In the new year, MetaEra will continue the interview series. We will continue to talk to industry elites and leaders on hot topics and events in the industry, and jointly explore the development and future of Web3. The person interviewed in this issue is Maria, the main author of the Developer Report and partner of Electric Capital.

Article author: Echo, MetaEra

Source: MetaEra

Developer Report

At the end of 2024, Electric Capital released its annual Developer Report. The report provides a comprehensive insight into the development activities of the cryptocurrency ecosystem by analyzing more than 900 million code submissions and 1.7 million code repositories. Once the report was released, it sparked heated discussions in the industry and became the focus of industry attention.

Full report: Electric Capital Developer Report: Asia’s Rise: A New Landscape of Blockchain Developer Ecosystem in 2024

Highlights

Developers are a leading indicator of value creation.

Automatic search tools, community open source classification systems, and collaboration with ecosystem teams ensure that the Developer Report is comprehensive and up-to-date.

The rise of Layer 2 solutions, such as Base, which attracts developers with its low transaction fees, brings new vitality to the Ethereum ecosystem, which means that Ethereum's expansion plan is effective.

Solana’s core competitiveness in attracting developers lies in the active role of the developer relations team, the high number of users, and the resilience of the community. The key to its sustainable development in the future lies in developer retention.

Developers are concentrating on high-quality projects, partly due to natural market dynamics. For example, Eigenlayer has pioneered the heavy staking field, attracting a large number of developers and funds, forming a virtuous circle.

Full Interview

MetaEra: The "Developer Report" released by Electric Capital a few years ago has attracted widespread attention in the industry. The development of the industry ecosystem is inseparable from the developer group. I believe you have spent a lot of energy on this report. What considerations did Electric Capital base this report on? What investment concepts does it reflect?

Maria: Developers are the leading indicator of value creation. They are committed to developing applications that can bring value to users. These "killer apps" will attract users, and as the user base continues to grow, more developers will be attracted to them.

The open source nature of cryptocurrency gives us an unprecedented ability to measure the “flywheel effect” of developer value creation in this rapidly evolving industry.

At Electric Capital, we adhere to a research-driven, data-oriented investment strategy. Developer data is one factor we consider, but it is not the only factor that influences investment decisions.

MetaEra: Could you please give us a brief introduction to Electric Capital and some of its considerations when selecting investment projects? In addition to focusing on technology, what other non-technical factors are considered when evaluating projects?

Maria: Electric Capital is a global venture capital firm with engineering technology as its core. Since its establishment in 2018, it has always focused on investing in early-stage cryptocurrencies and cutting-edge technologies. Investment areas include infrastructure, developer tools, crypto-enabled financial technology, decentralized finance, market platforms, applications, and the intersection of crypto technology and artificial intelligence.

MetaEra: Regarding this Developer Report, what specific research methods and tools did you use when collecting data for the 2024 Blockchain Developer Ecosystem New Landscape Report? How do you ensure the accuracy and comprehensiveness of the data?

Maria: For this 2024 edition of the Developer Report, we looked at 1.7 million code repositories and analyzed a total of 902 million code commits. All data comes from open source code repositories, and we process and analyze it using proprietary infrastructure.

You can explore our taxonomy on GitHub - Crypto Ecosystems . For more information on our methodology, visit: Developer Report Methodology

MetaEra: What is the data collection cycle for the report? Do you consider the impact of special events or trends in the industry in different time periods on the data? How do you deal with these impacts to ensure the objectivity of the data?

Maria: We use three data collection methods:

First, use automated search tools to identify new open source cryptocurrency code repositories.

Second, adopt an open source classification system that allows community contributions: GitHub - Crypto Ecosystems.

Third, communicate and collaborate directly with foundations and teams in major ecosystems to ensure that key code bases are included in the research scope.

Using this continuous data collection method can ensure that the collected data is comprehensive and updated in real time.

MetaEra: Based on the findings of this report, what is your prediction for the overall development of the blockchain developer ecosystem in the next 1-3 years? Which regions and ecosystems may become new hot spots?

Maria: The report shows that over the past decade, the proportion of North American developers in the global developer population has continued to decline. As cryptocurrencies develop more diversely around the world, we expect this trend to continue in the future.

Emerging markets in Africa and Latin America are expected to grow as developers there work to promote financial inclusion, which is expected to drive an increase in the region's developer share, while Asia is likely to continue to dominate the global developer distribution landscape due to its strong interest in cryptocurrencies.

MetaEra: Judging from the geographical distribution of developer activities, different countries and regions have different preferences for blockchain development. What factors do you think cause such differences?

Maria: Ethereum is the world's top ecosystem, followed by Solana in most regions. However, in the third position, different regions present different choices based on community preferences in their own unique development environments. For example, in China, Polkadot successfully ranked third with the strong Chinese developer community behind it; while in India, Base has deeply penetrated the local market through a comprehensive promotion strategy and ranked third in India's popular ecosystem. These differences often reflect the strength of the local community and the effectiveness of developer relationship maintenance work.

MetaEra: The report mentioned that 80% of Ethereum developer turnover comes from part-time and one-time developers. What problems do you think this reflects in the Ethereum development environment? Or is this a common phenomenon in the industry?

Maria: By definition, part-time developers contribute less than 10 days in a 28-day cycle, and one-time contributors usually only do small-scale updates such as document editing. The number of Ethereum part-time developers is decreasing, mainly because amateurs and hackathon participants have left.

