<\/p>\n
Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions Starknet and zkSync are among the few platforms to have increased their total monthly active developer counts over the last 12 months, data shows.<\/p>\n
While Starknet and zkSync only recorded increases of 3% and 6% respectively, the likes of Ethereum, Polygon and Solana saw their counts cut by 23%, 43% and 57% respectively over the same timeframe, according<\/a> to an updated developer report by Electric Capital, which provided data up to Oct. 1.<\/p>\n Total monthly active developers fell 27.7% from 26,701 developers to 19,279, reflecting a wider downward trend in developers over the last 12 months.<\/p>\n Chainlink, Stellar, Aztec Protocol and Ripple also increased their developer counts as of Oct. 1, though their total monthly active developers were lower than zkSync and Starknet.\u00a0<\/p>\n StarkWare\u2019s Starknet and Matter Labs\u2019 zkSync are layer 2 solutions aimed at scaling Ethereum through zero-knowledge rollups, which have become a focal point in 2023.<\/a><\/p>\n Much of Starknet\u2019s focus<\/a> of late has revolved around its \u201cQuantum Leap\u201d \u2014 which went live in July. It can theoretically increase Ethereum\u2019s TPS (transactions per second) from around 13-15 to 37 TPS consistently and up to 90 TPS in some cases. <\/p>\n Starknet and zkSync have also been working on<\/a> zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) solutions to further scale Ethereum throughout 2023.<\/p>\n Developers at zkSync have also been building a network of \u201cHyperchains\u201d to create an ecosystem of interoperable protocols and sovereign chains<\/a> as part of its zero-knowledge tech stack. The firm unveiled the solution in June and hope to have a working version of it by end of 2023.<\/p>\n Related: <\/em><\/strong>48% fewer new crypto coders last year: Report <\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n In a thread on X on Oct. 18, Electric Capital software engineer Enrique Herreros noted many of the departing active monthly developers were \u201cnewcomers\u201d (less than one year), while the more \u201cestablished\u201d (more than two years) and \u201cemerging\u201d (one to two years) developers have remained relatively steady over the last 12 months:<\/p>\n \u201cWe can see a decrease of -58% in Newcomers, a moderate increase of +11% Emerging Developers and a slight increase of +5% Established Developers,\u201d Enrique said.<\/p>\n .@electriccapital<\/a>\u2019s Developer October Update is here! This is a lighter weight update as we prepare for our annual report.<\/p>\n We inspected 164M+ crypto commits to find: \u2014 Enrique \u26a1 (@eherrerosj) October 18, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Enrique noted this is a cyclical trend where newcomers dominate the developer market during bull markets but then fall in numbers when prices begin to plummet.<\/p>\n Electric Capital typically<\/a> obtains its data from code repos and code commits on open-source developer platform GitHub. <\/p>\n\n
\u2022 19.3K monthly active open source developers as of October 1, 2023
\u2022 Developers have decreased -27% YoY
\u2022\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/bHyMHx29El<\/a><\/p>\n