JUST

What is JUST (JST)?

JUST is a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform on the TRON blockchain, aiming to provide its users with all-in-one financial solutions.

Based on the USDJ stablecoin and the JustStable lending platform, JUST has accumulated the lion’s share of the total value locked into TRON, with over $6 billion in TVL to date.

JUST came into being in early 2020, with the issuance of the JST governance token preceding the platform launch in August of that year.

Who are the Founders of JUST?

JUST was announced by TRON founder Justin Sun. While the TRON team suggested that the name "JUST" comes from the word’s dictionary definition of “meaning fair” and “equitable,” it’s impossible to ignore the reference to Sun’s first name.

According to the JUST Foundation, the team behind JUST hails from A-list tech firms such as IBM, Alibaba, and Tencent, as well as various global investment banks.

How Does JUST Work?

JUST is a suite of DeFi products accessible by any user of the TRON blockchain. These products include:

• JustStable. A decentralized multi-collateral stablecoin, USDJ, serves as the platform’s flagship product.
• JustLend. A money market protocol that allows users to become liquidity providers or take out low-interest cryptocurrency loans.
• JustSwap. An automated market maker (AMM) protocol for trustless TRC-20 token swaps and the creation of permissionless liquidity pools.
• JustLink. A decentralized oracle system for TRON to supply smart contracts with external data.
• Just Cryptos. Assets like BTC, LTC, and ETH that are tokenized on TRON and used on the JUST platform.

JUST is a borderless platform, meaning that anyone can use it at any time as long as they have a compatible wallet and some TRON-compatible assets within it. Once a connection is established from the user’s wallet, the JUST platform can be navigated with no more than a few clicks.

On JustStable, users can deposit collateral from various supported tokens, including TRX, TRON’s native cryptocurrency. The deposited tokens are then locked as collateral, creating a collateralized debt position. Once this is complete, users can mint and use USDJ as they see fit.

Thanks to JustLend and JustSwap, users can earn returns on their crypto assets. Becoming a liquidity provider is central to DeFi, allowing cryptocurrency holders to deposit their assets into shared pools that other users can trade against.

This trading system replaces the order books used by centralized exchanges and “TradFi.” Importantly, it allows smallholders to earn a return via trading fees rather than letting exchanges be the only ones to make money in this manner.

What Makes JUST Unique?

JUST has become an integral part of the TRON blockchain’s ecosystem and one of, if not the leading, dApp platforms on the network.

DeFi is one of the first major applications to come to the blockchain industry, and much of it has been on Ethereum. However, TRON is one of a broad range of competitors to Ethereum offering excellent performance to boot.

However, TRON founder Justin Sun, who JUST was possibly named after, has often been a source of controversy. A public dispute with Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin led to various claims of plagiarism, and in 2022, The Verge published a scathing report on Sun’s past activity.

Among other things, this article suggested that Sun “escaped” China to evade its ICO ban, given that TRX had just had its own ICO. It also alleges that Binance CEO Chanpeng ‘CZ’ Zhao tipped him off to the ban’s upcoming announcement.

Sun stepped down from the role of CEO of the TRON Foundation in December 2021 to take up a diplomatic role with the nation of Grenada.

How is the JUST Network Secured?

The JUST network is a platform built upon the TRON blockchain. Therefore, it relies on TRON for its infrastructure-level security and verification of transactions and balances.

TRON is secured by a delegated proof-of-stake (DPoS) mechanism wherein 27 Super Representatives produce blocks for the network. These 27 SRs are voted for every 6 hours by TRX holders.

SRs are compensated by block rewards, with 20 blocks being produced per minute and 32 TRX awarded to SRs every block. According to TRON, this DPoS consensus mechanism results in a network throughput of around 2000 transactions per second.

This speed is attainable because TRX holders are voting to elect SRs instead of voting in individual blocks.

What is the Use of JST?

The JST token is the native token of the JUST platform and is used in various ways, including the payment of interest. However, its most important utility is governance. JST token holders have a vital role in JUST, voting on parameters like interest rates and minimum collateralization requirements.

Who Controls JUST?

JST holders play a major role in governance on the JUST platform, setting parameters as mentioned above. JUST governance is carried out via its governance portal.

The JUST platform itself is controlled by the JUST Foundation. Unfortunately, the JUST Foundation’s team does not appear to have been made public. Various outlets have speculated that the JUST project shares some overlap with the TRON development team since it was announced by TRON founder Justin Sun.

How Much JST is In Circulation?

The JST token was sold publicly via an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) on Poloniex LaunchBase. Poloniex is at least partly owned by TRON founder Justin Sun, with Sun having admitted in 2019 to being part of a consortium of investors who purchased the exchange from Circle.

This LaunchBase offering saw 4% out of the maximum 9.9 billion JST supply being sold to Poloniex customers. TRX holders were airdropped 10%, and 11% were sold in the project’s seed round.

The founding team was allocated 19% of the JST supply, while 26% and 30% were earmarked for strategic partnerships and ecosystem development, respectively.

Out of the total maximum supply of 9.9 billion, 8.9 billion JST, or 90% of the total, is already in circulation.

How Do You Buy JST?

You can buy JST in several ways, including via the JUST platform itself if you’re already a TRON user. Alternatively, you can use a cryptocurrency exchange. Many exchanges offer JST beyond just Poloniex, with a wide variety of exchanges offering significant liquidity.

How Do You Store JST?

You can store JST in a TRON-compatible wallet like TronLink. This is an example of a “hot wallet,” which connects to the internet and makes it very easy to interact with platforms like JUST.

You can also use cold wallets to store JST. A cold wallet means offline storage and can be as simple as writing your keys on a piece of paper or as sophisticated as a Ledger device.

It’s also possible to store JST with a custodian, such as a cryptocurrency exchange, but that’s a risky business. Mt. Gox used to be an isolated example of centralized exchange failure, but 2022 has provided profound insights into the disadvantages of custodial crypto storage.

JUST Energy Consumption

JUST is just one of many platforms built on TRON, but it is possible to argue that it is responsible for a significant amount of TRON’s network usage.

However, TRON was designed as a streamlined proof-of-stake system. This is because Bitcoin and Ethereum, the pre-eminent blockchains at the time of TRON’s founding, were under fire for their energy-hungry proof-of-work mechanisms.

Ethereum has already moved away from proof-of-work, and TRON remains an energy-efficient blockchain thanks to its DPoS consensus. It doesn’t require many validators, and each can operate a minimum of hardware.

Is JST a Good Investment?

Decentralized Finance is one of the most valuable products of the developing blockchain industry, even if it is merely the tip of the iceberg as to what the technology can do.

In that sense, the JUST platform is already carving out a significant niche for itself on the TRON blockchain. With over $6 billion of total value locked (TVL) in JUST, the value it brings to the $9 billion TVL TRON network is clear.

However, like any investment, JST also carries risks. The JUST Foundation and the team behind the project are quite opaque, especially considering the pro-transparency leanings of the industry in general.

JUST appears symbiotically tied to TRON, so the success of the network as a whole will likely be very good for JST. However, that also means that the token absorbs the risk profile of TRON as well. If the network itself can become a long-term success, then it’s hard to argue against JUST being right there every step of the way.