Developers Forum for XinFin XDC Network: Lance Lilly

[Informative] XDC Network Developer Report

Lance Lilly — Thu, 01 Feb 2024 18:36:01 +0000

I am proud to share that the XDC Network had another increase in full-time developers and total developers on Electric Capital’s most recent developer report. On December 14th, the XDC Network registered 14 full-time developers – although the report ended on December 31st with 12 developers.

Additionally, total developers increased from 34 in October to 37 in the most recent report, resulting in growth for the entire year and throughout four consecutive reports.

Electric Capital also made some enhancements and updates to their reporting that provide additional insight into developers' contributions. Until this most recent report, the only categories for developers were full-time, part-time, and single contribution developers. These metrics are a good way to monitor open-source and public contributions but lack additional insight and details. With the updates made by Electric Capital we are able to identify and monitor five new metrics that provide more details into the type of developers and their experience in a given ecosystem.

The first two metrics are single-chain and multi-chain developers. In the case of XDC Network, single-chain contributors are only contributing to public repositories within the XDC ecosystem. These developers make up the majority of XDC’s total contributors with 36 of 37 classifying as single-chain. This doesn't necessarily mean they're not building with other chains, however, as only public repository contributions are measured.

In addition to single-chain and multi-chain, there are three new metrics that provide insight into the experience level and growth of developers within an ecosystem. These metrics help identify newcomers, emerging, and established developers. Newcomers are identified as developers that have contributed for less than a year, emerging have contributed for 1-2 years, and established more than two years. Collectively, these new metrics allow you to identify and categorize developers more accurately.

Here is an example of how these new metrics can provide better insight into your developer community. If we look at the single-chain and multi-chain numbers, we can see that 36 of 37 total developers on the report are single-chain contributors. Pair that with 16 newcomers, and it could be assumed that the XDC Network might be their first experience building with blockchain technology. This would mean there has been some success in attracting new developers to the XDC Network rather than simply pulling them from other chains. Using such data can be beneficial to the efforts of developer relations, tooling, and communications.

It's important to remember that this data is generated through public repositories monitored by Electric Capital. Private repositories and on-chain data are not available for consideration in the report. Electric Capital would need to be updated with any untracked or new repositories that developers are working on to generate a more accurate report. As I previously mentioned, any development using the blockchain is not available for consideration. So this doesn't necessarily reflect how much is being built within your ecosystem. However, it still provides valuable information, which can be useful to gauge the health and growth of your developer community and ecosystem.

There is a correlation between public developer activity and adoption success amongst the top blockchain ecosystems in the industry. Open-source protocols and public contributions create a collaborative environment between developers of different experience levels, perspectives, and backgrounds. This creates an environment of innovation, trust, accountability, and opportunity.

While the XDC Network has consistently seen a growing number of contributors, there is still a lot of room for growth as reported by Electric Capital. Ecosystems such as Ethereum recorded 2,392 full time developers with many others having hundreds of full time developers. As it currently stands, XDC Network will need to consistently log around 16-17 full time contributors to show up on the first page of Electric Capital’s report. With nearly 40 total developers appearing on the XDC Network’s report, there is potential for more developers to be recognized as full-time by Electric Capital.

Furthermore, total developers should also continue to grow as the new consensus engine, XDC 2.0, has the potential to further position the XDC Network as one of the best performing and most secure blockchains in the industry. With new features such as subnets (which can serve as Layer 2 solutions or self-sovereign networks) coming with the upgrade, the future of XDC Network’s growing developer community will be interesting to watch. I call on everyone to continue doing their part as the ecosystem continues to grow.

[Informative] XDC Network Increases Developer Contributions

Lance Lilly — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 19:20:53 +0000

In our previous post, we discussed the June 1st developer report from Electric Capital which showed the XDC Network having 8 full-time developers and 28 total developers. A new report for October 1st shows more growth for the XDC Network with 10 full time developers and 30 total developers. Upon analyzing the data between June 1 and October 1 we found that the XDC Network had 12 full-time developers in August!

Electric Capital's developer report doesn't track all development on the network and there are obviously more than 10 developers building on XDC. What this report does provide is open-source activity and development through public repositories. This can be one tool for gauging the health and vibrancy of a developer community and the technology they're working with.

So where did the growth come from? Well, part of this growth came from making sure all the work and contributions from the community were counted. We analyzed the repositories being monitored by Electric Capital and found that many repos were not being monitored. When those repositories were identified we sent a request for them to be added.

