Justin Sun
Michael Lavere·
Altcoin News
·

Founder Justin Sun Wins Bid for TRON (TRX) Super Representative

TRON (TRX)–Barely a day after announcing his candidacy in the TRON Super Representative election, founder Justin Sun has accumulated the necessary votes to hold such a distinction.

Just one of 27 nodes, “Super Representatives” on TRON’s network function to validate transactions and guide the network operation, in addition to collecting rewards, which constitutes a major part of the TRX-based Main Net that was hyped throughout the first half of 2018. While any TRON developer is free to run for election (with over 60 candidates vying for the remaining spots as of writing), TRX holders are the ones who ultimately make the decision through a voting process that involves their coins. One TRX is worth one vote, with the ability to cast for candidates occurring in a regular cycle. In order to become a Super Representative, a candidate must obtain a minimum of 100 million votes (backed by the TRX of actual investors). Previous candidates to achieve the hallowed status of Super Representative have taken weeks to accumulate the massive number of votes required to win the election.

It took TRON Founder Justin Sun just twenty-four hours. 

Justin Sun New TRON Super Representative

Sun first announced his candidacy to run for Super Representative election on Wednesday to mixed reviews by the community. While Sun has been an ardent figure for TRON, regularly promoting and informing the TRX investment base through his Twitter account, some found fault with the optics of a coin founder–who holds a disproportionate amount of the total TRX supply–participating in a process that should be democratic. However, Sun did his best to alleviate community concerns by reiterating that his funds, along with those of the TRON Foundation totaling 33 billion TRX, are locked in escrow for the foreseeable future. In addition, Sun made a bid that his position as a Super Representative was one of twenty-seven voices, as opposed to being looked upon as the leader of the representatives.

As the founder as well as a candidate, I am determined to go through the selection process like everyone else, which displays TRON’s inclusiveness and openness as a decentralized and autonomous community. I sincerely hope that members of the TRON community could vote for me. As one of the firmest believer of TRON, I am excited to witness more miracles coming along our way, and I hope everyone in the community can execute their rights to vote for the SR candidates.

Following his election, Sun continued to draw mixed opinions from the TRON community over how the elections have been handled. While Sun maintains that his candidacy, and subsequent election, is a justification for the efficacy of the TRX-based voting process, other voices in the community contend with the perception of the situation. Justin Sun has been the vocal leader of TRON since launching the currency in September 2017. He has grown to a Steve Jobs-esque persona through his promotion on Twitter, and is one of the more active and vocal founders in the space of cryptocurrency. Add to that his high profile purchase of BitTorrent, which has only increased the magnifying glass on the young creator, and some are beginning to worry he his gaining too much authority over what should be a decentralized cryptocurrency in TRON.

Comment from discussion kribnutz’s comment from discussion "Justin Sun running for SR".

However, others find little fault in Justin Sun’s bid for SR election, and actively encouraged it. For one, news of Sun running in the election was not new–he informed the community of his intention to run in a Medium post back in April. Another: Sun was fairly elected, albeit in a much shorter time frame, through the same democratic voting process as any other candidate. Yes, Sun is extremely high profile, particularly when compared to his competition. It is also possible that Sun could have negotiated support from heavy TRX bag holders to pump his voting count. But given his position with TRON and regular appeals to the community and investment base, it’s no surprise the charismatic founder was able to garner 100 million votes in barely a day.

Sun becoming a SR is a natural progression for him to participate with the currency while not holding the centralized authority as a CEO or founder. Now Sun is beholden to the same rules and process as all other 26 reps, creating a theoretically level playing field for the position.