#Gate广场四月发帖挑战

Besides the "Three Domestic Treasures" (NEO, Qtum, GXChain), around 2017, a batch of domestic public chains that were once considered "Ethereum killers" also emerged. Most of them flourished during the ICO boom but are now marginalized or have pivoted.

1. Tech Geek Faction: Once benchmarked against Ethereum

This type of project is led by teams with technical backgrounds, focusing on underlying protocol innovation, but generally faces ecosystem decline.

Metaverse (ETP)

Positioning: Launched in 2016, one of China's earliest PoW public chains, focusing on digital identity (Avatar) and digital assets (MST).

Rise and Fall: Gained high popularity after the mainnet went live in 2017; later introduced a dual-chain DNA structure in an attempt to upgrade, but due to fierce competition, community activity significantly declined, and it is now maintained.

Nebulas (NAS)

Positioning: Founded in 2017 by former Ant Financial engineers, claiming to be a "blockchain search engine," introducing the Nebulas Rank (NR).

Rise and Fall: Highly sought after during the ICO; later, due to issues with the token economic model and team focus shift, developers left, gradually fading from the front line.

Bytom (BTM)

Positioning: Initiated in 2017 by Chang Jiao, founder of Block123, focusing on "connecting the atomic world and the bit world" (asset on-chain).

Rise and Fall: Once listed alongside the "Three Treasures"; later, with the rise of DeFi, its MOV cross-chain ecosystem failed to scale, and influence waned.

2. Capital Darling Faction: High Opening, Low Closing

These projects once received top-tier venture capital or had luxurious teams but most failed to deliver on promises.

IOST

Positioning: Launched in 2017, emphasizing high performance (sharding technology), early investments from Sequoia, GGV, and other institutions.

Rise and Fall: Initially held high expectations; however, subsequent ecosystem development was slow, DApp activity was low, gradually becoming a second-tier public chain.

Ontology (ONT)

Positioning: Launched in 2017 by OnChain (a NEO-related entity), focusing on a distributed trust network, known as the "dual giants" alongside NEO.

Rise and Fall: Quickly entered the top 20 by market cap; later, due to limited real-world applications, its popularity was replaced by emerging public chains, mainly serving B2B.

Achain (ACT)

Positioning: An established public chain launched in 2015, focusing on modular creation of DApps.

Rise and Fall: Had a large early community; later, due to slow technical iteration and too many forks, its value was diluted, and it basically exited mainstream visibility.

3. Vertical Fields and Special Backgrounds

VeChain (VET): Started in 2015 with luxury goods anti-counterfeiting, pivoted to supply chain public chain. Relatively special, still maintaining some enterprise collaborations, one of the better surviving early projects.

Elastos (ELA): Led by former Microsoft executives in 2017, focusing on "blockchain + operating system," a forward-looking concept. Due to complex token economics and community splits, development did not meet expectations.

NULS: Launched in 2017, focusing on microkernel modularity. Due to the low profile of the team and small market cap, known as "Chongqing Ethereum," currently in a niche maintenance state.

4. Historical Reflection: Why Did They Fall Silent?

Technical Gaps: Early domestic public chains were mostly based on Bitcoin or Ethereum clones, with performance (TPS) and security features that were outdated in the DeFi era.

Regulatory Impact: The 2017 "94 Ban" cut off the RMB deposit channels, severely impacting the domestic community and developer base.

Ecosystem Vacuum: Aside from hype, they failed to create a developer flywheel similar to Ethereum, and most DApps became "zombie applications."