There is so much crypto focused on traders and investors that there is sometimes a tendency to forget about the people who make many transactions possible – the developers. To that end, Electric Capital’s Maria Shen released a report on developer activity over the past year, and the numbers are formidable.
coming on unchained On the podcast, Shane spoke to journalist Laura Shin about why it’s high time the sector took a closer look at its coders and smart contract creators.
we’re definitely going to make it
Shin and Shen quickly noted that 2021 was a high year for developer activity, even though both have seen bitcoin price volatility. Shane noted,
“I think, first of all, 2021 was the year of so many all-time-highs. First, there’s an all-time high in monthly developers. Right now we’re over 18,000 monthly developers across Web3. And that’s more than last year. 75% higher.”
It is important to note that only open source developers have been enumerated in the report. Shane stressed that the total number of developers in Web3 could be much higher.
In the report itself, Electric Capital recorded that the clear winner in terms of its ecosystem was none other than Ethereum. The report states,
“Ethereum has the largest ecosystem of tools, apps, and protocols, and is 2.8x larger than the second largest ecosystem. One out of every five new developers who come to Web3 work on Ethereum.”
Meanwhile, the top four were Polkadot, Cosmos, Solana and Bitcoin. During the podcast, Shane also made sure to note that more than 34,000 developers entered the sector in 2021—far more than any other year in the industry. [admittedly brief] History.
But what do counting developers tell us about Web3 and crypto projects in general? Electric Capital executive said,
“I think overall, looking at open source development is a really good way to see where the trend line is going. And of course, a lot of very important projects are open source and there are huge communities contributing. Huh.”
dev getting dirty
Electric Capital’s report came shortly before the market plunged into a rare state of extreme fear. This happened when the king coin fell below $42,000.
However, developer activity reports show that there is much more to the cryptocurrency industry than just price performance.
Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index is 10 – Extreme Fear
Current Price: $41,789 pic.twitter.com/xPsBPG8q8z— Bitcoin Fear and Greed Index (@BitcoinFear) 8 January 2022