Our last report for June 1st had 308 repos and the most recent report shows 323 total repositories. Monthly commits significantly increased from around 280 monthly commits as of June 1st to 364 as of Oct 1st. If we look at August, which had 12 full-time contributors, the total monthly commits were as high as 600!

Just as exciting as the full-time developer growth was the increase in monthly active devs. The XDC Network saw an increase from 25 to 30 active developers. The month of June actually shows 34 developers were active. This statistic is just as important to watch as it can be a good tool for measuring new developers.

Making sure the right repositories are being monitored is vital to accurately measuring everyone's contributions, as we can tell by this new report, but there is still a lot of room for growth. The XDC Network has had an impressive amount of growth in its ecosystem over the past 2 years. With this growth comes increased exposure, impact, and opportunity for contributors to benefit from that.

1 Oct report: https: //www.developerreport.com/ecosystems/xdc

XDC Network repos: https://github.com/electric-capital/crypto-ecosystems/blob/master/data/ecosystems/x/xdc.toml

Electric Capital's About page explains how they measure activity and generate their reports.

Full-time: 10 or more days with commits in the previous 30 days.
Part-time: More than 1 day with commits but less than 10

[Informative] ETH New York Hackathon

Lance Lilly — Wed, 04 Oct 2023 04:09:16 +0000

More than a week ago we wrapped up an eventful week that included a presence at Mainnet and ETH New York. Through ETH Global New York, the XDC Network was able to provide a 10k bounty for its in person hackathon. A team was onsite to educate hackers on the capabilities of the XDC Network and assist them throughout the 3-day event.

Day 1 consisted of developers exploring bounties, attending workshops, and engaging with sponsors to learn more about their technology and ecosystem. This provided an opportunity for us to introduce the network to new developers and attract more development on XDC over the weekend.

On Day 2 the 36-hour clock started ticking. There were some contestants earlier in the day who were still undecided about which chain they were going to build with but mostly everyone was already building. Most of the engagement during this time was with developers needing guidance with their builds, helping them get started, directing them to resources, and answering questions.

By the end of day 2 and beginning of day 3, hackers could be found in every corner of the event with laptops or taking naps anywhere they could find room.

All of the projects submitted at the event were judged and 13 finalists were chosen. One of the thirteen finalists, Air Tracker, built on the XDC Network and also placed 2nd in our 10k prize pool. The developer behind Air Tracker was also a winner at ETH Toronto with the wallet hopper submission. More information on the finalists and winners selected for our bounties has been provided below.

1st
Bounce
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/bounce-jxqoc

2nd & ETH NYC Finalist
Air Tracker
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/airtracker-8qstn

3rd
Safe invaders
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/safe-invaders-coyao

Dev Tools category prize
Proof of Something
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/proofosomething-cw2ji

Money coupons NFT category prize
Xclusiv
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/xclusiv-fiyza

Best NFT application
Linkt.tv
https://ethglobal.com/showcase/linkt-tv-bs3qt

Overall the hackathon was very successful. Enthusiasm for the XDC Network is on the rise and the number of submissions we receive increases at every hackathon. Developers from previous events come and visit the booth to talk about their projects, pain points, success stories, and bugs they encounter. This provides valuable insight into what developers are looking for in a place to build and what they need to be successful.

Hackathons will continue to be a focus of our efforts moving forward. Consistently participating in these events has given the XDC Network some of the exposure it will need to become engrained in developer communities. The increasing number of submissions, repeat contestants, and growing interest from developers after these events, are signs that XDC can become a home for many more projects moving forward.

Developer Growth on the XDC Network

Lance Lilly — Tue, 25 Jul 2023 14:31:31 +0000

Developer growth and community engagement are significant factors one may use to evaluate the health and vibrancy of a blockchain ecosystem. However, that still begs the question: How is growth measured, and what are the signs of a healthy developer community?

There are measures one may use to quantify and qualify development activity, including but not limited to tracking active smart contracts, dApps, code contributions, and gauging full-time and part-time developer activity. This data can be evaluated collectively or monitored on a continuing basis to find trends in a developer community. There is no one way to measure it.

One good example is Electric Capital’s Developer Report which measures the XDC Network’s developer activity and growth, identifying full-time and part-time developers. We will analyze this report, where the gaps might be in their analysis, and how XDC developers can be recognized by the report.

