What is TRON Bandwidth and Energy?
TRON, a decentralized blockchain, launched its mainnet in May 2018. Unlike Bitcoin and Ethereum which use the PoW mechanism, TRON is based on DPoS where users vote 27 Super Representatives to validate on-chain transactions, produce blocks and maintain the security of the network.
Bandwidth and energy
Miner fees such as BTC and Ether are required when you initiate transactions on Bitcoin and Ethereum networks, however, when you transfer funds on TRON, bandwidth and energy are consumed.
In the blog How to withdraw USDT from exchange to imToken, we explained that there are two types of token, native token and non-naive token.
BTC, ETH and TRX are all native tokens, operating respectively on their blockchains, namely, Bitcoin, Ethereum and TRON, while non-native tokens such as USDT and DAI are built on these chains by “complying” to some rules.
It’s just like that you rent a room, and the way to pay for the rent and utilities is determined by the landlord.
Bitcoin and Ethereum set the rule that fees for token transfers need to be paid in BTC and ETH, while TRON prefers its tenants to pay in energy and bandwidth.
There are two types of ordinary “tenants” on TRON: TRC-10 and TRC-20. Bandwidth is consumed when transferring TRX and TRC-10 tokens, and both bandwidth and energy are required when sending TRC-20 tokens such as USDT.
If you don't know the type of the token in your wallet, you can click the token icon on the wallet page to enter the transaction record screen and then click “Token Info” in the top right corner and go to TRONSCAN to see its type. For example, USDT based on the TRON network is a TRC-20 type token.
Each TRON account receives 600B Bandwidth Points (BP) per day for free, and there are two methods to obtain more bandwidth and energy if you want.
Note: 1KB = 1024 B, so 600 B = 600/1024 KB ≈ 0.58 KB.
Method 1: Burn TRX (recommended)
Transfer 50-100 TRX into your TRX wallet and when making transactions, a small amount of TRX will be burned to provide the bandwidth and energy required for the transaction.
Method 2: Freeze TRX
Click ”Resource” on the wallet page to enter the TRON Resource Management page. Select the type of resource you want to obtain, and enter the number of TRXs you want to freeze. It is recommended to freeze at least 3,000 TRX. (You can unfreeze and redeem your frozen TRX after 3 days.)
FAQ
Q1: Transaction failed, what should I do?
When using the TRX wallet to make a transfer, transaction failure is usually caused by insufficient energy.
Please transfer 50~100 TRX to your TRX wallet, then you can successfully make transactions.
Q2: How do I get TRX tokens?
You can withdraw coins from the exchange or ask your friend to send TRX to your wallet.
Q3: Why would I receive airdrops of scam tokens in TRX wallet?
Airdrops of scam tokens are rampant on the TRON (TRX) chain. Scammers use the blockchain explorer to find recently active addresses, such as those that have just received or transferred money, and drop scam tokens to them.
Scammers usually attach some fraudulent information to those scam tokens and lure you to access a third-party malicious website to commit fraud.
Therefore, when you find airdrops of scam tokens in your wallet, please just ignore them.
