From Ethereum

TRON and Ethereum share vocabulary and, to a large extent, tooling — but carry different assumptions. This guide maps every major Ethereum concept to its TRON equivalent and flags where the analogy breaks down.

Addresses

Ethereum and TRON addresses represent the same underlying data (a 20-byte public key hash) but encode it differently.

Property	Ethereum	TRON
Prefix	0x + 40 hex chars	T + 33 Base58Check chars
Example	0xAbCd...1234	TJYea...VPCX
Length	42 characters	34 characters
Encoding	Hex with EIP-55 checksum	Base58Check with prefix byte 0x41
Case-sensitive?	Yes (checksum casing)	No

Every Ethereum address has a deterministic TRON equivalent and vice versa. You derive your TRON address from the same private key — TronLink does this automatically on import.

Never send cross-chain directly

A TRON address and its Ethereum counterpart look completely different but share the same private key. Sending ETH to a TRON-formatted address or TRX to an Ethereum-formatted address on the wrong chain will result in permanent loss. Always use an exchange or bridge when moving value between chains.

Wallets

Ethereum	TRON	Notes
MetaMask	TronLink	Both are browser extension + mobile wallets. TronLink injects window.tronWeb instead of window.ethereum.
Ledger	Ledger	Ledger supports TRX natively via Ledger Live.
Rainbow, Coinbase Wallet	TronLink Mobile	No direct equivalent for all Ethereum wallets.
WalletConnect	WalletConnect (supported)	TRON support added January 2026. Connects WalletConnect-enabled wallets to TRON DApps.
Gnosis Safe	JustSafe (limited)	Multi-sig on TRON is less mature.

Token Standards

Ethereum	TRON	Differences
ERC-20	TRC-20	Functionally identical. Same method signatures (transfer, approve, allowance).
ERC-721	TRC-721	Functionally identical. Same token ID model.
ERC-1155	TRC-1155	Functionally identical. Multi-token contracts.
ERC-4626	No direct equivalent	Vault standard not widely adopted on TRON.
WETH	WTRX	Wrapped TRX (WTRX) serves the same role as WETH.

Fee Model

This is the most significant conceptual difference between Ethereum and TRON.

Concept	Ethereum	TRON
Fee currency	ETH (always)	TRX (only if staked resources are insufficient)
Computation pricing	Gas (paid per unit at market rate)	Energy (from staked TRX or burned TRX)
Data pricing	Gas (same unit)	Bandwidth (from staked TRX or burned TRX)
Fee variability	High — set by market via base fee + tip	Low — burn rate set by governance
Can fees be zero?	No	Yes — with sufficient staked Energy and Bandwidth
Prepaid resources	No	Yes — stake TRX once, use Energy/Bandwidth continuously

Practical implication: Ethereum users always pay gas in ETH on every transaction. TRON users who stake TRX receive Energy and Bandwidth that regenerates daily, making most transactions effectively free.

DeFi Protocol Equivalents

Ethereum protocol	TRON equivalent	Notes
Uniswap V2/V3	SunSwap V2/V3	Nearly identical AMM model. SunSwap V3 uses concentrated liquidity like Uniswap V3.
Aave / Compound	JustLend	Same borrow/supply model with health factors and liquidation.
MakerDAO / DAI	JustStable / USDJ (Deprecated)	USDJ was TRX-collateralized (deprecated 2025), JST is the governance token (analogous to MKR).
OpenSea	aiNFT	TRON’s primary NFT marketplace. Less volume than OpenSea.
dYdX / GMX	SunX	Perpetual futures on TRON. Up to 50x leverage.
Curve	Limited	No direct equivalent with Curve’s stableswap model. SunSwap V3 covers some use cases.
Lido	No direct equivalent	Liquid staking protocols are less developed on TRON.

TVM vs EVM — Developer Differences

The TRON Virtual Machine (TVM) is derived from the EVM and executes Solidity contracts compiled with solc. Most contracts port directly, but several behaviors differ and will produce silent bugs if overlooked.

