By
Temitope Olatunji
April 18th, 2024
China’s Public Blockchain Rankings raise discontent with Bitcoin, the world’s largest and most dominant cryptocurrency, being ranked 13th due to the limited use of its blockchain network.
On Thursday, May 17, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China released its new public blockchain rankings, where the world second-largest cryptocurrency Ethereum managed to grab the top spot leaving its top rival Bitcoin far behind. Surprising, Bitcoin did not manage to get even in the top-five or the top-ten spots, but instead was at the thirteenth position.
These rankings were decided on three basic criteria of innovation, technology, and application. Following Ehtereum in the top five spot were Steem, Lisk, Neo and Komodo. All of these top-five blockchain networks make efficient use of smart contracts while processing all the information in a decentralized manner.
4/ Detailed scores of the first crypto ratings by CCID Research, China's Ministry of Industry & Information Technology pic.twitter.com/7LiJIWokge
— cnLedger (@cnLedger) May 17, 2018
However, it has to be noted that in terms of innovation, Bitcoin got the highest score as it has the advantage of being the first digital currency on the market powered by a completely decentralized blockchain network. However, the Bitcoin network has a very limited application in comparison to Ethereum and others, as it doesn’t run any kind of smart contracts, nor does it host any other decentralized applications.
The cryptocurrency community has expressed discontent over China’s rankings and their methods as it keeps Bitcoin at the number 13 position in line with the other privacy-focused coins like Verge. The fact that Bitcoin, being the oldest and still the most dominant and secure cryptocurrency in the global market, failed to hit top 10, also dissatisfied token’s enthusiasts.
The list also has some more surprising considerations. For e.g Steem ranks above Lisk and NEO in spite of the fact that Steem is not a base layer blockchain network that can be used to host decentralized applications. The primary purpose of the Steem is, in fact, distributing content on the blockchain network.
The community has argued that it is absolutely illogical to say that Bitcoin’s application is only limited to money and payment, and hence, it to be not considered in the top spot. On the other hand, Steem which is just a content distribution platform, enjoys second ranking in the list.
Moreover, the community has also argued that Bitcoin is one of the most widely used and active open source communities in the global crypto space. It has also helped in developing several innovative technologies like Lightning Network, Confidential Transactions (CT) and Bulletproofs.
More surprising about the ranking is the inclusion of Monero at the number 9 position. Monero has been flagged by the Japanese cryptocurrency regulators due to its ability to process anonymous payments, which could be associated with other illicit activities like money laundering or tax evasion.
A majority of the analysts say, that the Chinese government in its public blockchain rankings has prioritized next-generation blockchain network by overlooking the long track record, computing power, hashrate, and overall difficulty of major blockchain networks like Bitcoin.
Just like the Bitcoin, the crypto community has also expressed discontent with the ranking of Ripple and Litecoin, which has been placed at the 17th and the 21st position respectively.