When we analyze the developer's active time in depth, we will find that all the lost developers belong to the group with an active time of less than two years. This means that many amateur developers who poured into the field during the bull market in 2022 have since withdrawn from the industry.

MetaEra: As more Layer 2 solutions develop in the Ethereum ecosystem, such as Base becoming the largest Ethereum L2, how do you think this will reshape the overall developer ecosystem of Ethereum? What new opportunities and challenges do developers face?

Maria: It’s really exciting to see the rise of scaling solutions and Layer 2 networks reflected in the data. You know, scaling has been discussed for a long time in the Ethereum ecosystem. Now we see that developers are beginning to accept Layer 2 networks and are no longer just focusing on the mainnet, which means that these scaling solutions are effective and have successfully attracted developers.

Take Layer 2 networks such as Base as an example. With its low-fee application scenarios, it stands out from many solutions and has attracted much attention. This advantage is particularly critical at a time when emerging economies are gradually deepening on-chain activities around the world. This growth trend clearly shows that the Ethereum ecosystem is continuing to expand. On the mainnet, high-value application scenarios continue to emerge; on the Layer 2 network, developers are able to carry out more exploration and innovative attempts, injecting continuous vitality into the entire ecosystem.

MetaEra: What do you think is the reason behind the stable number of Bitcoin developers?

Maria: Overall, the fluctuation in the number of Bitcoin developers is indeed smaller than that of other projects in this field.

The reason is that Bitcoin is the most mature ecosystem after all, and many developers have been working on it for a long time. It is precisely because of its high maturity that it is more difficult to introduce updates and changes in the Bitcoin ecosystem. This often makes Bitcoin relatively less active in exploring new application scenarios.

However, this is changing with the advancement of Bitcoin scaling solutions, the development of smart contracts, NFTs, and DeFi on Bitcoin. In fact, I expect that the number of Bitcoin developers may fluctuate more significantly in the future as the Bitcoin ecosystem begins to expand into these new use cases.

MetaEra: The number of developers in emerging ecosystems such as Solana has increased significantly. What do you think is their core competitiveness in attracting developers? In the future ecological competition, what aspects do they need to focus on to achieve sustainable development?

Maria: Solana has made great achievements in attracting new developers. On the one hand, its developer relations team (DevRel team) is deeply integrated into the construction process of the ecosystem and plays an active role. They establish close and good interactive relationships with developers by organizing various activities, providing technical support and building communication platforms, creating an extremely friendly participation environment for new developers.

On the other hand, developers usually tend to choose blockchains with large usage. Solana has shown its advantages in this regard, especially in areas such as Meme coins and social experiments, where the number of users has shown a significant growth trend. This booming scene has undoubtedly exerted a strong attraction on new developers, allowing them to see the broad prospects of showing their talents on the Solana platform.

Furthermore, Solana has demonstrated amazing resilience in the face of numerous challenges. Behind this is a core community that remains steadfast in its commitment to continue building and innovating on its foundation. The cohesion and dedication of this community gives new developers enough confidence that they can develop stably in the Solana ecosystem.

A crucial factor for Solana’s sustainable development is developer retention. In the future, we will focus on whether Solana can attract and successfully retain high-quality full-time developers in the long term, which will directly affect whether its ecosystem can continue to prosper.

MetaEra: The report points out that the number of developers in some ecosystems has increased, while that in others has decreased. Do you think this is a natural market elimination mechanism or is it more affected by specific external factors?

Maria: Over time, we do see developers moving towards high-quality projects or projects with greater impact. Part of this is undoubtedly due to natural market dynamics, after all, developers will use the time and effort they invest as a selection factor.

The reasons for each ecosystem to scale are also different. For example, Eigenlayer is the fastest growing crypto ecosystem in 2024. EigenLayer is a great example of how a small group of dedicated developers can dig out a valuable use case, attracting more developers and driving the development of the ecosystem. EigenLayer pioneered the heavy staking space, attracted nearly $30 billion in total locked value (TVL) in 2024, and attracted more developers to build automated verification systems (AVSes). This example shows that developers creating useful things can start a virtuous cycle of adoption and further development.

MetaEra: During your research, did you discover any emerging blockchain development trends or niche ecosystem highlights that are not reflected in the report but that you think are worth paying attention to?

Maria: This is an interesting question. There are actually many areas worth paying attention to. I think SocialFi, GameFi and creator-related tracks are all very interesting areas, but unfortunately the report did not have time to cover these areas.

MetaEra: What advice would you give to new developers who want to get into blockchain development? What skills, ecosystems, or industry trends should they focus on?

Maria: In my opinion, there is a shortcoming in the current Crypto, that is, the types of developers involved are not diverse enough. I sincerely encourage friends from all walks of life to get involved in the blockchain field, after all, there is a vast space for experimentation.

Especially in the two major areas of social interaction and consumption, there are many undiscovered usage patterns and application scenarios. With the continuous optimization of user experience and the continuous reduction of transaction fees, I can clearly see the huge potential of new consumer application scenarios.

This field is in urgent need of bold attempts, so I warmly encourage those imaginative people to join in, bravely conduct experiments, and do something unique. After all, only in this way can we discover new usage models and application scenarios of cryptocurrency and promote this field to a more prosperous stage of development.