Ethereum continues to hold its position as the preferred blockchain for developers, with over 70% of new contract codes being initially deployed on the Ethereum network, as per Electric Capital’s latest report.
Despite Ethereum’s dominance, there has been an increase in the number of developers working on multiple blockchains. The 2023 Crypto Developer Report by Electric Capital reveals a significant rise in multi-chain developers, growing from just 3% in 2015 to 34% in 2023, signifying a 10x increase over eight years.
Cross-pollination of developers across Ethereum and Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchains is common. These EVM-compatible blockchains, including BNB Chain, Polygon, Avalanche, and various layer 2 networks, share the same smart contract logic as Ethereum. The report notes that BNB Chain, Polygon, and Ethereum share at least 30% of their multi-chain deployers with each other.
Among these blockchains, BNB Chain has the largest share of multi-chain developers at 39%, followed by Polygon at 36%, Arbitrum at 24%, and Avalanche at 18%.
The report also highlights that 40% of developers worked on both Ethereum and Bitcoin in 2023. Bitcoin, with 7,864 monthly active developers as of December 2023, had a 25% decline from over 10,400 the previous year. Ethereum had 1,071 monthly active developers, down 19% from 1,322 in December 2022. Most of the decline in Bitcoin development came from part-time developers and those working on multi-chains.
While Bitcoin transaction volumes surged in 2023, only 3% of Bitcoin developers worked on the project, with 40% focusing on Bitcoin layer 2 networks and other scaling solutions.
Apart from Bitcoin and Ethereum, there were over 9,300 monthly active developers working on the top 200 crypto ecosystems by market capitalization as of December 2023. However, this figure represented a 31% reduction from the previous year.
The total number of blockchain developers decreased by nearly a quarter in 2023, with monthly active developers dropping from 29,611 in 2022 to 22,411 in 2023. This decline was largely attributed to newcomers with less than one year of experience in crypto, many of whom entered during the bull market and left during the bear market.
In contrast, developers with more than one year of experience in crypto grew by 16% in 2023, while those with over two years of experience increased by 52% over the past five years, reaching an all-time high.
The report also noted a shift in developer distribution globally, with 74% of developers located outside of North America. The US saw a 14% decrease in its developer share since 2018, accounting for only 26% in 2023. In contrast, Latin America, Western Africa, South Asia, Southern Europe, and Eastern Europe have experienced a 20% increase in blockchain developers since 2018.