So much of crypto is focused on traders and investors that there’s sometimes a tendency to forget about those who make the many transactions possible – the developers. To that end, Maria Shen of Electric Capital released a report on developer activity in the past year, and the numbers are formidable.
Coming on unleashed podcast, Shen told reporter Laura Shin why it’s high time the industry took a closer look at its smart contract coders and creators.
We are dev-initely going to make it
Shin and Shen were quick to note that 2021 was a year of highs when it came to developer activity, even if the price of Bitcoin saw both ups and downs. Shen noted,
“I think, first of all, 2021 was just one year of so many all-time records. First of all, there is a monthly record of monthly developers. Right now, we have over 18,000 developers monthly across Web3. And that’s 75% more than last year.
It’s important to note that the report counted only open source developers. Shen stressed that the total number of developers in Web3 could be substantially higher.
As for the report itself, Electric Capital recorded that the clear winner in terms of its ecosystem was none other than Ethereum. The report stated,
“Ethereum continues to have 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 coming into Web3 works on Ethereum.”
Meanwhile, the top four were Polkadot, Cosmos, Solana, and Bitcoin. During the podcast, Shen also made sure to note that more than 34,000 developers entered the industry in 2021 – far more than any other year in the industry. [admittedly brief] the story.
But what does counting developers tell us about Web3 and crypto projects in general? The Electric Capital exec said,
“I think overall, though, looking at open source development is a really good way to see where the trend lines are. And of course a lot of really big projects are open source and huge communities are contributing to them. also. “
Getting dev and dirty
Electric Capital’s report came shortly before the market dropped into a rarely seen state of extreme fear. This took place after the king coin crashed below $42,000.
However, the Developer Activity Report shows that there is much more to the crypto industry than just price performance.
