Ethereum is World’s Best Blockchain Network According to China, Bitcoin Only 13th

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology surprised everyone by releasing a ranking table of various blockchain projects and ranking Ethereum at the top, while giving Bitcoin a disappointing (and unlucky) 13th place.

The top five blockchain projects listed were Ethereum, Steem, Lisk, NEO, and Komodo, which apart from Steem are all essentially smart contract platforms that can be used or building DApps. The criteria used for the ranking were allegedly technology, application, and innovation.

If Chinese is not your thing, here’s an English translation from Twitter:

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

Somewhat surprisingly Monero made the list at number 9, despite many governments expressing their concerns towards privacy based cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash.

Bitcoin at #13?

But the big news is that the original and the number one cryptocurrency by market cap Bitcoin, was co-ranked with Verge of all cryptos at No. 13! How can this be, given that Bitcoin is by far the most secure crypto coin with the longest track record and the biggest and most active community of supporters and developers?

So far we can only guess, but the fact that privacy coins even made the list is just as surprising. It does hint at some effort at objectivity from the China Center for Information Industry Development (CIID), an institute that works closely with the government to advise on policy making in technology, which developed the rankings.

Ignoring the Bitcoin’s ranking it’s hard to argue with many other choices and hopefully this means that the Chinese government will consider a more open and friendly approach towards crypto in the future.