According to this report, the XDC Network had a 100% increase in full-time developers, with the total developer count roughly remaining the same as in previous months. This report is a tool that monitors full-time, part-time, and total developers in different ecosystems in the industry. So how does it measure their activity and who does it consider full-time developers? Let's take a look at an example to better understand how a developer can be considered full-time for the XDC Network.

Full-time developers provide GitHub commits 10 days per month; part-time developers less than 10 days per month; and one-time developers submit just once. These three categories are then added together to count monthly active developers for the network.

What matters to the report isn't necessarily the total commits each month. Rather, it is the number of days with commits. For example, if someone provided 10 commits in three days, they would be considered a part-time developer. Had they submitted one commit each day over 10 days, they would be considered a full-time developer since they made commits on 10 different days over the month. By understanding this measurement, one may observe that the report values consistency over time more than a dev's total output.

Commits from public repositories in the XDC Network ecosystem are monitored in GitHub by Electric Capital. To enhance the quality of reported data, only commits from original authors and repositories are credited. Merging changes from an upstream codebase, copying and pasting from libraries, or even merging pull requests do not count as developer activity. XDC Foundation discovered that many repositories were not being monitored, and submitted them to Electric Capital's GitHub for approval. More information regarding stats, requirements, and other measurables can be found on the developer report dashboard and about page.

Furthermore, certain developers within the XDC ecosystem, who are active on a daily basis, are not being recognized as full-time developers. While there are certainly more than eight full-time developers building on the XDC Network, open and public contributions to the network and community are what matters in the context of this report.

This is significant because these metrics point to developer adoption and engagement. How developers cooperate, share skills and information and contribute to community growth are relevant to how the network services all its participants.

Engagement from the developer community is what separates largely successful, active and supportive networks from others. Developers who actively participate on the network may be able to leverage their profile as a contributor to generate awareness for their blockchain-based projects, as any developer who contributes to the network enough can be recognized as a full-time developer and build their reputation accordingly.

XDC Foundation understands the significance of developers contributing to the community. Going forward, as it works with the broader development ecosystem, XDC Foundation will continue to monitor growth in developer activity and recognize key contributors who demonstrate consistency over an extended time frame. If blockchain ecosystems are truly destined to be driven by decentralized participation, this growth will play a key role in how the XDC Network is used and how the community measures its success.

If you're a developer interested in contributing to the XDC Network, please leave a comment or reach out using one of the contact methods below.

Discord: https://discord.gg/MFeHJ6C5gn
Lancel#7558
LUCKSIN3#9708
CoinClubQuincy#8829

Developer Report
Monitored GitHub Repos

ETH Global at Waterloo

Lance Lilly — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 19:25:48 +0000

The community behind the XDC Network continues its focus of onboarding more developers with the sponsorship of ETH Global, at Waterloo, and participation in its hackathon. The hackathon will create a constellation of developers in Waterloo looking to learn, network, and test their skills in the 3 day event. A total prize pool of 10,000 will be awarded to winners of the hackathon and a live workshop to support the event.

Hackathon categories

XDC Foundation aims to accelerate the expansion and development of the XDC ecosystem with a focus on network adoption and utility. To align with this focus, hackers should submit projects that provide utility to users in a real-world setting. The following categories have been recommended but participants are welcome to interpret them creatively and submit projects of their own idea.

**🤖 Tip Bot for Social Media

🧾 Activity Tracking Bot for Wallet Movements

🎫 Zero-Knowledge Money Coupons in the form of NFTs

🚀 Crowdfunding / Fundraising Platform

🎟️ Token Gated Attendance Activities

🌈 Freestyle**

Prizes

🏆 1st Prize: $3500
🥈 2nd Prize: $2000
🥉 3rd Prize: $1500

Prizes will be awarded for the top submission in each category. Participants that win the top 3 overall prizes will not be considered for category-specific prizes.

🤖 Tip Bot for Social Media: $500
🧾 Activity Tracking Bot for Wallet Movements: $500
🎫 Zero-Knowledge Money Coupons in the form of NFTs: $800
🚀 Crowdfunding/Fundraising Platform: $700
🎟️ Token Gated Attendance Activities: $500

Workshop

Host: Nik Christodoulakis - CTO Enosys
Title: "Mastering dApp Development on XDC: WalletConnect, WAGMI Integration, and Enhancing User Experience"

This workshop will explore the essentials of building a robust decentralized application (dApp) on the XDC Network. Participants will gain practical experience with key aspects of dApp development, including token operations, wrapping and unwrapping, implementing WalletConnect for versatile wallet interactions, and leveraging features WAGMI provides.

