Developer retention in Solana ecosystem increased in 2023, foundation reports
Quick Take
- The Solana Foundation reported improvements in developer onboarding and retention during 2023.
- The foundation attributed this to enhanced tooling and educational resources within the Solana ecosystem.
Three-month developer retention in the Solana 
SOL
-2.72%
ecosystem increased from 31% to more than 50% over the course of 2023, according to a report from the Solana Foundation.
The foundation attributed this to improvements in developer onboarding and increased opportunities in the ecosystem. The report evaluated the retention rate by measuring the number of developers that have made at least one commit in three consecutive months.
According to the report, some 400-500 Solana developers are graduating from multiple developer bootcamps every six months, with job listings growing 500% throughout the year.
Developer retention. Image: The Solana Foundation.
The improved retention rate helped to maintain 2,500 to 3,000 monthly active Solana ecosystem developers during 2023, according to GitHub data.
Developer experience and global reach
The Solana Foundation also attributed improved activity to enhanced tooling for multiple programming languages and additional educational resources, though it said there is room for improvement in areas such as testing and debugging.
It emphasized the ecosystem’s global growth, with initiatives like SuperteamDAO expanding to eight countries in 2023. This global expansion is also reflected in the diverse participation in Solana hackathons and other events, with over 150 countries represented.
“Over the past three years, more than 3,000 projects have launched and over $600 million in funding has been raised for projects submitted to the hackathons,” the Solana Foundation wrote. “With each hackathon, the number of project submissions has increased. The most recent hackathon, Solana Hyperdrive, had more than 900 submissions.”
The increase in developer activity within the Solana ecosystem in 2023 coincided with a strong year for Solana's native cryptocurrency. SOL was the best performer among major altcoins last year, gaining over 1,000% from around $10 at the start of the year to $102 at the end of it, according to The Block’s price data. SOL is currently trading at $101.
In December, Solana set fresh records for new and active monthly addresses amid the price rally.
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