Ethereum Virtual Machine-based (EVM) blockchain networks are the most popular networks for builders, with nearly nine out of 10 multichain developers working on at least one EVM-compatible chain, according to a developer report from Electric Capital.
In the expansive Jan. 17 report that looked at crypto development activity over the last year, Electric Capital shed fresh light on total developer activity for the fourth quarter of 2023.
The report found that “unsurprisingly,” EVM-compatible chains shared most of their developers with other EVM networks. In total, 87% of multichain developers worked on EVM-compatible chains, with Starket, Polygon, Optimism and Arbitrum seeing the most crossover.
EVM-compatible blockchains are a group of networks that can run the Ethereum Virtual Machine and execute smart contracts on Ethereum. These networks include the likes of Starknet, Tron, Binance’s BNB Chain, Arbitrum, Optimism and Polygon.
BNB Chain and Polygon witnessed the most “cross-pollination” from Ethereum’s multichain developers, with 37% of Ethereum multichain developers deploying code on the BNB Chain and 35% deploying code on Polygon.
Maria Shen, a general partner at Electric Capital, told Cointelegraph that one of the most notable findings in the report was the consistent growth of established developers despite a slide in total developers.
While the total number of monthly active developers across the entire crypto ecosystem slid 24% from 29,611 to 22,411 in the final quarter, the total number of experienced developers — meaning those that have worked in crypto for more than a year — grew by 16% throughout 2023.
“During times when prices are appreciating, a lot of people come in, and during times when prices are not appreciating, some people leave. But through all of it, there’s a core group of people who are staying, and in fact, every single time new people flood in, many end up staying,” Shen said.
Notably, Ethereum leads the pack in attracting new developers, with more than 16,700 newcomers shipping code on the chain in 2023. This is nearly triple the 6,200 new developers on Polygon and almost four times that of Solana’s 4,705.
Shen added that the influx of newcomers in 2023 — despite a prolonged bear market — showed an underlying strength in the crypto ecosystem.
“It’s fascinating to see this torso of ecosystems that’ve been very successful at bringing in all of these developers. So there are 17 ecosystems total, who have pulled in more than a thousand developers.”
Bitcoin witnessed a 19% decline in development activity year-over-year, now commanding just over 1,000 monthly active developers.
While total developer numbers decreased for Bitcoin, layer-2 networks and scaling solutions now capture more than 40% of all open-source Bitcoin developers, a more than 400% increase from January 2016.
Related: Solana now boasts more than 2,500 monthly active developers
The report also found that crypto developers have been building out their skills to work across a variety of different chains, with multichain development activity growing by 1,000% since 2015.
As of the end of December 2023, 30% of all monthly active developers work on at least two blockchains, with that number growing by around 125% since 2018.
Magazine: MakerDAO’s plan to bring back ‘DeFi summer’ — Rune Christensen