At a time when cryptocurrency caused silently cringed under the weight of a shrinking market and losses mounted, one thing worth noting was taking shape: TRON (TRX)’s mission stayed the course.

If you have been following cryptocurrency news keenly over the last two or three months, then you know what surrounded TRON all that time. It was a negativity borne out of a misunderstanding and the inevitable price drop of TRX.

But now TRON and its ever-increasing community have emerged, like a phoenix rising from the ashes of Q1. TRON is ready to position itself as a major cryptocurrency, stable and with a goal to boot. What has kept the cryptocurrency on track for greatness in 2018 was the composed nature by which Tron Foundation handled negativity and FUD.

The biggest pool of murky waters TRON had to wade concerned the storm that surrounded its whitepaper. Accusations of plagiarism didn’t help TRX prices that inevitably plunged. That notwithstanding, a John McAfee tweet is said to have helped TRX value to skyrocket to an all-time high late last year. When prices fell, incidentally across the entire market, TRON got labeled as a “hyped coin without a working product.”

Well, there is some truth there as TRON doesn’t have a working product yet. I say “some truth” because I believe it is well poised to get into the market beginning with the launch of its Exodus Testnet. More on this and what it means for TRON in a moment

What has prepared TRON for an exciting 2018?

There are two aspects of the TRON blockchain that we should focus on. The first one is the TRON mainnet. Then we have its disruptive technology. The two form the bedrock of TRON and in effect, its token coin TRX.

The TRON Mainnet

TRON began life as an ERC-20 token project on Ethereum’s blockchain. But plans are now complete to have TRON (TRX) move from Ethereum to its own blockchain platform. It had been expected that TRON would be launching its Mainnet by July of 2018.

In what appears a clear message that TRON wants to be a major blockchain product, the launch has been brought forward by a couple of months. It will now be done on 31 May 2018. Yet that isn’t all. The TRON mainnet testnet is going live on 31 March 2018.

What is the main benefit of having its own blockchain? You can simplify it by saying it will give TRX an opportunity to expand its utility use. The Exodus launch will open doors for TRON to host token projects and TRX to gain further use of the blockchain. Already, TRON has plans to increase its transaction speeds to the targeted 1000 transactions per second. To top it up, TRON’s very low transaction fees means it will easily be the preferred cryptocurrency for transactions. The gaming and entertainment industry will never be the same with TRON and TRX. And that’s just for 2018.

TRON’s disruptive technology

Blockchain technology has always been known to have the potential to be disruptive. Already sectors like finance, insurance, and supply chain are having products that have changed or are going to change them completely.

That is what TRON is planning to do in the entertainment and gaming industry. Though TRON has penned several high profile partnerships, one that stands out already is the one agreed to with BitGuild.

The partnership promises to change the gaming industry using TRON’s blockchain technology. Under part of the T&C of the contract, BitGuild will provide the TRON community with a unique but limited set of in-game assets. These limited-edition assets will be hosted on the TRON network and will be quantified in TRX. That means that TRON community members will be able to purchase the in-game assets and record ownership on TRON’s ledger.

Later on, BitGuild will avail the same items to its wider community via the platform’s virtual item exchange. Simplified, this means that the over 700,000 holders of TRX and another sizable chunk from BitGuild will need to use it. What does that mean for the TRX token?

It’s a perfect stage for wide real-world use for this coin. Do you see where TRON (TRX) is going with this approach? I’d say becoming a mainstay of the top 5 cryptocurrency ranking lists.