TRC20

Hi, this is NorthRay.

Remember when I told you I bought Bitcoin on Binance?

I was happy. Proud of myself. I felt like a real crypto investor.

Then I thought, “Why not transfer some crypto to another wallet? Just for experience. Let’s see how it works.”

I opened my wallet, copied the address, and clicked Send.

Binance asked me to choose a network. I saw a list: BEP20, ERC20, TRC20, and a bunch of other confusing abbreviations.

“What’s the difference?” I thought. “I’ll just pick one.”

And I almost lost my money forever.

Luckily, at the last moment, I decided to Google it and double-check everything.

Today I’ll explain what crypto networks are, why you should never mix them up, and how I saved my transfer.

A cryptocurrency network is the infrastructure that moves your coins. Think of it as a road that a car travels on.

The same cryptocurrency (for example, USDT or Bitcoin) can exist on different networks. It’s like shipping the same package using different transportation routes.

Imagine you need to send a package from one city to another:

A toll highway — fast but expensive.

An older road — cheaper but slower.

A train — different method, different rules.

These are different “networks.”

The package is still the same (USDT), but the delivery route changes.

Crypto works the same way. The same token can exist on multiple networks, and each network has:

Its own address format

Its own fees

Its own speed

When you send cryptocurrency, the sender’s network and the recipient’s network must match.

If you send USDT via BEP20 to an address that only supports ERC20, your funds may be lost permanently.

I...