Key Insights
- Hackathon activity indicates consistent growth measured by the number of submissions, with only one out of six hackathons (Riptide) showing a decline in activity from the hackathon prior.
- Compared to Ethereum, Solana hackathons are bigger but far less frequent. Social and gaming projects feature prominently in both.
- Other metrics like protocol-level activity and developer team growth show that while it may still trail Ethereum, Solana’s ecosystem resembles healthy growth more than imminent decline.
Crypto Twitter quickly proclaimed the death of Solana after a few noteworthy figures left the Solana ecosystem to build on new monolithic competitors Aptos and Sui. Noteworthy VCs equated Solana in 2022 to EOS in 2017 — an unsavory comparison to say the least.
On the other end, equally noteworthy VCs hold the opposite, more optimistic view — that Solana today is more 2018 Ethereum than 2017 EOS. We all remember Ethereum’s explosive growth post-2018.
Which take is correct? Nobody has a crystal ball, but the best way to predict the future is to understand the present the best. With that in mind, it’s best to understand who is currently building what in the Solana ecosystem. Metrics like on-chain trading activity are easily gamed. Hackathons are a comparatively less noisy source we can look at to give an indication.
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