API Timestamps are in milliseconds

timestamp_diff.sol

// Task: Handle block.timestamp in TVM Solidity.
// Note: block.timestamp returns seconds in TVM, mirroring EVM.
uint256 deadline = block.timestamp + 3600; // 1 hour from now

Impact: While block.timestamp inside the TVM behaves exactly like Ethereum (returning seconds), the TRON Full Node API and block headers return timestamps in milliseconds. Any application or backend interacting with the TRON API must divide those timestamps by 1,000 before sending them to your smart contracts for comparison.

SELFDESTRUCT is modified

Similar to Ethereum’s EIP-6780, the selfdestruct opcode behavior has been modified on TRON. Calling it will transfer the contract’s assets to the target address, but it will not delete the contract (unless it is called in the same transaction the contract was created). It also incurs a 5,000 Energy cost. Re-evaluate your architecture if you rely on contract deletion.

New Opcodes (Kant Upgrade)

Support for TSTORE and TLOAD (EIP-1153 for transient storage) as well as MCOPY (EIP-5656 for efficient memory copying) was added in the GreatVoyage-v4.8.0 (Kant) upgrade (June 2025). This ensures TVM remains aligned with Ethereum’s Cancun/Dencun features.

Address encoding differences

TRON addresses are 21 bytes internally (1-byte prefix 0x41 + 20-byte hash). In Solidity on TRON, address type is still 20 bytes (the 0x41 prefix is handled at the protocol layer). The address(this) in a contract returns the contract’s Ethereum-style 20-byte address, not the Base58Check T-prefixed format shown to users.

owner_mapping.sol

// Task: Capture the 20-byte account address from msg.sender.
// Note: TVM Solidity uses 20-byte address types, identical to EVM.
address owner = msg.sender;

msg.value is in SUN, not TRX

When a function is payable, msg.value represents the TRX amount sent — but in SUN (the smallest unit), not in whole TRX. 1 TRX = 1,000,000 SUN. This is identical to Ethereum’s relationship between ETH and wei (1 ETH = 10^18 wei), just a different scale.

CREATE2 support

CREATE2 (deterministic contract addresses) is supported on TRON. The salt-based deployment pattern works identically to Ethereum.

Precompiled contracts

Most Ethereum precompiles are available on TRON. ecrecover, SHA-256, RIPEMD-160, and identity are supported. Some newer Ethereum precompiles (e.g., KZG point evaluation from EIP-4844) are not present on TRON.

Contract size limit

The compiled bytecode size is constrained by TRON’s maximum transaction size, which is 500KB (vs 24KB limit on Ethereum). TRON’s larger limit significantly reduces the need for contract splitting patterns like the Diamond Standard.

Compiler and Tooling

Ethereum tool	TRON equivalent	Notes
solc	solc (same)	Use the same Solidity compiler. TronBox specifies the version in config.
Hardhat / Foundry	TronBox	See the Tool Equivalents guide.
Ethers.js	tronweb	Different API surface but same concepts.
window.ethereum	window.tronWeb	DApp browser injection point.
EIP-1559 (gas)	Not applicable	TRON does not use the EIP-1559 fee market.

Key Pitfalls Summary

Pitfall	Impact	Fix
API timestamps in milliseconds	Wrong expiry math when comparing on-chain and off-chain data	Divide API timestamps by 1,000 before passing to contract
selfdestruct calls	Contract does not delete (EIP-6780)	Re-evaluate architecture if relying on contract deletion
Sending to wrong network	Permanent loss	Always verify network before withdrawal
Unlimited ERC-20 approvals	Full balance exposure	Same risk exists on TRON — approve minimum needed
Assuming EIP-1559 gas	Broken fee estimation	Use Energy burn rate, not gas price

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For a side-by-side concept table covering Solana and Move chains as well, see Concept Mapping. For TVM smart contract specifics, see the Developers section.