Developer Report (Published: December 2020, Updated: April 2021)

Developer Report
January - October 2020
Updated April 2021

The Developer Report is built on proprietary data from Electric Capital
Electric Capital is a venture firm that invests in cryptocurrencies & blockchain based businesses.
We compile code, profile nodes, analyze blockchains and open source projects, help secure
cryptonetworks, and write software to help the crypto industry understand developer adoption
across ecosystems.
Twitter: @ElectricCapital
Data Pipeline
Curtis Spencer
Twitter: @jubos
Contributor
Avichal Garg
Twitter: @avichal
Data Pipeline
Ken Deeter
Twitter: @puntium
2
Author
Maria Shen
Twitter: @MariaShen

Why analyze developer activity?
3
1. Crypto networks are new open platforms on which new applications will be built.
2. An early signal of adoption on an emerging platform is engagement from
developers. Developers build the applications that deliver value to end users and
customers, which attracts more developers.
3. The crypto stack is uniquely open source, allowing us to analyze and understand
developer engagement in an unprecedented way.

1. The number of new crypto developers is growing for the first time since 2017
a. New monthly crypto developers grew 15% in 2020, increasing for the first time since 2017
b. 80%+ of all active developers today came in the last two years
2. There is a flight to quality: high quality ecosystems are growing while others are shrinking
a. Monthly active crypto developers have stayed flat even as new developers joined due to developer loss
outside of the Top 200 ecosystems by network value
b. The number of developers outside of the Top 200 decreased by 30% from December 2018
3. Developer activity is particularly strong across Bitcoin, Ethereum, some Layer 1s, and Decentralized Finance
a. Bitcoin ecosystem has 70%+ more developers than it did 3 years ago
b. 300+ new developers per month commit to the Ethereum ecosystem
c. 67% increase in monthly active developers in Decentralized Finance since January 2020
Executive Summary
4

December 1 - 31, 2019:
1,277 New Developers
+15%
The last time new crypto
developers increased for more
than 3 months was December
2017 at peak Bitcoin prices...
...but new monthly developers
grew 15% since start of 2020
December 1 - 31, 2017:
October 1 - 31, 2020:
The number of new crypto developers is growing for the first time since 2017
6
Overview

And monthly active developers seem to be flat/slightly up in 2020...
7
Monthly active is the sum of unique developers who were active in the preceding 28 days
Jan 1, 2020
Developers: 8,212
October 31, 2020
Developers: 8,739
There is a slight 6% increase since Jan
2020, but falls within historical noise.
Overview

...Because developers are consolidating into high quality ecosystems in the top 200 by Network Value
8
...while Developers
outside of the Top 200
have decreased 30%
2018 Winter Developer High
December 15, 2018
Other Developers: 5,328
October 31, 2020
Top 200 Developers
increased by 13% since
December 2018...
4850
Some developers worked in both Top 200 and Other, so the sum of Top 200 and Other is greater than total unique developers in crypto
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,469
Overview

There are areas of strong developer growth...
9
Overview

Bitcoin monthly active developers have grown 70%+ in 3 years
10
+71%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 361
October 31, 2017
Developers: 211
Overview

Ethereum monthly active developers have grown 215%+ in 3 years
11
October 31, 2020
Developers: 2,325
+215%
October 31, 2017
Developers: 738
Overview

Decentralized finance developers increased by 67% since January 2020
12
+67%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 925
January 1, 2020
Developers: 554
Overview

Who left crypto, who remains, and who joined?
Let’s segment by:
1. Developer Types
a. Frequency of Contribution…………………………………………………………………………….....…..14
b. Start Date……………………………………………………………………………………………………...20
2. Ecosystem Types
a. Size of Ecosystem…………………………………………………………………………………………….29
b. Top 200 Ecosystems by Network Value…….……………………………………………………….....……60
c. Layer 1 Ecosystems………………………………………………………………………………….........…..70
d. Decentralized Finance……………………………………………………………………………………...104
13
Table of contents

Developers
By Frequency of Contribution
14

Looking across all crypto developers...
15
Developers | by frequency of contribution

October 31, 2018
Developers: 9,533
Jan 1, 2020
Developers: 8,212
October 31, 2020
Developers: 8,739
October 31, 2019
Developers: 9,083
There are 8,000+ monthly active developers in crypto Since early 2018
16
A developer is active if they
contribute a code commit to a
crypto ecosystem
8,000 monthly active developers

