A couple of weeks ago a client paid me in USDT for an SEO audit.
It was the first time I’d accepted cryptocurrency, so I didn’t pay much attention to the details.
Today I tried to transfer 100 USDT to pay for an AI tool subscription, but the wallet is asking for another $4 in a currency called TRX???
What can I do now? I don’t have a Binance account and don’t want to sign up just to swap $4 worth of TRX
I don’t think they’d even let me buy that little.
Any advice?
Now the core tenets of Crypto was that it was a mined currency, originally on the Bitcoin "Network", when it launched.
For any currency to have some sort of value, it needs to be scarce and not be easily created. If your government began printing unlimited currency notes, you'd have money that's valued lesser than the paper it's printed on. (See the Zimbabwe fiasco).
To mitigate this, with Bitcoin, the founder came with a decentralised ledger system (to remove any centralised force controlling everything like a bank) and introduced the concept of "mining bitcoins". Which was basically very fast, very high spec computers solving mathematical equations that became exceedingly difficult with every block.
As Bitcoin grew, it became more difficult to mine and value kept on increasing. It gradually became more of an investment and less of a daily spendable currency. More similar to gold, than it was to the money in your pocket.
In 2015, another network launched - Ethereum and it's native currency/token was ETH.
This was when the world first saw something known as "smart contracts".
These are basically code profiles that live on the blockchain.
Now suddenly, it was possible to use these smart contracts to build some very interesting and incredible things on top of these networks. Especially, when Ethereum launched ERC-20 - their token platform/standard.
However, one of the most important thing that smart contracts brought in was the ability to build other currencies on top of that network. So while Bitcoin Network supported only BTC, ERC-20 could support so many more.
So now, individuals could launch their own tokens that didn't require any underlying network of their own.
Gradually, more networks started coming about. There's Solana (native currency SOL), Polygon (native currency POL), BSC (Native currency BNB) and Tron (Native currency TRX)
All of them supported smart contracts and so could support any number of tokens/currencies built on top of them.
Now there was just one problem with this though. Anyone could mint a token and float a smart contract. I could mint and Office Outlaw coin. But how do you determine the value of 1 OO? Everything would speculative.
If I was to pay you for some work, how many OO am I supposed to send?
To largely mitigate this problem, stablecoins came into existence.
Stablecoins are run by companies that store an actual real world currency against every coin. So unlike BTC et al, these coins are not "mined" through computer process, rather they're "minted".
So we have coins like USDT (Tether) and USDC - they are pegged against real USD. So the value of the US Dollar is the value of the coin.
Now each of these stablecoins rests upon a network and the same stable coin can rest across various networks, each sharing the same name, but not be interchangeable.
So you have USDT-ERC20 which is Tether releasing x number of coins on the ETH network. Similarly you have USDT-TRC20 - USDT on the Tron Network. And even others like SOL, BSC have their own USDT.
So why the transaction fee that you're seeing?
So the way Tron network in particular works is that it functions like a democracy.
Tron transaction require "energy" to be sent. This energy comes from staking TRX (locking up your TRX to gain benefits). But most people don't stake anything and are charged a TRX fee.
It has a system of 27 super fast, highly secure computers run by large consulting firms, tech firms, hedge funds etc. These are votes in every 6 hours through an automated system. And can change frequently. Hundreds of groups are continuously vying for this everyday.
These computer nodes are called Super Representatives. These are responsible for the entirety of your transaction - verification, packaging into blocks, broadcasting to the network.
Since your transaction is validated on 27 SRs, all transactions are lightning fast.
For each block these SRs successfully mint, they get paid a salary of sorts. These are fresh TRX tokens minted newly and awarded to them.
At your end, to facilitate the transaction since you lack the energy to execute the smart contract, you pay a gas fee.
All of the TRX you pay as fee is partially burned, meaning it disappears completely from the network or used for voting rewards. The salary the SR gets is freshly minted TRX.
Now since we're burning tokens, the network can't burn your USDT. It can only burn it's native token TRX.
Hence, the fee.
For your particular case, what you can do is
1. Buy some TRX through a centralised exchange like Binance etc. or P2P exchange
OR
2. You can have a friend or someone you know send you some TRX, and it will help you process this transaction.
Now the core tenets of Crypto was that it was a mined currency, originally on the Bitcoin "Network", when it launched.
For any currency to have some sort of value, it needs to be scarce and not be easily created. If your government began printing unlimited currency notes, you'd have money that's valued lesser than the paper it's printed on. (See the Zimbabwe fiasco).
To mitigate this, with Bitcoin, the founder came with a decentralised ledger system (to remove any centralised force controlling everything like a bank) and introduced the concept of "mining bitcoins". Which was basically very fast, very high spec computers solving mathematical equations that became exceedingly difficult with every block.
As Bitcoin grew, it became more difficult to mine and value kept on increasing. It gradually became more of an investment and less of a daily spendable currency. More similar to gold, than it was to the money in your pocket.
In 2015, another network launched - Ethereum and it's native currency/token was ETH.
This was when the world first saw something known as "smart contracts".
These are basically code profiles that live on the blockchain.
Now suddenly, it was possible to use these smart contracts to build some very interesting and incredible things on top of these networks. Especially, when Ethereum launched ERC-20 - their token platform/standard.
However, one of the most important thing that smart contracts brought in was the ability to build other currencies on top of that network. So while Bitcoin Network supported only BTC, ERC-20 could support so many more.
So now, individuals could launch their own tokens that didn't require any underlying network of their own.
Gradually, more networks started coming about. There's Solana (native currency SOL), Polygon (native currency POL), BSC (Native currency BNB) and Tron (Native currency TRX)
All of them supported smart contracts and so could support any number of tokens/currencies built on top of them.
