TRC-20 tokens are issued on the TRON blockchain and they work in the same way as other smart contract tokens designed according to a similar smart contract standard. TRC-20 adopts the same smart contract design as Ethereum’s ERC-20 tokens. The ERC-20 smart contract standard is one of the earliest smart contract token standards on the Ethereum blockchain, and it delineates operation norms for parallel-running assets on a blockchain. More importantly, these assets can be created and transacted freely. Anyone can create a TRC-20 standard smart contract token, just like ERC-20 tokens.
A major difference between both variants is the network on which they operate. TRC-20 tokens are native to the TRON network and cannot be transferred in their original form to any other blockchain network. In order to use a TRC-20 token on a different network, you’ll need to use a bridging solution to transfer it out of the TRON blockchain. Likewise, ERC-20 tokens are native to Ethereum and its ecosystem, and cannot be transferred to another blockchain network without bridging solutions.
Other Types of TRC Token Standards
Beyond the TRC-20 token standard, TRON is also home to other token standards that operate in a similar way to the ones on Ethereum, such as the TRC-721 which is used to issue non-fungible tokens on the TRON network. Another token standard is the TRC-1155 which is similar to the ERC-1155. This token standard is used to represent and manage multiple fungible or non-fungible tokens at the same time in one contract to improve development efficiencies. Finally, there is TRC-10 which is based on chain instead of the TVM. Every account in the TRON network can issue the TRC-10 token after paying the fee of 1024 TRX. The TRC-10 has lower transaction fees than TRC-20 tokens, but it requires bandwidth for API transactions and deposits.