Most developers contribute fewer than 10 days in 1 month
17
75% of developers contributed fewer than 10 days in October 2020
Infrequent Contributors Frequent Contributors

We can categorize developers based on frequency of contribution
18
Infrequent Contributors
Active fewer than 10 days per month
Frequent Contributors
Active for 10 or more days per month
Infrequent Contributors: Active fewer than 10 days per month
Frequent Contributors: Active for 10 or more days per month

Year over Year, infrequent Contributors decreased by 13% while Frequent Contributors stayed relatively flat
19
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,891
2,798
January 1, 2020
Developers: 5,573
2,840
Infrequent developers fell 13% since
October 2018, though it’s still within
normal fluctuations
October 31, 2019
Developers: 6,156
October 31, 2018
Developers: 6,767
2,976
2,848
Frequent developers numbers are
steady and stayed flat with slight 2%
gain since October 2018

We find each developer’s first commit date to pinpoint their start date
21
For example, 1,971 developers
committed code for the first time in a
crypto ecosystem in July 2019
Developers | by start date

1200+ new developers join crypto every month in 2020
22
2020 New Developers

December 1 - 31, 2019:
+15%
The last time new crypto
developers increased for more
than 3 months was December
2017...
...but new monthly developers
grew 15% since start of 2020
December 1 - 31, 2017:
October 1 - 31, 2020:
15% growth in monthly new developers in crypto since December 2019
23

Yearly new developers in 2020 already exceeded new developers from 2017
24
Only through
October 2020
2020 New Developers already
exceeded 2017 New Developers

45% of new developers in 2020 were active in the last 90 days
25
45% of new developers in
2020 were active in the
last 90 days
Developers

40%+ of currently active monthly developers started in 2020
26
40%+ of all
developers
started in 2020
Earlier
Proportion of Monthly Active Developers by Start Date

80%+ of all active
developers came in
after Bitcoin prices
peaked in
December 2017
80%+ of currently active developers started after Bitcoin’s all time high in 2017
27
Earlier
Proportion of Monthly Active Developers by Start Date

Switching to looking at ecosystems...
28

Ecosystems
By ecosystem Size
29

Protocol Developers
Community Developers
1. Community Developers are
working on decentralized
applications, documentation,
tooling, wallets, and anything
else furthering the project.
2. Protocol Developers
include developers working
only on the core protocol.
Ecosystems are comprised of community and protocol level developers
30
Ecosystems | by ecosystem size

We can count the number of crypto ecosystems that are active per month
31
An ecosystem is active if there was
a code commit in one of its
repositories

Active ecosystems crossed over 800 in 2018 and have stayed above this level
32
October 31, 2020
Active Ecosystems: 816
Ecosystem All Time High
March 31, 2019
January 1, 2018

October 31, 2020
March 31, 2019
Active ecosystems decreased by 18% since the all time high Ecosystem Count
33
-18%

October 31, 2020
The number of crypto ecosystems have grown 143% since 2017
34
Ecosystems have
grown 143% since
Jan 2017
Jan 2017

Let’s segment ecosystems by number of developers...
35

Ecosystems with 2-10 developers are the source of the overall drop
36
October 2020
March 31, 2019
-24%
221
160
17
16
200
182
23
14 9
Small Ecosystems: 2-10 developers
Single Developer Ecosystems: 1 developer
Medium Ecosystems: 11-50 developers
Large Ecosystems: 51-100 developers
Mature Ecosystems: 100+ developers

Ecosystems with 1 developer have stayed flat around 200 since 2018
37
160
17
16
200
14
There have been around
200 ecosystems with 1
developer since 2018
October 2020
Small Ecosystems: 2-10 developers
Single Developer Ecosystems: 1 developer
Medium Ecosystems: 11-50 developers
Large Ecosystems: 51-100 developers
Mature Ecosystems: 100+ developers

2019 Q3 to 2020 Q3 Change
Bigger team size category
Stayed within the same category
Smaller team size category
Dead (0 developers)
We can track how ecosystems changed size categories from 2019 q3 to 2020 q3
38
...and break down how these
ecosystems changed team sizes
in 2020 Q3
We can look at the size of
ecosystems in 2019 Q3...
Percent of Ecosystems that Changed

