Going by the recent cases of Chinese government’s involvement in the Blockchain space in China, the ground seems being cleared for less foreign third party player platforms to participate in the sector since – in a way – they may be averse to going by the laid down rules of the country’s regulatory bodies.

After the ICO ban and few exchanges winding down trading activities, the government supported the launch of a “trusted” Blockchain lab which connotes its willingness to be associated with the players involved and the outputs they churn out. It also, in a way, vouches for the credibility of those invited to the government-led initiative which include NEO co-founder, Da Hongfei.

Da Hongfei, CEO and Founder of NEO

The lab would particularly be in the interest of China-based projects such as NEO which is reportedly recognized by the Chinese government as the only Blockchain

platform in China with the Ministry of Technology’s license.

Though not completely clear, the initiative could also signify the beginning of a Blockchain alliance that would promote the technology’s shift from being an abstract idea to real life application which – with the government’s interest – would be accompanied by some form of self-regulation and standardization. If this be the case, it would be a huge step from the widely-known use of most blockchain projects’ tokens for trading purposes.

Plus for NEO

While this move may seem to show China’s involvement, it may not really harm NEO’s recent redirected marketing focus of being an ‘international’ project and not necessarily the ‘Chinese Ethereum.’ NEO’s upward trend in popularity and use suffered a setback following the uncertainty that spread after the Chinese government’s ban on ICO-related activities in the country. A key issue that came up at the time was the project’s being hyped mainly as meant for the Chinese – or as “China’s Ethereum.”

The spread notion could be seen as hurtful to NEO’s effort at gaining market share at some point. However, with the permeating sense of alliance with the government, it could mean a sane environment is being created for NEO to compete favourably with the likes of Ethereum. Its compliance with standardization efforts could help develop its proposed smart economy-based platform that will comprise the combination of digital identity, digital assets as well as smart contracts.

Its working with the government should not come as a surprise especially going by the fact that it has reportedly approached the Chinese Government and PBoC – while still at the development phase as Antshares – to inform of its plan and eventually launched the platform from inside one of government buildings.

What’s Next

It is imperative to state that NEO’s interaction with the government today could mean something bigger soon. Whatever it would be, it is certain that NEO is positioning to take over China, become a real competitor to its perceived global rival, Ethereum, as it capitalizes on the Chinese market background and being listed on more exchanges – especially the top three – to increase its market base with more pairs than just ETH and BTC.

NEO’s ability to come up with a few use cases in the next couple months will serve to make the platform gain its trend and rise above previous market heights – among the top five with the largest market capitalization on CoinMarketCap.