Building on Ethereum is More Popular Than Ever Despite Price and Search Decline

The number of web developers building applications on Ethereum has increased year-on-year since 2018. According to data from npm.stat, which displays the number of times a JavaScript code library has been downloaded, more Ethereum-specific code packages were downloaded in 2020 than in 2018 and 2019 combined.

Ethereum ‘Buidlers’ Keep on Building

The two most commonly used JavaScript libraries in Ethereum are Ethers.js and Web3.js. Seen below, courtesy of ChainShot.com, the use of both code libraries rapidly expanded over the past two years.

ethereum-javascript-downloads — Downloads of Ethereum-specific JavaScript libraries increased year-on-year since 2018. Source: ChainShot

Combining the figures from both code libraries, it can be seen that downloads of Ethereum-specific code increased 400% since 2018. The drastic uptick in the number of developers is all the more impressive because Ethereum did little but decline during the period in question.

Both the ETH coin price and the volume of Google search interest for Ethereum exhibited a significant decline after the flash-point of the 2017-2018 bull run. Current Google Trends data suggests Ethereum is being searched for 87% less than it was during its all-time high.

ethereum_google_trends_data — Google searches for Ethereum plummeted while experimentation with its code libraries increased. Source: Google Trends.

Likewise, despite more than doubling in value in 2020, Ethereum remains a long way off its all-time price high of $1,432.

However, it appears as though developers have not been perturbed. The graph below shows weekly download figures for Ethers.js on its own. In January of 2018, weekly downloads totaled a mere 918. By the summer of 2020, that figure had jumped to 196,423, marking a 21,296% increase.

ethereum_java_downloads_per_week — Downloads of Ether.js alone increased by 21,296% since 2018. Source: Npm.Stat

Ethereum JavaScript Gaining Ground

All in all, Ethereum libraries were downloaded 9.5 million times in 2020. For some context, the most commonly used JavaScript code library on the internet is Lodash. Lodash was downloaded 832 million times in 2020, meaning Ethereum downloads are now equal to just over 11% of the most used JavaScript library on the internet.

For further context, Lodash downloads have more than doubled since 2018. By comparison, the 400% growth of Ethereum-specific downloads in the same period seems all the more remarkable – especially given that Ethereum has been in a bear market the entire time.

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