Enhancement of user experience will also be covered by creating real-time updates for on-chain changes and implementing user notifications for important events. Whether you're a beginner in the dApp space or an experienced developer looking to enhance your skills, this session provides a comprehensive, hands-on approach to creating user-friendly, dynamic dApps.

Resources

Website
Documentation
Mainnet & Testnet details
Developer forum
Discord

More details about the hackathon categories and prizes can be found here: https://ethglobal.com/events/waterloo2023/prizes/xdc-foundation-oo7wv

Issue with XDC Pay & Trezor

Lance Lilly — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 19:00:18 +0000

There have been many members of the community mentioning an issue with accessing their Trezor wallets with XDC Pay. If you are having this issue you will need to connect with Trezor using MetaMask instead. Simply download MetaMask, add XDC Network, and go through the process of connecting your Trezor device.

Click the network drop down, which should say Ethereum with a down arrow, and select add network.

The next page will be a list of networks to choose from but you will need to select add network manually.

For this next step you will need to use the following information.

XDC Network
https://erpc.xinfin.network/
50
XDC
https://xdc.blocksscan.io/

After you have added XDC Network to MetaMask you can connect your Trezor hardware wallet to MetaMask. Trezor has a short video that walks you through the process of adding your hardware wallet.

https://trezor.io/learn/a/metamask-and-trezor

MetaMask does not use the xdc prefix for an XDC Network wallet address so make sure you replace xdc with 0x when transacting with MetaMask. You can try a small test transaction using the 0x prefix before sending any significant amount of funds just to be safe. You can add other wallets, such as XDC web wallet, to MetaMask as well if you have your key.

Community Call Discord

Lance Lilly — Mon, 17 Oct 2022 14:19:04 +0000

This Wednesday there will be a community call in Discord to discuss the wave of documentation guides, bounties, and other XDC Network topics. Some of the developers that have worked on documentation guides will be present to openly discuss their examples. This is also a great opportunity for all developers in the community to get together and meet up.

The guides highlighted in this call will be the React applications interacting with the XDC Network, ETH to XDC migration, and building a DeFi app. Along with the documentation guides have been videos breaking down different how-to's for the network. All of these will be discussed on Wednesday.

Agin, the entire dev community is welcome to join this call and add any topics they feel should be discussed for the network.

XDC Community Discord
Wednesday, Oct 19th
20:00 UTC/08:00 pm UTC
2pm CST/3pm EDT

https://discord.com/events/1002620393032519790/1030153731985133709

XDC Community Discord & XIP

Lance Lilly — Thu, 25 Aug 2022 19:46:41 +0000

Hello XDC Community

I wanted to let everyone know about the XDC Community Discord server and post an invite link here to join. This server is for the entire XDC community but has been specifically built for XDC Network developers, builders, and participants. It is a place for everyone to discuss important topics, issues, ask questions or help others, and anything else related to the network.

Many of you may already know about the XDC Community and XIP GitHub initiatives announced recently. This Wednesday, August 31 at 10am EDT, there will be a community call in the Discord server to discuss them both. XIP is an important topic that needs input from the dev community so participation is encouraged. An invite link with server and community call details are below.

XDC Community Discord: https://discord.gg/MFeHJ6C5gn
Wednesday August 31, 2022 10am EDT
XDC Community voice channel

Call will be recorded and archived for future XIP reference
New members must read the community guidelines and finish the verification process to access the server.

Build it on XDC Twitter Space

Lance Lilly — Wed, 03 Aug 2022 19:25:13 +0000

I would like to invite the XDC.DEV community to join the Build it on XDC Twitter Space tomorrow. The event will be hosted by XDC Foundation with Arturo Cantera, Quincy Jones, and Johnny Garcia leading the discussion. The developer community is encouraged to join the discussion, ask questions, or even answer questions that may arise during the event. This is an opportunity for developers of any experience level to openly discuss their experience building on the network, and community members to learn more about the builders behind the network.

Set your reminder and join with the link below.

Time: Thursday 04 August, 2022 @1PM EDT
Link: https://twitter.com/i/spaces/1gqGvlNPbVBxB