Ecosystems with 100+ developers did not fall below that level by 2020 q3
39
100% of ecosystems with
100+ devs stayed within
the same category
Dead (0 developers)
Percent of Ecosystems that Changed

Ecosystems with 31-50 developers in q3 2019 were the most prone to losing developers
40
70%+ of developers who
had 31-50 developers in
Q3 2019 decreased team
size by Q3 2020
Dead (0 developers)

Ecosystems with fewer than 10 developers are likelier to be abandoned
41
25% of ecosystems with fewer
than 10 devs and 56% of
ecosystems with 1 dev are
dead one year later
Dead (0 developers)

We can take a snapshot of ecosystems in 2019 & 2020
to see how developer numbers changed
42

2019 q3 vs 2020 q3
43

Bitcoin
Cosmos
We can benchmark 2020 q3 team size against 2019 q3 to assess Developer growth
44
The y-axis indicates
the average monthly
developers in 2020 Q3
The x-axis indicates
the average monthly
developers in 2019 Q3
2019 Q3
2020
Q3
Go to https://electric-capital.github.io to see which repositories we count & help add new ones
Updated April 2021

Bitcoin
Cosmos
Most ecosystems with more than 100+ devs today grew or stayed the same Size
45
Polkadot, Tezos, Filecoin,
and others grew across
2019 Q3 and 2020 Q3
same size
gained developers
lost developers
Updated April 2021

Bitcoin
Cosmos
same size
gained developers
lost developers
Updated April 2021
Ethereum gained 300+ average monthly developers since q3 2019
46
Ethereum:
2019 Q3: 2,072
2020 Q3: 2,374

Zooming in...Polkadot, Tezos, Cardano, Cosmos had 100+ devs in Q3 2019 and gained more developers by Q3 2020
47
Ecosystems with 100
developers in Q3 2019
same size
gained developers
lost developers
Updated April 2021

same size
gained developers
lost developers
Polkadot almost doubled their developer Count
48
Polkadot:
2019 Q3: 197
2020 Q3: 388
gained100%
m
oredevelopers
(2x)
Updated April 2021

Updated April 2021
Bitcoin, Lightning, and Hyperledger all stayed the same size
49
gained developers
lost developers
same size

gained developers
lost developers
same size
Updated April 2021
Eos lost an average of 91 monthly active developers
50
EOS:
2019 Q3: 202
2020 Q3: 111

Arweave
gained developers
lost developers
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
Celo, Algorand, solana & others Close to 2x their developers from 2019 q3
51
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers(2x)
Updated April 2021

Arweave
gained developers
lost developers
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
Oasis and Uniswap Close to 3x their developers from 2019 q3
52
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers(2x)
Updated April 2021

Arweave
gained developers
lost developers
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers(2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers(2x)
Near, Avalanche, Balancer, Arweave, & others now havemore than 3x their developers from 2019 Q3
53
Updated April 2021

Zooming into Ecosystems with <50 developers &
filtering out small network value ecosystems...
54

same size
Holo, Omisego, Zilliqa, Ark, SKALE, & Others roughly stayed the same size
55
gained 100%
m
ore developers (2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
Roughly
stayed the
same size
Updated April 2021
Arweave

gained 100%
m
ore developers (2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
Solana, Thorchain, Matic, Synthetix, & others have close to 2x their developers in 2019 q3
56
same size
Updated April 2021
Arweave

gained 100%
m
ore developers (2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)
same size
Algorand, Chainlink, Avalanche, Uniswap, Arweave, Balancer, & others havemore than 2x developers
57
Updated April 2021
Arweave

Ecosystems
By Top 200 in network value
58

14% more developers working in the top 200 since January 2020
59
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,469
Jan 1, 2020
Developers: 4,810
+14%
Ecosystems | by Top 200 in Network Value

Most developers have consolidated into the top 200 ecosystems
60
...while Developers
outside of the Top 200
have decreased 30%
December 15, 2018
October 31, 2020
Top 200 Developers
increased by 13% since
December 2018...
4850
Some developers worked in both Top 200 and Other, so the sum of Top 200 and Other will be greater
than total unique developers in crypto
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,469

