Executive Summary
The Story So Far
Why This Matters
Who Thinks What?
The Ethereum ecosystem attracted over 16,000 new developers between January and September of this year, establishing itself as the blockchain project with the largest active developer base, according to the Ethereum Foundation, which cited data from Electric Capital. This growth positions Ethereum ahead of Solana, which saw more than 11,500 new developers, and Bitcoin, with nearly 7,500 new developers during the same period. However, the methodology and accuracy of these developer metrics have faced scrutiny from various industry figures.
Ethereum’s Dominance and Ecosystem Definition
With 31,869 active developers, the Ethereum ecosystem maintains the lead in overall developer engagement. Solana follows with 17,708 developers, and Bitcoin has 11,036. Notably, the Ethereum Foundation’s figures encompass both the Ethereum layer-1 network and its associated layer-2 networks, as defined by L2Beat, including platforms like Arbitrum and Optimism, ensuring no double-counting of developers working across multiple networks within the ecosystem.
Solana’s Rapid Growth and Data Discrepancies
While Ethereum’s full-time developer base grew by 5.8% over the past year and 6.3% over two years, Solana has demonstrated significantly faster growth. Electric Capital’s developer tracker indicates Solana experienced a 29.1% increase in developers over the past year and a striking 61.7% surge over the last two years. Despite this, Jacob Creech, head of developer relations at the Solana Foundation, claims Electric Capital’s data underreports Solana’s developer count by approximately 7,800. Creech has urged developers to submit their GitHub repositories for more accurate tracking by Solana’s crawlers.
Questions on Data Methodology and AI Impact
Concerns have also been raised regarding the grouping of blockchain projects in the data. Tomasz K. Stańczak, founder of Nethermind, argued that “EVM chains should be grouped together” because developers on platforms like Polygon and BNB can largely reuse skills and tooling compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine. Furthermore, Jarrod Watts, head of Australia for layer-2 network Abstract, expressed skepticism about the number of new developers entering the space. Watts suggested that the figures might be inflated by “vibe coding slop and hackathon repos that are never touched again,” questioning the genuine influx of new, active crypto developers.
Developer Metrics Under Scrutiny
The latest data from Electric Capital, highlighted by the Ethereum Foundation, confirms Ethereum’s leading position in attracting and retaining blockchain developers. However, the diverging claims from the Solana Foundation and broader industry skepticism regarding data collection methods, particularly concerning the inclusion of EVM-compatible chains and the potential influence of AI-assisted coding and hackathon projects, underscore an ongoing debate about the most accurate way to measure developer activity in the rapidly evolving crypto landscape.
