The TRC20 token standard is a technical specification that defines how fungible tokens behave on the TRON blockchain. Released in 2018, TRC20 is built on TRON's smart contract platform and requires tokens to implement a set of mandatory functions to ensure compatibility across the entire TRON ecosystem — including wallets, exchanges, DeFi protocols, and dApps. The required TRC20 functions mirror those of Ethereum's ERC20 standard: totalSupply returns the total token supply in circulation; balanceOf returns the token balance of a specific address; transfer moves tokens from the caller to a recipient; transferFrom moves tokens from one address to another with prior approval; approve grants a third party the right to spend a specified number of tokens; allowance returns the remaining number of tokens a spender is allowed to transfer. TRC20 tokens are deployed using TRON's Virtual Machine (TVM), which is compatible with Ethereum's Solidity programming language. This means developers can port existing ERC20 contracts to TRC20 with minimal code changes. Beyond TRC20, TRON also supports TRC10 (a simpler token standard that does not require smart contracts), TRC721 (NFT standard equivalent to ERC721), and TRC1155 (multi-token standard). TRC20 is the preferred standard for fungible tokens because of its smart contract flexibility and full interoperability across the TRON ecosystem.
Every TRC20 token must implement totalSupply, balanceOf, transfer, transferFrom, approve, and allowance — ensuring that all wallets and dApps on TRON interact with tokens in a consistent, predictable way.
TRC10 is an older, simpler token standard on TRON that does not require smart contracts. It is easier to create and deploy, but has limited functionality. TRC20, which uses smart contracts, is more flexible and is the preferred standard for most tokens today. Most wallets support TRC20 but not TRC10.
TRC20 vs TRC10
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