According to Electric Capital’s 2021 Developer Report, the absolute number of Web3 developers in the United States has climbed 200% since 2017, while it has increased 300% globally.
Using open-source data, analysts estimated that there would be approximately 18,500 Web3 developers by December 2021, up 75% from about 10,500 in January of that year.
The analysis used the location of developers using two methods: code submission timestamps during U.S. working hours, defined as 9 a.m. EST to 10 p.m. EST, and social profiles connected to developer profiles on platforms such as GitHub.
A plot of the historical share of code submissions that occurred during US working hours revealed that the US share fell from 65% in 2012 to 55% in 2022 YTD.
The analysis highlighted that the historical U.S. market share in well-established open-source projects using the same time zone technique remained rather steady over the same timeframe.
However, the report acknowledged that since timezones overlapped with Canada and Latin America, this strategy likely overcounted US developers. Additionally, many Web3 developers in the United States work outside of standard business hours.
While the United States has lost over 20% of its market share since 2015, “Other,” the collective of developers who failed to report their country of origin, has increased to 17.5%.
