By James Davis
What’s next for developers of a blockchain whose entire ecosystem collapsed? Terra provides a glimpse. According to an Electric Capital report, over 50% of the 320 open-source developers involved in Terra-based projects before the network’s stablecoin crashed have quitted working on crypto projects.
Terra’s network closed last May after TerraUSD lost its peg with the USD, and in the process, investors collectively lost more than $35 billion. Following the network’s collapse, about 170 developers are reported to have moved away from crypto projects.
Further, 88 developers are still active, and 42 of them have migrated to Cosmos-based projects. Electric Capital reports that 33 developers are still working with Terra to develop the network’s second version. Four others are now working on Solana-based projects, while nine are contributing to Osmosis exchange.
Electric Capital is a firm that collects crypto developer data and also invests in crypto projects. The firm has invested in dYdX, a decentralized exchange, MetaMask wallet, and Kraken, a centralized exchange. Additionally, Electrical Capital uses Github repositories to determine the number of active developers.
Other Blockchains Facilitate Projects Migration From Terra
After Terra’s network crashed, several networks came forward to assist developers in migrating their crypto projects. Juno Network, a blockchain that allows different smart contracts to interact with each other, went ahead to launch a grant program to help developers move projects to the chain.
Terra became among the many crypto ecosystems that lost developers last year. One of those ecosystems is Fantom. Fantom is a blockchain connecting to Ethereum via a bridge chain. However, the rising cases of DeFi bridge hacks have stagnated its growth.
Report Shows More Developers Joined Crypto Space in 2022
Meanwhile, Electric Capital reports that despite many Terra developers leaving the blockchain space, the crypto developer community saw a 6% growth last year. For the first time, over 60,000 developers were involved in crypto projects in 2022.
In addition, there were indications that Ethereum and Bitcoin dominance was starting to decline, at least in terms of developers. Over 70% of the active developers contributed to projects outside the two biggest blockchains. Developer activities on Solana and Polygon grew by 39% each, as per Electric Capital.