The crypto-skittish nation of China is turning heads with its latest coin rankings from the China Electronic Information Industry Development.
The rankings, a project of the country’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, listed EOS as the top coin of the 30 total coins surveyed. Ethereum took second place behind EOS. A slew of projects beat out market capitalization leader Bitcoin, which occupied the 17th spot. Notably, Bitcoin was trumped by Ripple, NEO, Stellar, Komodo, and BitShares, among others.
This is the second such monthly ranking produced by the Chinese government. The rankings were decided based on two fundamental metrics – technological capability and eventual use cases.
The rankings drew immediate criticism from U.S.-based cryptocurrency watchers, though EOS boosters were understandably enthusiastic.
“Don’t need lists. EOS won. Winner takes it all,” said one user on Reddit’s EOS forum. “GUI wallet. DEX. User security. No fees. 1M TPS. Game over.”
EOS launched just a few weeks ago and experienced significant issues with bringing the main net online. Almost immediately after the Chinese government’s rankings were released, EOS sparked controversy by issuing an “Emergency Measure of Protection Order” to block 27 separate wallet addresses.
“It is hereby ordered that the EOS Block Producers refuse to process transactions for the following accounts and keys indefinitely,” began a release from the EOS team. “The logic and reasoning for this order will be posted at a later date.”
Crypto observers focused on EOS’ controversial central control mechanisms as one of the prime reasons it was ranked so highly by the Chinese government.
“I’d estimate most governments would rank EOS highly and Bitcoin poorly,” said another Reddit forum user.
Another pointed out that Chinese nationals seem to have a disproportionate stake in EOS.
“Seven out of 21 Block Producers (eoscannon, eosstore, eosbeijing, helloeos, eosisgravity, zbeos and huobi) are operating out of China,” the user said. “Although you need 15+1 BPs to control the network it is already way too much concentration in one country, especially if this very country is ruled by an authoritarian regime. Although DPOS (delegated proof of stake) is the way we roll, there should be a design to limit the number of BPs operating out of the same country (offices & nodes), no matter what kind of political system it has.”
On the sidelines of the actual rankings, many crypto observers believe that China is finally coming out of its shell regarding cryptocurrencies – and in a big way.
China’s sheer size and centralized government control could make or break many coins. An official endorsement, as it were, from a Chinese government ranking agency could potentially mean de facto adoption by more than a billion potential crypto users.
Crypto billionaire Anthony Di Iorio told Bloomberg recently that he’s keeping a close eye on Chinese projects Qtum and VeChain. Qtum was ranked 10th, while VeChain didn’t make the list.
“The biggest stake for me is in Qtum and VeChain right now, the two Chinese projects,” Di Iorio told Bloomberg in an interview in Toronto. “There’s much more opportunity in newer ones if you can identify them.”
References:
- https://news.bitcoin.com/chinas-crypto-rankings-eos-ethereum-bitcoin/
- https://ethereumworldnews.com/are-chinas-latest-crypto-rankings-a-waste-of-space/
- https://cointelegraph.com/news/china-s-latest-government-backed-crypto-rankings-put-eos-1st-btc-17th
- http://www.ccidgroup.com/gzdt/11333.htm
- https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/8toic2/chinas_new_crypto_rankings_eos_first_ethereum/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/eos/comments/8sh4pa/eos_rated_1_blockchain_by_china_electronic/
- https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-21/ethereum-billionaire-looks-to-china-for-next-big-crypto-winners