December 15, 2018
October 31, 2020
4850
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,469
Developers in the Top 200 ecosystems are at all time highs
61
Top 200 Developers in 2020
Q3 are at all time highs
Some developers worked in both Top 200 and Other, so the sum of Top 200 and Other will be greater
than total unique developers in crypto

Some developers worked in multiple ecosystem categories, so the sum of these categories will be greater than
total unique developers in crypto
Even excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum, top 200 ecosystems are still growing
62
Even excluding Bitcoin and
Ethereum, the Top 200
Ecosystems are still growing
October 31, 2020
2,325
361
2,937

Frequent and infrequent contributors both increased in the top 200 ecosystems
63
+18%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 3,588
Jan 1, 2020
Developers: 3,038
+6%
1,881
1,772

Looking at Top 10 Gainers across all Top 200 ecosystems… Ethereum gained the most developers
64
Ethereum gained the
most developers
from 2019 Q3 to 2020
Q3

Excluding ethereum from the top 10 gainers, we see...
65
Filecoin:
Incentivized testnet
announced June 2020
Near:
“Stake Wars” announced
June 2020
Cardano:
Friends and Family Testnet
announced May 2020
Oasis:
Incentivized testnet - Dec 2019
Release candidate - Jun 2020
Mainnet- Nov 2020

Filtering to Top 10 gainers in ecosystems with 100 devs or fewer...
66
Near:
“Stake Wars”
announced
June 2020
Chainlink:
Grants + Hackathons in
August 2020
Chainlink VRF on
Ethereum October 2020
Oasis:
Incentivized testnet - Dec 2019
Release candidate - Jun 2020
Mainnet- Nov 2020
Solana:
Serum announces it
will be building on
Solana July 2020

Filtering to Top 10 gainers in ecosystems with 30 devs or fewer...
67
Avalanche:
Testnet launched June 2020
Mainnet launched
September 2020
Balancer:
Adding tokens
and UI changes
Uniswap:
UNI tokens
announced
September 2020
Arweave:
Nest.land development
Yearn.Finance:
Launched July 2020
Most developers
contribute to
documentation in
iearn-finance/docs

12% more developers working in layer 1 Ecosystems since January 2020
69
+12%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 5,027
January 1, 2020
Developers: 4,472
Ecosystems | by Layer 1

Since April 2020, more developers work in layer 1 Ecosystems than other crypto ecosystems
70
Winter 2018 Developer High
December 15, 2018
October 31, 2020
4,289
5,027
Some developers worked in both Layer 1s and Other, so the sum of Layer 1s and Other will
be greater than total unique developers in crypto
Since April 2020, more
developers work in Layer 1
ecosystems than other crypto
ecosystems

January 1, 2020
Removing Ethereum & Bitcoin, layer 1 ecosystems are still gaining developers
71
2,325
361
2,460
October 31, 2020
2,199
1,961
402

January 1, 2020
There are now almost as many developers working in Ethereum as other Layer 1 ecosystems combined
72
2,325
361
2,460
October 31, 2020
2,199
1,961
402
There are now almost as many
developers working in Ethereum as
other Layer 1 ecosystems combined,
excluding Bitcoin

Both frequent and infrequent contributors are increasing for layer 1 ecosystems
73
+14%
+9%
January 1, 2020
Developers: 2,836
October 31, 2020
Developers: 3,243
1,784
1,636

The number of Bitcoin developers have stayed around the same since 2019
75
January 1, 2020
Developers: 402
October 31, 2020
Developers: 361
Bitcoin developers have
commonly fluctuated between
350 - 450 since 2018
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | Bitcoin

Bitcoin monthly active developers have grown 70%+ in 3 years
76
+71%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 361
October 31, 2017
Developers: 211

Bitcoin has maintained above 100 monthly active frequent contributors
77
Bitcoin has mostly
maintained above 100
monthly active frequent
contributors
Dec 6, 2018
Developers: 100

Between 45 - 120 new developers contribute to bitcoin per month since 2017
78
Developers

The number of new developers That join Bitcoin increased after 2017 Bull Run
79
Post 2017: 45-120 new developers join per month
Pre 2017: 20-60 new developers
Developers

