China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released rankings of 28 cryptocurrencies and blockchains based on technology, application, and innovation.
China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released its ranking[1] of 28 of the world's leading cryptocurrencies and the blockchains that power them today, including bitcoin, Ethereum, and Steem. While it evaluated and ranked each based on technology, application, and innovation, it didn't publish the method by which it determined those rankings or the highest possible score.
Ethereum ranked first with a total score of 129.4, which can be attributed to a score of 80.3 in the technology category. Steem came in second, with its largest score – 82.6 – in the technology category. Surprisingly, bitcoin, the world's most popular digital currency, ranked 13th out of 28 coins, mostly because of its low 13.1 application score. However, due to bitcoin's status as one of the first coins in wide circulation, it did beat out others in the innovation category. A more extensive list of the top 15 was tweeted by cnLedger.
Source[2]
Considering that the People's Bank of China banned Initial Coin Offerings[3] in September 2017, it is interesting that the Chinese government would take the initiative to produce these rankings, which will reportedly be published monthly. According to cena.com[4], they will help the public and governments alike to understand the status of cryptocurrencies, track the progress of different cryptocurrencies, and promote innovation and applications of blockchain technology.
However, not everyone puts a lot of faith into the ministry's work. In a statement made to Quartz, Eric Zhao, an engineer at the Chinese Academy of Science and owner of the widely followed cnLedger Twitter account, said, "Most old-school experts haven't followed the crypto
