The Chinese Ministry Of Industry And Information Technology released its official blockchain ratings on May 17. The rankings were based on 3 criteria: innovation, application and technology. You can take a look at the rankings below.
Surprises
According to the Chinese government, Ethereum is the very best blockchain network in the entire world. This is followed by Steem, Lisk, NEO and Komodo. All of these are using smart contracts in order to securely and efficiently process information, all in a highly decentralized manner.
Out of all the cryptocurrencies mentioned, the huge surprise came from the inclusion of Steem, especially since it was put at number 2. That is due to the fact that we are referring to a platform meant for content distribution built through blockchain technology, with the main purpose of content distribution. You can see Steem as being Reddit but put on a decentralized blockchain.
The second huge surprise was that Monero came in at number 9. The cryptocurrency (together with Zcash) is seen as one that is fully capable of processing truly anonymous payments. Such a possibility makes it a prime choice for those interested in criminal activities. Monero saw an increase in use among hackers that use ransomware to extort victims.
Bitcoin – Number 13
A large part of the community was bothered by the fact that Bitcoin was ranked number 13, together with Verge. This was weird for many since Bitcoin is widely considered as being the most dominant and secure cryptocurrency in the world. Bitcoin currently has the most active of all open source development communities in the world. Various innovative technologies were developed like Lightning Network, Bulletproofs and Confidential Transactions (CT). However, although Bitcoin has the potential to function just like Ethereum, this is still not the case.
No Official Government Interest
Another thing that was highly interesting with the blockchain rankings published by the Chinese Government is that the community expected to see a top built around the blockchain protocols and networks that have the potential to help the government monitor transaction or in surveillance. Having Monero and Ethereum so up on the list proves that the government wants to remain as objective as possible.
Critique
Analysts that looked at the rankings pointed out the fact that the government did overlook hashrate, accumulated difficulty, computing power and track record in order to prioritize the blockchain networks considered to be “next-generation”. As Ethereum and the smart contracts based blockchain networks are so highly ranked, the government might soon allow networks with these characteristics to be operational in China. This practically means that the rankings might have been subjective after all, with the goal of promoting what would be used in the future.
