Nic Carter, a partner at Castle Island Ventures and co-founder of Coin Metrics, created a matrix chart for some of the crypto-sphere’s most talked about innovations. The chart ranked Bitcoin, blockchain protocols, Libra, and other innovations by maturity relative to hype, showing there is still unrecognized potential in many parts of the industry.

Ranking crypto concepts

In the crypto industry, short-lived news cycles rarely do projects justice. While some of the most innovative and ground-breaking developments often go unnoticed, a few outliers seem to get most of the attention. This dynamic emphasizes that media coverage does not reflect the potential value of an innovation.

That’s why Nic Carter, partner at Castle Island Ventures and co-founder of Coin Metrics, decided to create a matrix chart showing, in his opinion, the maturity and hype of different projects. Carter shared his maturity/hype matrix on Aug. 8, which included some of the most talked-about industry themes—Bitcoin, Libra, exchange tokens, IEOs, privacy coins, smart contracts, the Lightning network, and others.

Introducing Nic's maturity/hype matrix featuring a bunch of industry themes. Very arbitrary and subjective. You may yell at me now. pic.twitter.com/u0eGH893wi — nic carter (@nic__carter) August 8, 2019

Even though Carter noted that the chart was “very arbitrary and subjective,” even inviting people to challenge his opinion, he made a very interesting point with the way he presented his data. Namely, comparing crypto projects by their hype and maturity shows where there is still room to grow and improve and where different innovations didn’t (or have yet to) live up to expectations.

Timestamping is the most underrated blockchain application

According to Carter’s chart, exchange tokens are the most overhyped and immature concept in the crypto industry. Binance Coin (BNB) the exchange token launched by Binance, was one of the most talked-about coins in 2019, seeing a 310 percent year-to-date growth back in April this year. On-chain governance and sharding were also too immature for the hype they received, the chart showed.

An interesting thing Carter brought up was the underrated value of timestamping. With dozens of Twitter users agreeing with him, Carter pointed out that being able to use public blockchains to verify the date something created lots of interesting applications.

He also said that enterprise blockchains and ICOs were more mature than Bitcoin relative to their potential. The very fact that ICOs work and have been widely used for the past couple of years shows that the concept has matured. Enterprise blockchains, on the other hand, have reached their full potential.

Relative to their potential. ICOs are basically… well, they work. Mechanically, that is. Enterprise blockchains probably won't amount to much (in my view), but they've amounted to all that they are going to. Kind of like congratulating the slow kid for a C on a spelling test. — nic carter (@nic__carter) August 9, 2019

However, the thing most people reacted to was Carter’s placement of Libra, which he believes to be underhyped. Dozens of people commented on the chart, saying the amount of press Libra has been getting couldn’t possibly be “underhyping.”

Carter acknowledged that there has been a huge buildup to Libra, but said that the project was “underhyped” relative to the impact it could have on the market if it succeeds.

I was benchmarking it relative to its potential significance. I guess I got that one slightly askew but in my view, if Libra succeeds, the currently level of hype will look warranted / sober by comparison — nic carter (@nic__carter) August 9, 2019