Bitcoin ecosystem BUIDL* WAVEs
80
*This naming is a nod to the original hodl waves visualization Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | Bitcoin
We can color code the age distribution
developers that contribute commits in
Bitcoin…
...spikes in warmer colors (red, yellow)
indicate increased commits from newer
developers

Looking only at bitcoin core, 50% of the monthly commits are from DEVS INVOLVED for 5 years or more
81
~20% of developers in 2020 have been
developing in Bitcoin Core for 5+ years...
...and they contribute 50% of monthly
commits

Ethereum has consistently increased monthly active developers
83
October 31, 2020
Developers: 2,325
+16%
+19%
January 1, 2020
Developers: 1,961
January 1, 2019
Developers: 1,651
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | Ethereum

Ecosystems outside of ethereum have lost developers since Oct 2019
84
2,325
October 31, 2020
Developers: 6,732
-11%
October 31, 2019
Developers: 7,595
2,053
+13%

infrequent contributors increased 22% while frequent contributors increased 13% in ethereum since jan 2020
85
October 31, 2020
Developers: 1,507
January 1, 2020
Developers: 1,234
818
727
+22%
+13%

Since 2018, 300+ new developers commit to the Ethereum ecosystem each month
86
Since 2018, 300+ new
developers join Ethereum each
month

Roughly a quarter of new developers in crypto contribute to the ethereum ecosystem
87
26% of new
developers
from October
2020 were in
the Ethereum
ecosystem

Layer 1 Ecosystems
All Layer 1 Ecosystems
88

Ethereum, Bitcoin, Polkadot, Cosmos, Tezos, Cardano, EOS are the biggest Layer 1 ecosystems
89
same size (1x)
gained developers
lost developers
gained 100%
m
ore developers
(2x)
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | All
Updated April 2021
Bitcoin
Cosmos

Holo, zcash, harmony, zilliqa, Fetch, Ark, Spacemesh, & others have maintained roughly the same number of developers
90
gained 100%
m
ore developers
(2x)
Roughly
stayed the
same size same size (1x)
gained developers
lost developers
Updated April 2021

Near, Oasis, Flow, Avalanche, Dfinity, & Mobilecoin increased average monthly developers by 100%
91
same size (1x)
gained developers
lost developers
gained 100%
m
ore developers
(2x)
Updated April 2021

Monero, Tron, Stellar, Celo, Blockstack, & Diem (Libra) maintained 51-100 developers between 2019 q3 and 2020 q3
92
Developers that maintained
51-100 developers in 2019 Q3 and
2020 Q3
Updated April 2021

nervos, Near, Oasis Labs, & Algorand grew into the 51-100 developer category in 2020 q3
93
2020 Q3
Developers that grew into the 51-100
developer category in 2020 Q3
Updated April 2021

2020 Q3
Bitcoin Cash, Decred, NEO, XRP, & Ethereum Classic dropped out of the 51-100 developer category in 2020 q3
94
Developers that
dropped out of the
51-100 developer
category in 2020 Q3
Updated April 2021

Let’s filter to Ecosystems with more than 60
developers in the last month....
95

5 years 10 years
We can compare growth by looking at Developers from the day of the first commit
96
Blockstack
Monero
3 years
1 year
The day of the first commit in
each ecosystem
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | 60+ Devs
Updated April 2021

Ethereum, Polkadot, and Cosmos outpace other layer 1 platforms in growth
97
Ethereum, Polkadot,
and Cosmos are the
fastest growing Layer 1
ecosystems
Updated April 2021
Monero
Blockstack

at 3 years since first commit….polkadot & Cosmos have more developers than ethereum at the same point in time
98
Polkadot & Cosmos
outpace Ethereum
Updated April 2021
Monero
Blockstack
Bitcoin

Filtering to new Smart Contract Platforms launched
less than 3 years ago
99

Binance Coin is indexed to Binance Smart Contract’s first commit date
Binance smart contract platform outpaces other layer 1 ecosystems at the same point of
development
100
2 years
1 year
Binance has more
developers than other
new smart contracts at
the same point in time
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | New Smart Contract Platforms
Updated April 2021

Near is within 20 devs of ethereum at the 2 year mark, can it keep growing in year 3?
101
Binance Coin is indexed to Binance Smart Contract’s first commit date
Near is one of the fastest growing
Layer 1 ecosystems at the 2 year
mark after Polkadot and Ethereum
2 years
1 year
Ecosystems | by Layer 1 | New Smart Contract Platforms
Updated April 2021