Now there was just one problem with this though. Anyone could mint a token and float a smart contract. I could mint and Office Outlaw coin. But how do you determine the value of 1 OO? Everything would speculative.
If I was to pay you for some work, how many OO am I supposed to send?
To largely mitigate this problem, stablecoins came into existence.
Stablecoins are run by companies that store an actual real world currency against every coin. So unlike BTC et al, these coins are not "mined" through computer process, rather they're "minted".
So we have coins like USDT (Tether) and USDC - they are pegged against real USD. So the value of the US Dollar is the value of the coin.
Now each of these stablecoins rests upon a network and the same stable coin can rest across various networks, each sharing the same name, but not be interchangeable.
So you have USDT-ERC20 which is Tether releasing x number of coins on the ETH network. Similarly you have USDT-TRC20 - USDT on the Tron Network. And even others like SOL, BSC have their own USDT.
So why the transaction fee that you're seeing?
So the way Tron network in particular works is that it functions like a democracy.
Tron transaction require "energy" to be sent. This energy comes from staking TRX (locking up your TRX to gain benefits). But most people don't stake anything and are charged a TRX fee.
It has a system of 27 super fast, highly secure computers run by large consulting firms, tech firms, hedge funds etc. These are votes in every 6 hours through an automated system. And can change frequently. Hundreds of groups are continuously vying for this everyday.
These computer nodes are called Super Representatives. These are responsible for the entirety of your transaction - verification, packaging into blocks, broadcasting to the network.
Since your transaction is validated on 27 SRs, all transactions are lightning fast.
For each block these SRs successfully mint, they get paid a salary of sorts. These are fresh TRX tokens minted newly and awarded to them.
At your end, to facilitate the transaction since you lack the energy to execute the smart contract, you pay a gas fee.
All of the TRX you pay as fee is partially burned, meaning it disappears completely from the network or used for voting rewards. The salary the SR gets is freshly minted TRX.
Now since we're burning tokens, the network can't burn your USDT. It can only burn it's native token TRX.
Hence, the fee.
For your particular case, what you can do is
1. Buy some TRX through a centralised exchange like Binance etc. or P2P exchange
OR
2. You can have a friend or someone you know send you some TRX, and it will help you process this transaction.
Yeah, it sounds complicated. My A2 English is not enough to understand it. But I do it by practice and intuition. You can too. Use small amounts first.
I believe it would take a month of learning to understand crypto. You also need to understand finances to some degree.
Real world analogies would be useful, but it's hard to make them. AI can do them sometimes... AI is good for learning concepts.
So basically I've had this USDT in my wallet for a few weeks and didn't realize I couldn't use it without TRX to cover the gas fee.
I'm trying to top up credits for an AI NSFW tool.
I just tried to buy TRX directly from the wallet partner but it looks like the minimum amount is $20 and they also ask me to send my documents....
Feels like a bad joke I have money in my wallet but have to spend more money just to be able to use it lol...and on top of that I have to go through verifications like ID checks and selfie verification
In most crypto, burning means sending the tokens to a dead wallet. A wallet where no one has the private keys. So the tokens are gone forever.
Think of it like locking your bank notes in a secure, nuclear proof vault that is designed in such a way that no amount of force or machinery or explosives can open it. And then forgetting the code to access that vault. The money is technically still there, but it's now entirely out of circulation.
Unintentional burns also regularly occurs. Even in networks which don't support burning as part of their protocol, such as Bitcoin.
Unintentional burns are when people forget their seed keys. Or lose their hardware wallets.
Like that dude who recently lost his encrypted hard drive in a landfill (he mistook it for another disk and his girlfriend went and dumped all the garbage in a landfill).
His wallet has 8000 BTC. That's a little more than $600 million. Lost forever.
These coins are effectively burned and no longer in supply.
Then there's the mythical Satoshi wallet. One wallet that has existed since the inception of BTC which holds 1 million plus BTC currently worth about $82 billion
Only difference is that in networks that support burning, the currency out of circulation is clearly marked and maintained. And in Bitcoin, it's only speculated.
Even Ethereum now burns a portion of the transaction fee.
All of this is done to keep supply under control over time.
Then there's the mythical Satoshi wallet. One wallet that has existed since the inception of BTC which holds 1 million plus BTC currently worth about $82 billion
Well, I was under the impression this was supposed to be stealthy and private and now suddenly I have to do ID checks...
I guess there's no way around it
Worst experience ever
Well, I was under the impression this was supposed to be stealthy and private and now suddenly I have to do ID checks...
I guess there's no way around it
Worst experience ever
You're using centralized exchanges with know your customer verification (acronym KYC).
This is for non-anonymous transactions.
If you want to be anonymous, you'll need to do it very differently, have private wallet and source of cryptocurrency without KYC.
I don't recommend anonymous crypto buying as that's a lot riskier. You can get scammed...
So basically I've had this USDT in my wallet for a few weeks and didn't realize I couldn't use it without TRX to cover the gas fee.
I'm trying to top up credits for an AI NSFW tool.
I just tried to buy TRX directly from the wallet partner but it looks like the minimum amount is $20 and they also ask me to send my documents....
Feels like a bad joke I have money in my wallet but have to spend more money just to be able to use it lol...and on top of that I have to go through verifications like ID checks and selfie verification
Well, I was under the impression this was supposed to be stealthy and private and now suddenly I have to do ID checks...
I guess there's no way around it
Worst experience ever
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I have money in my wallet but have to spend more money just to be able to use it lol...and on top of that I have to go through verifications like ID checks and selfie verification
