Starknet and zkSync buck trend as crypto ecosystem drains devs by 28%

Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions Starknet and zkSync are among the few platforms that have increased their overall monthly active developer count over the past 12 months, data shows.

While Starknet and zkSync recorded increases of 3% and 6%, respectively, the likes of Ethereum, Polygon and Solana fell by 23%, 43% and 57%, respectively, during the same period, according to an updated developer opinion. In the report of Electric Capital, which provided information until October 1.

Total monthly active developers fell 27.7% to 19,279 from 26,701 developers, reflecting a broader downward trend in developers over the past 12 months.

Chainlink, Stellar, Aztec Protocol, and Ripple have increased their developer numbers since October 1st, although their total monthly active developers are lower than zkSync and Starknet.

Starkware's Starknet and Matter Labs' zkSync are layer 2 solutions aimed at zero-knowledge expansion of Ethereum, becoming a focal point in 2023.

Much of Starknet's attention revolved around the “Quantum Leap” that came out in July. In theory, it can increase Ethereum transactions per second (TPS) from around 13-15 to 37 TPS consistently and in some cases up to 90 TPS.

Starknet and zkSync on Zero-Knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) solutions They are working to grow Ethereum even more throughout 2023.

Developers at zkSync are building a network of “hyperchains” to create an ecosystem of interoperable protocols and sovereign chains as part of a zero-knowledge technology stack. The company announced the solution in June and hopes to have a working version by the end of 2023.

Related: 48% Fewer New Crypto Coders Last Year: Report

In a thread posted on X (formerly Twitter) on October 18 by Electric Capital Software Engineer Enrique Herreros, many of the active monthly developers who quit are “newcomers” (less than a year), while more are “established” (more than two years) and “junior” (more than one (up to two years) Developers have remained relatively stable over the past 12 months:

“We can see a -58% decrease in newcomers, a slight increase of +11% in emerging developers and a slight increase of +5% in established developers,” Enrique said.

.@electriccapital's Developer October Update is here! This is a lightweight update as we prepare for our annual report.

We analyzed 164M+ crypto activities to find: • 19.3K monthly active open source developers as of October 1, 2023 • Developers down -27% •… pic.twitter.com/bHyMHx29El

— Enrique ⚡ (@eherrerosj) October 18, 2023

Enrique pointed out that this is a cyclical trend where new entrants dominate the developer's market during bull markets but decrease in numbers when prices fall.

Electric Capital usually gets its data from code repos and code on the open source developer platform GitHub.

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