it's all sometimes seen as a way for onchain users or users that utilize the blockchain to gain access to growing their wealth in a proper and compliant manner. Um, and here's a little bit about our ecosystem. Um, so some exciting stuff there.

Now, here's to get to the fun stuff. You know, I gloated a little bit about the Tron network, but now I want to get more into how Tron has positioned itself within the broader payment space. And then I want to show a use case at the very end that I hope really invigorates and energizes everyone. So in terms of our impact on global payments, the crossber remittance sector uh traditionally is extremely expensive and it takes a long time for money to settle and sometimes there are delays and sometimes there's elicit activity and there are times where you traditionally don't know what's happening. Uh there's also the e-commerce integration of the global payments section where it's lower transaction fees for merchants.

And of course, if you were to compare that to um traditional rails, it's magnitudes uh more affordable and it enables fast, secure, and global transactions. Now, why businesses should use stable coins? I think we can all agree lower transaction costs if if near zero fees on Tron versus two to four sometimes 5% credit card fees or banking fees. It's also instant settlement and better cash flow for your business with no one to five bank delays and sometimes depending on the jurisdiction there could be a complete delay and a rerun of the money and you have to wait another week. Um and then of course it enables borderless transactions and it actually involves more security and transparency hence reducing fraud and real-time visibility.

Um, the Tron network is proud as well as the Tron Dow to state that we've worked with, uh, we have a very cool initiative, uh, the T3 initiative where we work with TRM Labs, we work with Tether, um, to reduce illicit activity. And I'm proud to say that the Tron network is one blockchain that is actually working with global law enforcement to reduce onchain um, elicit activity. And we've been very successful just in the past um, year. Um, and I I believe recently Binance also joined that initiative as well. And we're excited to continue to grow this initiative, be leaders in reducing onchain out activity and creating a proper ecosystem.

Now, how businesses can accept stable coins, it's very very simple. You start with a PSP, a payment processor or a direct payment. Uh you display the stable coin payment option, process the transaction, convert to fiat with your on and off provider, and then ensure compliance and accounting. Now, here's the case study that I am really excited about. So, get used to this slide.

I'm going to stay on it for a little bit. When you look at the continent of Africa, specifically 11 countries across subsahara and Africa, they do about $120 billion in uh trading value across either goods, services, or actual just cash amount. Of that $120 billion, 11% of it gets eaten up by fees. 11%. So that's about $10 billion annually.

that is completely lost uh due to the due to things that shouldn't even be lost. That 10 billion dollars can go extremely far in areas like Africa, magnitudes more powerful in those types of continents that are underserved because of a lack of financial and banking infrastructure. Now, if you were to do and move value on the Tron network, it would cost pennies if you're doing it the right way. maybe maybe dollars if uptime is is high but it's not going to be 11 cents on the dollar and at times nine nine cents on the dollar 12 cents it depends on the usage so that's what stable coins on Tron and stable coins in general are providing to the globe it is pushing the frontier of humanity to be able to actually move value without having to worry about extreme fees and delayed time um and of course as mentioned here it improves profit margins It reinvigorates those economies to scale properly um and just makes a better financial system that I believe we all can agree is very much overdue for the entire globe. Um so borderless finance just enables that efficient trade and economic growth across the continent and I I I truly believe that the the future of business payments are going to occur on blockchain rails.

Um, we're seeing major players in the space continuing to build and integrate um, away from traditional rails and into blockchain rails with a lot of that activity happening uh, excuse me on the Tron network. Um, because stable coins and blockchain payments provide cost savings, speed, and global reach. Uh, with the near zero fees and instant settlement, it makes it extremely nice to uh, and easy to conduct that activity on Tron. And as we can see with the case study in Africa, specifically th those 11 to 12 countries within subsahar and Africa, they stand to save billions of dollars. And with trillions of dollars that are being utilized every single day, whether it's in the global FX market or with domestic a transfer, even where I'm from and sunny California, I know Singapore is also just a sunny.

Um there stands to be lots of money to be saved on these rails. Um, so when I say with the Tron network, we really are moving trillions of dollars in value across the globe to allow people in Africa to be able to buy things without having to worry about delays or without having to worry about um paying excessive fees. We are empowering billions of people across the globe to be able to actually fulfill their dream, create their businesses and not have to worry. So that is why when I say the Tron network is truly moving trillions and empowering billions, we really mean it. Thank you.