Ethereum Remains the Dominant Blockchain for Developers: Report

Ethereum continues to be the number one blockchain among crypto developers, with more than 70% of new contract codes first deployed on the network, according to the latest report by Electric Capital.

Also, there has been a spread in the distribution of developers globally, with more crypto devs living outside North America, as opposed to steady growth recorded in regions such as Latin America and Western Africa.

More Devs Involved in Multi-Chains

Electric Capital’s 2023 Crypto Developer Report revealed that most of the smart contract code launched on the Ethereum network is unique, while 71% of contracts are first deployed on Ethereum, making it the top blockchain choice for developers.

Meanwhile, the number of multi-chain developers expanded in 2023. Based on the report, multi-chain developers grew from three percent in 2015 to 34% in 2023, signaling a growth of over 10x in eight years.

It is also no surprise to see the cross-pollination of developers across Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains. Such blockchains include BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, and several layer 2 networks. These chains all use the same smart contract logic as Ethereum.

According to Electric Capital, cross-pollination occurs between BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum, with all three chains sharing “at least 30% of their multi-chain deployers with each other.”

Furthermore, BNB shares the largest number of multi-chain devs, with Ethereum at 39%, followed by Polygon at 36% and Arbitrum at 24%, while Avalanche is the lowest at 18%.

40% of Developers Worked on Ethereum and Bitcoin in 2023

In all, a fourth of all blockchain developers deploy either on Ethereum or Bitcoin, with the latter accounting for a larger number of monthly active developers at 7,864 as of December 2023, which was, however, a 25% drop from over 10,400 the previous year,

Bitcoin, meanwhile, recorded 1,071 monthly active developers, declining 19% from 1,322 in December 2022. Most of the decline came from part-time developers and those working on multi-chains, with the report noting that developers who focused solely on Bitcoin were likely to continue working on the network.

Meanwhile, more than 1000 developers have supported Bitcoin since 2017. The highest number of new developers joined the network in 2022, at over 2,700.

Although Bitcoin transaction volumes skyrocketed in 2023 following the resurgence of Ordinals, only three percent of all Bitcoin developers worked on the project, while 40% were dedicated to Bitcoin layer 2 networks and other scaling solutions.

Apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, there were also over 9,300 monthly active developers working on the top 200 crypto ecosystems by market capitalization as of December 2023. The figure, however, is a 31% reduction from 2022 records.

Total Number of Blockchain Devs Fell By Almost a Quarter in 2023

As noted on Electric Capital’s report, monthly active developers dropped 24% to 22,411 in 2023, from 29,611 the previous year, with newcomers less than one year in crypto contributing to a majority of the losses.

Most of these developers with the least tenured experience came into the industry during the bull market and tended to leave during the bear market. The number of newcomers peaked in 2022 at over 90,000 after Bitcoin’s value rose to more than $69,000 and the total market capitalization at nearly $3 trillion in November 2021

“Newcomers who joined in 2022 are the ones who churned and are driving the overall -24% developer loss.”

In contrast, those who have been in crypto for at least over a year continue to grow and contribute to the ecosystem, with 75% of codes by such developers.

Blockchain developers with more than one year of experience in the industry grew 16% in 2023, while their established colleagues — people over two years in crypto — grew 52% in the last five years, reaching an all-time high.

The report also touched on developer distribution globally, stating that 74% are located outside of North America, while the US lost 14% of its developer share since 2018, controlling only 26% in 2023.

Blockchain developers, however, are growing in Latin America, Western Africa, South Asia, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe, increasing by 20% since 2018.