The Tron cryptocurrency was launched last summer, but it only managed to see great price spikes at the beginning of 2018. The coin’s creator Justin Sun started this project aiming to transform the current Internet infrastructure around the world into a truly decentralized network that cannot be restricted by malevolent ISPs. Last month, Torrent Freak reported that Sun was eying to buy the company behind the popular BitTorrent peer-to-peer sharing platform in order to enable the expansion plans for the Tron blockchain, and it seems like the deal already went through according to a recent report from Variety.
Variety’s insider sources claim that the BitTorrent staff members have been notified about the buyout around 2 weeks ago, but were advised not to give any details to the press. Even though Tron dropped in price in the last few months due to the general downtrend brought by the BTC depreciation, the coin’s marketcap is still somewhere around US$3 billion. This easily enabled Sun to strike what appears to be a US$120 million deal.
Even if Tron does not turn out to be a successful cryptocurrency, the technology behind BitTorrent and its wide reach across the globe could indeed help transform how Internet works and how people access information in the future. Combining blockchains with Internet protocols would certainly take data access to a whole new level.
I first stepped into the wondrous IT&C world when I was around seven years old. I was instantly fascinated by computerized graphics, whether they were from games or 3D applications like 3D Max. I'm also an avid reader of science fiction, an astrophysics aficionado, and a crypto geek. I started writing PC-related articles for Softpedia and a few blogs back in 2006. I joined the Notebookcheck team in the summer of 2017 and am currently a senior tech writer mostly covering processor, GPU, and laptop news.
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Bogdan Solca, 2018-06-19 (Update: 2018-06-20)