Kicking off a series of Telegram-based AMA (Ask Me Anything) sessions, Binance’s English-language Telegram group played host to TRON founder and BitTorrent Inc. CEO, Justin Sun.

During the question-and-answer session, which lasted for roughly an hour and a half, Sun covered quite a bit of ground regarding BitTorrent token (BTT), BitTorrent Speed, and future developments as well.

Here are some of the key takeaway moments from Justin Sun’s AMA.

BitTorrent Token Adoption and the 6-Year Airdrop

One of the first questions asked, not surprisingly, was about BitTorrent token (BTT). It is the first major token built on the TRON network, and with its coming integration with BitTorrent itself, people are naturally enthusiastic about it. As to whether or not that enthusiasm would last, Sun said:

Definitely. First, BTT is not a one-off project. BitTorrent has a great user base with close to 100 million active users around the world, and this number has not changed much or dropped in the past 16 years from 2003 until now. […] BTT is very different from some overly hyped projects on the Internet which were just a flash in the pan.

Sun also explained the rationale behind BitTorrent’s ambitious six-year airdrop, which began on February 11th and will continue to drop BTT tokens to TRX holders on the 11th of each month through February 2025:

This is a program to give our users early access to our product and to encourage them to stick with us for the long term. We are not only airdropping to TRX holders but also giving the BTT token to BitTorrent users through the clients.

He also believes that the airdrop has the potential to not only benefit BTT but the entire crypto industry as well:

Everyone, from exchanges to our competitors will benefit from our BTT launch unlocking this new audience and getting them familiar with cryptocurrency.

Sun was quick to cite (and re-cite) BitTorrent’s built-in 100 million active user base as a boon for BTT, crypto, and even blockchain. He noted that users of the BitTorrent network share several similarities with crypto users, including:

proponents of decentralization

familiarity with – and users of – p2p technologies

the majority of BitTorrent users are males between the ages of 25 and 35 – a gender and age group that also tends to have the highest interest in cryptocurrency

It is those similarities, Sun claims, that will bring a significant portion of the BitTorrent user base into the crypto fold.

BitTorrent’s Scalability and Use Cases

For all the excitement currently surrounding BitTorrent (BTT), it is a combination of scalability and usability that will sustain it in the long term. Fortunately, at least as far as Sun is concerned, BitTorrent and TRON have a lock on that as well.

One of the main concerns with regard to BTT integration in BitTorrent clients is whether or not the TRON network can handle a massive influx of potentially tens of millions of users. Former BitTorrent CSO Simon Morris flat out said that there “no way” that TRON could handle the TPS level needed for such an integration.

Sun explained that they are implementing a hybrid solution with BitTorrent where not every single file fragment or transaction would be on chain. Instead, a side channel would be opened and would “only register a transaction for the overall result when a transfer is complete.”

Only when users want to move a BTT balance onto the blockchain, the main chain will enter the scene. During other times, file transfers are done off-chain. With this solution, TRON’s TPS can fully meet the requirements of BitTorrent.

A more detailed explanation of this mechanism can be found in BitTorrent’s whitepaper.

As to how BTT will be used on the platform, its integration into BitTorrent and μTorrent clients will allow users to bid and trade BTT tokens in exchange for bandwidth sharing, increased download speeds, and file availability.

Currently, the BitTorrent team is conducting user testing on the integrated wallet and bidding interface as well as testing the effect of user bidding on swarm performance. In a few months, BitTorrent users that are chosen to be a part of its “early access group” will be able to test drive BitTorrent Speed. If you are interested in receiving early access, you can sign up on the BitTorrent website.

As far as future plans and use cases for BitTorrent (BTT), Sun had this to say:

We are currently working on a new live/social media app and looking for ways to integrate BTT on it! By doing that we aim to empower a new generation of content creators to distribute their content without middleman and offer a very authentic channel for the fans to connect with their idols and the content creators with their audience.

Tomorrow’s TRON Hard Fork

The AMA wouldn’t be complete without addressing tomorrow’s TRON hard fork, which will roll out the much anticipated Odyssey 3.5 upgrade. A number of new features will be included in the upgrade, including:

Institution-ready multi-sig and account management.

Dynamic energy adjustment to real-time network performance.

A 50 percent performance improvement.

Better virtual machine safety and an events server for Dapps.

Speaking about the upgrade, Sun said:

This MainNet upgrade is a significant one for TRON since last December. Previous upgrades were mainly for setting up the network, while this upgrade is the first major improvement of the network performance.

In particular, he spoke about the importance of multi-sig for institutional investors:

Multi-signature is essential to institutional investors and investors with high net worth, because institutional investors usually use institutionalized approaches to keep cryptocurrency assets, which are managed by multiple parties and with multi-layer procedures. Therefore, multi-signature allows multi-layer management of cryptocurrencies. It’s fair to say that without multi-signature, there will not be institutional investors.

Did you attend today’s AMA with Justin Sun? What do you think about BitTorrent and the direction it is taking? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Flickr/Compassion Over Killing, AdobeStock, DepositPhotos, Twitter/@justinsuntron