Layer-2 Scaling Solutions for Ethereum ZkSync and the Starknet malware Observe an Assemblage of Active Developers

The total number of monthly active developers for Ethereum layer-2 scaling solutions Starknet and zkSync has reportedly increased over the past year, as reported by Cointelegraph. zkSync experienced a 6% increase, whereas Starknet witnessed a 3% surge. As per an updated developer report by Electric Capital, Ethereum, Polygon, and Solana, on the other hand, each witnessed a decrease of 23%, 43%, and 57% throughout the corresponding time frame. From 26,701 to 19,279, the total number of monthly active developers decreased by 27.7%, reflecting a broader downward trend among developers over the past year.

As of October 1st, developer counts for Chainlink, Stellar, Aztec Protocol, and Ripple also increased, albeit with a lower total of monthly active developers compared to zkSync and Starknet. Layer-2 solutions such as Starknet by Matter Labs and zkSync by StarkWare are designed to scale Ethereum via zero-knowledge rollups, a topic that has gained significant attention in 2023. Recent attention from Starknet has been directed towards its "Quantum Leap" functionality, which became operational in July and has the potential to increase Ethereum's transactions per second (TPS) from approximately 13–15 to 37 TPS on average and from 90 TPS in certain circumstances.

Additionally, throughout 2023, Starknet and zkSync have been developing zero-knowledge Ethereum Virtual Machine (zkEVM) solutions to further scale Ethereum. As part of its zero-knowledge technology stack, zkSync developers have been constructing a network of "Hyperchains" to establish an ecosystem comprising sovereign chains and interoperable protocols. The solution was introduced by the company in June, and a functional iteration is anticipated by the conclusion of 2023. According to a thread published on October 18 by Enrique Herreros, a software engineer at Electric Capital, a significant proportion of the active monthly developers who are leaving were novices (less than one year of experience), whereas more seasoned (over two years) and up-and-coming (one to two years) developers have maintained a relatively stable performance over the past 12 months. According to Enrique, this is a cyclical pattern in which the number of newcomers to the developer market decreases as prices begin to decline, but increases during bull markets. Electric Capital obtains the majority of its data from code repositories and commits on GitHub, an open-source developer platform.