Ecosystems
Decentralized Finance
102

67% increase in monthly active Defi developers since January 2020
103
+67%
October 31, 2020
Developers: 925
January 1, 2020
Developers: 554
Ecosystems | Decentralized Finance

Defi developers increased +110% since 2019 while other developers decreased -8%
104
-8%
+110%
925
441
January 1, 2019
Developers: 8,163
October 31, 2020
Developers: 7,542
Some developers worked in both Decentralized Finance and Other, so the sum of Decentralized Finance and Other
will be greater than total unique developers in crypto

Frequent and infrequent developers in defi have both increased since beginning of 2020
105
+81%
+45%
January 1, 2020
Developers: 334
October 31, 2020
Developers: 606
334
220

We can take a snapshot of defi ecosystems in 2019 &
2020 to see how developer numbers changed
106

Lightning, Maker, Gnosis, Chainlink, Keep, Synthetix, Uniswap, Balancer, & more gained developers
107
same size
gained developers
lost developers

Kyber, Augur, Ren, Akropolis, Band, Connext, loopring all roughly stayed the same size
108
gained developers
lost developers
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers
(2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)

Uniswap, balancer, Yearn, MCDEX, Acala, & more gained 200%+ developers
109
gained developers
lost developers
gained
100%
m
oredevelopers
(2x)
g
a
i
n
e
d
2
0
0
%
m
o
r
e
d
e
v
e
l
o
p
e
r
s
(
3
x
)

Yearn & acala are the biggest new Defi ecosystems in q3 2020
110
UMA
2020 Q3
Yearn: 16 average monthly developers
Acala: 11 average monthly developers
2019 Q3
0 developers

Looking at the top 5 Biggest gainers in Decentralized Finance...
111
Chainlink:
Grants + Hackathons in
August 2020
Chainlink VRF on
Ethereum October 2020
Balancer:
Adding tokens
and UI changes
Uniswap:
UNI tokens
announced
September 2020
Yearn.Finance:
Launched July 2020
Most developers
contribute to
documentation in
iearn-finance/docs

Most defi ecosystems have small teams of fewer than 25 monthly developers
112
Most Defi Ecosystems

Filtering to just Ecosystems with 25+ monthly developers...
113

114
3 years
1 year 5 years
We can index monthly active developers to the day of the first commit in each ecosystem
The day of the first commit in
each ecosystem

3 years
1 year 5 years
Yearn.finance is one of the fastest growing defi ecosystems
Yearn.finance has 42 monthly active
developers <1 year after first public commit
Recent increase driven by community
contributions in documentation in
iearn-finance/docs
115

1. The number of new crypto developers is growing for the first time since 2017
a. New monthly crypto developers grew 15% in 2020, increasing for the first time since 2017
b. 80%+ of all active developers today came in the last two years
2. There is a flight to quality: high quality ecosystems are growing while others are shrinking
a. Monthly active crypto developers have stayed flat even as new developers joined due to developer loss
outside of the Top 200 ecosystems by network value
b. The number of developers outside of the Top 200 decreased by 30% from December 2018
3. Developer activity is particularly strong across Bitcoin, Ethereum, some Layer 1s, and Decentralized Finance
a. Bitcoin ecosystem has 70%+ more developers than it did 3 years ago
b. 300+ new developers per month commit to the Ethereum ecosystem
c. 67% increase in monthly active developers in Decentralized Finance since January 2020
Executive Summary
116

