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
Discussion (2)
Yes! This is great information.
It is great to see measurable developer growth on the network. Great article @lance — nice job laying it out for the community.