The Chinese Center for Information and Industry Development, CCID, has downgraded Bitcoin to12th spot in the cryptocurrency rankings on 18th June 2020, at the 18th iteration of the Global Public Chain Technology Evaluation Index. 

This index ranks the 37 most popular forms of cryptocurrencies by measuring their technical specifications.

Which Is The Top-Ranked Cryptocurrency Today?

CCID has ranked the EOS network as the leader with a lead of 156.1 points. It is followed by the TRON network, with 138.43 points. The number 3 spot goes to the Ethereum blockchain, with 136.4 points. Bitcoin, the first global cryptocurrency, has just managed to get a rating of 106.2 points and 12th place overall.

Looking more closely at how the EOS performed- It managed a score of 24.7 on creativity and scored 20.4 points on applicability. TRON, on the other hand, got 15.5 and 28.4 points respectively on creativity and applicability. The fourth and fifth places in this listing are given to IOST and LSK. While LSK received 119.3 points, IOST managed to get a ranking of 130.3 points, and XRP, another heavyweight crypto like Bitcoin, got labeled at 14th place with only 105 points.

Bitcoin Is No Longer The Magic Internet Money That It Was Branded As For The Longest Possible Time

But there is something very interesting to note here. Bitcoin was even lower in the previous iteration of this ranking system. It stood at the 17th place with a rating of 43 for innovation and a measly 19.9 for applicability at that time!

Many Factors Are At Play Here

But, how much credence should one give to China’s downgrade of Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that started it all? Experts warn that China is a strange fish, and something sure seems very off here. They also state, without mincing words, that this listing must be taken with a grain of salt. 

We mustn’t forget that The Chinese Center for Information and Industry Development, or CCID, is a Chinese State-owned ranking system. It’s no secret that the CCP has been viciously against Bitcoin. Rumors have also gained ground that Bitcoin is being steadily downgraded because the Chinese can’t control it completely. 

TRON network’s CEO and founder, Justin Sun, had also warned that Chinese authorities had started to become suspicious of the CCID network’s legal status. This had led to an extremely tense relationship between Sun and the Chinese authorities, as one can well imagine.

It’s pertinent to mention that China has been at the forefront in the adoption of blockchain technology as a whole. They have already come up with their own form of cryptocurrency, which they call the DC/EP.

Where Does This Downsizing Leave The Early Bitcoin Converter?

Early bitcoin users bought this currency of the internet for mainly ideological reasons. People used bitcoin because it lets them buy stuff online without needing to use a bank, like drugs for example. People converted to bitcoins as this currency couldn’t be manipulated by governments, by printing more paper currency and was ‘fun’. 

Bitcoin saw an exponential increase in value even though its value was constantly fluctuating. A single bitcoin was worth $4.931 in 2019. And this was significantly higher than other cryptocurrencies that existed then. Major companies like Overstock.com and Microsoft were accepting bitcoin too. And major investors were supporting its growth as it had been around the longest, but coronavirus dented its value much before the Chinese did. 

Today, bitcoin remains as the first financial digital innovation and not magic. Bitcoin is a payment system, and this is something that investors should never lose sight of. It is the message from the Chinese downgrade of bitcoin. Everything else is up in the air. 

DADA Art Collective is the name of a collaborative and loosely affiliated group of globally renowned visual artists. It teamed up with OpenSea and Mintbase, well-known non-fungible token marketplaces, and a file-storage blockchain named Arweave, to jointly publish the names of the police officers in America who are accused of unethically killing unarmed Black people. The project named No Justice No Peace took off with the help of the founder of DappHero Project, Dennisson Bertram, on June 6. 

Dennis Bertram said that he has always been interested in social justice and communal harmony, and when contacted by DADA Art Collective, he was more than excited to join in. Dennis said that the art collective was already halfway through the process and had already created tokens. Dennis believes that the blockchain technology presents a fascinating platform on how social protests can be done. The representative of the DADA Collective, Judy Mam, said that over ten artists from across the globe contributed to support the Black Lives Matter movement as well as voice much-needed reforms in the law enforcement sector. The contributions included the photos as well as the case statuses of police personnel who are accused of killing black people wrongfully. 

The technology of the Arweave’s blockchain was used in this regard to create a wallet for each victim. The wallet houses tokens that contain a comprehensive set of information about the officers accused in the case. The reflection of the protest can be seen in the fact that the private keys to these wallets holding tokens and records of victims and accused officers have been destroyed. It means that the data cannot be destroyed, modified, repealed, or censored in any form. 

Dennis Bertram says that, in a way, the blockchain technology in itself is a political statement because it is something beyond the control of the government. Many of the protests that happen in the world today are subdued by police brutality and by force. However, blockchain technology is opening a completely new venue for registering peaceful yet innovative and informative protest that not only spreads righteous information but also empowers people and their voices. 

Even though it may seem far-fetched at the moment, it does present the scope of decentralizing human rights or justice as we know it. However, this project does raise a few relevant questions about ethics as it holds immutable digital records for eternity, as it says on the website. In Europe, there is a particular law under the General Data Protection Regulation called ‘right to be forgotten.’ Even in this project, the artists have decided to remain anonymous as there are state laws and jurisdictions that don’t allow them to reveal evidence that can directly or indirectly incriminate law enforcement personnel. 

Judy Mam said that the police officers behind the alleged crimes hadn’t been convicted even after immense community efforts, a claim that is also supported by the research carried out by Bowling Green State University. Judy says that the aim of the project is not only to protest but to present the information and the evidence, immutably, and forever, with the hope that at least some of these police officers would be punished for their brutal crimes. 

One of the crypto enthusiasts from Howard University, Gerald Nash, commented that even though the project seems interesting, it isn’t infallible. There is a possibility that the government may censor information and access to affiliated websites and keyword searches. Also, the dependability of the crypto-structure on participants and incentives makes it vulnerable, especially with Arweave blockchain having only 3,000 members as of now.