The cryptocurrency industry continues to experience a significant evolution, fueled by a geographical change in developer activity and the emergence of new blockchain ecosystems. Electric Capital recently released an annual developer report that disclosed crypto developers’ outlook worldwide.
The report acknowledged that seasoned developers, those with more than two years of experience, have increased significantly. Currently, they are creating 70% of code contributions across prominent blockchain platforms.
However, fresh talents also work in the industry and interact with experienced developers. This highlights that the crypto industry is set for a future where innovation is strongly collaborative and global. As per the report, a whopping 39,148 new developers explored the cryptocurrency industry in 2024.
Polygon is the 3rd largest blockchain in Asia and South America
According to the report, SOL emerged as the most attractive protocol among new developers, beating ETH for the first time in history. As revealed by the report, 2024 is the first year since 2016 when a different protocol emerged and outpaced ETH as the most preferred protocol among developers. As stated by the report, 7,625 new developers chose Solana as their preferred blockchain ecosystem while 6,456 new developers favored Ethereum.
However, Ethereum still remains the leading ecosystem for the development of decentralized applications overall. The data ranked Ethereum as the number one ecosystem by developer share on every continent. It went ahead and ranked Solana as the second largest blockchain ecosystem across all continents having experienced a growth of 83% year-to-year in developer count.
The metrics also identified several blockchains taking the third position. Polygon is ranked the top 3 largest and fastest-growing crypto ecosystems in Asia and South America, following Ethereum and Solana. The third position is also held by Polkadot Network, which is the third largest chain in Europe, behind Ethereum and Solana. Base, an Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, also grabbed the third position as it is the third largest crypto protocol in North America, trailing Ethereum and Solana. The data also ranked Internet Computer as the third largest blockchain in Africa, behind Ethereum and Solana.
The growth of emerging blockchains
Although Ethereum and Solana remain dominant blockchains, other emerging protocols like Polygon, Polkadot, Base, Internet Computer, and others are creating their niches. Each of these protocols has attracted more than 1,000 new developers this year, indicating a rising variety in this landscape. This trend highlights a wider maturation of the cryptocurrency world, where tech innovations and specialized applications are fueling adoption across several blockchains.
With the development of the Web3 landscape, various kinds of blockchain applications are constantly emerging to realize the need for decentralized applications among Web3 users.
Ethereum is the initial application chain that allows developers to develop complex smart contracts and dApps with a broad variety of functionalities. But due to limitations facing it, other blockchains emerged to offer faster, cheaper transactions, and higher scalability for developers.
