Alibaba, once again, takes the world’s lead in terms of numbers of patents published for blockchain technology, according to the latest ranking released Aug.29 by IPRdaily (a Chinese site dedicated to intellectual property news) in collaboration with incoPat (a patent database collecting more than 100 million pieces of patent information from 112 authorities).

Out of the top 100 blockchain patent holders, 36 each hold more than 20 patents. It is notable that Alibaba, the number of whose blockchain patent applications doubled this year with a total of 90 applications, secures its second win, closely followed by IBM with 89 patents. Third place went to another American corporation, MasterCard, which published 80 patents and elbowed Bank of America and People’s Bank of China (PBoC) out of the top three.

In 2017, China (49%) outnumbered the U.S. (33%) in blockchain patents with Alibaba and its central bank PBoC among the top three, according to a previous report by 8btc; While the two largest economies, both the most active filers of blockchain patent applications, run neck and neck in numbers this year.

The list not only includes those blockchain firms like Nchain, Coinplug, Fuzamei Blockchain, VeChain and Bitmain, but also banks (Bank of America, People’s Bank of China), state-run companies (China State Grid) and tech giants (Google, Walmart, Facebook, China’s Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent).

The ranking takes Patentics and incoPat as the cross-search tools, and collects data from IP authorities in China, U.S., Europe, Japan, South Korea and PCT patent applications as of Aug 10, 2018.

Using the number of patents published is not necessarily an indicator of real-world application. However, the sheer speed and effort of some companies listed in embracing blockchain technology is startling.