Is TRON’s most popular Dapp just a game – or is it a Ponzi scheme? | Source: Tron Foundation/Facebook
- TRON’s Just.Game becomes No.1 Dapp within hours of launch.
- Over 500 million in TRX has been sent to the automated smart contract.
- Critics say the app’s structure too closely resembles that of a Ponzi scheme.
A new decentralized application (Dapp) promoted by TRON founder Justin Sun has racked up over 500 million TRX mere hours after its launch.
Just.Game describes itself as an “autodecentric (self-decentralizing) organization.” To play the “game,” a user must send TRX to the Dapp’s smart contract, and then promote the Dapp by posting referral links on social media.
TRON’s Just.Game – A Top-Down Promotion App
TRON Dapp Just.Game sounds a lot like a Ponzi scheme. | Source: mk1one/Shutterstock.com
Just.Game promises to be profitable – as long as more users continue to sign up. But as many have already pointed out, the top-down “autodecentric” structure of the Dapp displays a startling resemblance to a typical Ponzi scheme.
Greeting users on the Just.Game website is the following passage:
A concept straight out of science fiction? Or science fiction? | Source: Just.Game
Just.game is an autodecentric (self-decentralizing) organization that creates a playable game on the TRON blockchain. This organization acts as an individual entity, employing humans to fulfil its own needs, goals and desires by paying them.
Much like the methodology employed by the recently covered HEX, the creators of Just.Game take great pains to depict the program as ownerless. This seems to be an attempt to preemptively pour cold water on any prospective SEC investigation, since an automated smart contract can’t be charged with a crime.
Justin Sun took to Twitter on Monday to celebrate the Dapp accruing 500 million TRX (~$7 million). However, the man with over 2 million followers failed to attract a single positive comment on his announcement thread.
Source: Twitter
Instead, users derided Sun’s willingness to promote a product that so closely resembles a fleecing operation. Users who witnessed the launch of Just.Game say Justin Sun appeared on the livestream and spent 125 million TRX on the app himself.
Source: Twitter
Less than 24 hours since launch, over $7 million USD in TRX has been sent to the Dapp. But while Ponzi accusations continue to fly, it may be worth recalling what the cryptocurrency community already knows about Dapp numbers.
Crypto Dapps – A History of Lies
Dapp numbers aren’t really all that impressive, but even those figures may be inflated. | Source: Stanslavs/Shutterstock.com
In Q1 of 2019, EOS (EOS) was the blockchain with the most highly utilized Dapps. At the time, the busiest Dapp in the world processed around $6 million worth of transactions per day.
Yet an independent analysis at the time suggested that 51% of the Dapp’s userbase was made up of bots. Likewise, over 75% of the value transacted within the Dapp was thought to be artificial.
Fast forward 12 months, and now EOS shows 10x more daily users than it did in early 2019. Meanwhile, the total value transacted across all EOS Dapps recently jumped as high as $36 million per day.
Couple this with what we know about TRON – namely, the allegation by a TRON Dapp developer that Justin Sun inflates his own Dapp numbers – and we find a reason to take Just.Game’s current success with a healthy pinch of salt.
This article was edited by Josiah Wilmoth.
The post appeared first on CCN
