Cardano ($ADA) was #1 Blockchain in 2022 “By Development Activity”, says Santiment

by Arthur · December 31, 2022

On Thursday (December 29, 2022), crypto analytics startup Santiment, which provides tools that make “powerful OnChain, Social & Financial analytics accessible to everyone,” commented on the development activity of the major blockchains in 2022.

Throughout, some extremely harsh critics of Cardano – the most notorious being Mike Alfred, who is a founding board member and first seed investor at Eaglebrook Advisors – have essentially called it a ghost chain, arguing that no one is using it:

Still seeing some lingering signs of irrational exuberance and excessive speculation in the market.

For example, a token that nobody uses called Cardano is up 10% today. If it traded on fundamentals, it would be down 98%.

— Mike Alfred (@mikealfred) 17 January 2022

Ethereum is too expensive, Solana is broken, Cardano doesn’t even exist. It’s a shit show out here in crypto. Fortunately, all the talent and interest is pouring in #Bitcoin now.

— Mike Alfred (@mikealfred) 3 February 2022

But yesterday Santiment said in a blog post that Cardano was the strongest blockchain according to its “Developer Activity” metric

Here is how Santiment defines and explains this metric:

“The development activity of a project is done in its public GitHub repositories. The work done in private depots is hidden from the public and cannot be traced. In Crypto, much of the work is done in public repositories, so this metric is available to many projects.

See also Snowfallprotocol.io (SNW) and the importance of interoperability for the blockchain industry

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“A developer’s time is a relatively expensive resource (especially in Crypto), so high development activity implies that: The project is serious about its business proposition; The project will likely ship new features in the future; It is less likely that the project is just an exit scam. Simply put, development activity can be used to measure a project’s commitment to creating a working product, and continually polishing and upgrading its features.“

On December 21, 2022, the Cardano Foundation explained why 2022 has been an amazing year for the smart contract platform Cardano ($ADA).

The Cardano Foundation is “an independent Swiss-based non-profit organization that monitors and oversees the development of Cardano.” It is the legal custodian of the Cardano brand, and it works with the IOG and EMURGO to “ensure that Cardano is developed and promoted as a secure, transparent and accountable solution for positive global change.” The Cardano Foundation “sets the direction for decentralized financial empowerment, working with regulators in various jurisdictions to shape blockchain legislation and commercial standards, empowering the Cardano community to leverage the Cardano protocol to solve real-world problems.”

Here are some of Cardano’s most important achievements in 2022 mentioned by the Cardano Foundation:

impressive growth of the chain (the number of native tokens, wallets, Plutus scripts, transactions and delegated wallets increased by 192%, 47%, 394%, 139% and 27% respectively);
many new partnerships and collaborations (e.g. with NMKR, UZH Blockchain Center and veritree);
Cardano Summit 2022, which was held on 19-21 November 2022 in Lausanne, Switzerland;
participates in 20+ events (eg Consensus 2022) around the world; and
50 Cardano Improvement Proposals (CIPs) reviewed.