Thank you to everyone who gave feedback on early drafts
117
Anatoly Yakovenko
@aeyakovenko
Aliaksandr [Sasha] Hudzilin
@AliaksandrH
Anne Fauvre
@AnnieFauv
Austin Virts
@austinvirts
Ben Sparango
@bennybitcoins
Bruno Skvorc
@bitfalls
Casey Caruso
@caseykcaruso
Corey Soreff
@csoreff
Dawn Song
@dawnsongtweets
Dmitriy Berenzon
@dberenzon
Eddy Lazzarin
@eddylazzarin
Evan Mair
@ETM612
Rene Reinsberg
@followrene
Ian Lee
@ianjohnlee
Jane Lippencott
@janehk
Katherine Wu
@katherineykwu
Linda Xie
@ljxie
Marek Olszewski
@marek_
Matt Taylor
@mattytay
Meltem Demirors
@Melt_Dem
Mildred Idada
@MI_Idada
Steve Lee
@moneyball
Muneeb Ali
@muneeb
Siddhartha Dutta
@NihilistSid
Scott Moore
@notscottmoore
Kevin Owocki
@owocki
Raj Gokal
@RajGokal
Ryan Shea Eric Williams
@sciencethedata
Tiffany Gao
@TiffanyYijiaGao
Yulian Lavysh
@yulianNEAR
Dominic Tsang Praneeth Srikanti
@bees_neeth

Thank you to everyone who helped our April 2021 Update
118
Cyrus Goh
@_cyrusgoh
Diwaker Gupta
@diwakergupta
Ethan Buchman
@buchmanster
Joe Bender
@JosephBender
Mitchell Cuevas
@mcuevasm
Muneeb Ali
@muneeb

Layer 1 Ecosystems
120
Appendix & Methodology

Decentralized Finance Ecosystems
121

Help map the crypto ecosystem
We’ve opened our ecosystem map on GitHub so that anyone can contribute:
1. Check our ecosystem mapping via https://electric-capital.github.io
2. Submit a new ecosystem via our form through https://airtable.com/shrN4vZMlBLm3Dap8
3. Or submit a pull request in https://github.com/electric-capital/crypto-ecosystems
We will use this data for our reports going forward.
122

Commit Counting Methodology: Not all code commits are created equal.
123
1. Forks: Only new code counts towards developer activity. We omit code and developer activity
from merging changes from the upstream codebase.
2. Fingerprinting: Fingerprinting is a technique used to identify commits originating from upstream
projects. We look at the files and lines changed, the commit message, committer, author and
associated dates.
3. Commits from Integrating Open Source Libraries: Integrating common libraries does not count
toward code activity.
4. Branches: We look at commits from all branches (master/development, etc.) and tags. We look
beyond Github's default view, which can be misrepresentative.
5. Limitations: We only look at open source repositories. There are many teams that are not yet
open source.

How are developers counted?
1. Developers: We count original code authors as developers. This means that a
developer who merges a pull request is not counted as an active developer on the
project, but the original authors of the commits are.
2. Frequent Contributors: contributed code 10+ days out of a month
3. Infrequent Contributors: contributed code fewer than 10 days out of a month
4. 3-month window: We look at the last 3 months of a developer’s activity to determine
their category.
124

What is an ecosystem?
Maker Ecosystem
1. Maker Community:
○ xDai
○ awesome-makerdao
○ Market-maker-keeper
○ daipay
○ ...and more.
2. Maker Protocol
○ makerdao/sai
○ ...and more.
Ecosystems can live in other ecosystems.
The Maker ecosystem lives inside the
Ethereum ecosystem.
Protocol
Developers
Community
Developers
Parent Ecosystem
125
Maker Ecosystem
Ethereum Ecosystem

126
1. We consider open source repositories only. There are many more developers working on important closed
source projects or ecosystems. Some teams will open source their code later.
2. This methodology undercounts developers in other roles besides original code contribution such as
backporting, testing, release engineering or code review/feedback that aren’t reflected in git repositories.
3. It will require more than just software engineers to build product and reach mainstream adoption.
4. Not all commits are created equal. Some may be routine, mechanical changes, whereas others represent hours
of accumulated research and analysis.
Despite these caveats, we consider the analysis in this report directionally accurate and indicative of the overall health
of the ecosystem.
We are always looking to improve so please share feedback with us at info@electriccapital.com
Caveats

Disclaimer & Disclosure
The Content is for informational purposes only, you should not construe any such information or other
material as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice. Nothing contained in this report constitutes a
solicitation, recommendation, endorsement, or offer by Electric Capital or any third party service provider to
buy or sell any securities or other financial instruments in this or in any other jurisdiction in which such
solicitation or offer would be unlawful under the securities laws of such jurisdiction.
Electric Capital has positions in some of the projects mentioned in this report. For a list of past and present
investments, please visit electriccapital.com.
127

Developer Report (Published: December 2020, Updated: April 2021)

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