The Five-Year Journey of the Substrate Developer Community in Asia Pacific
The OneBlock+ Developer Community was established in 2018. After five years of accumulation and precipitation, it has grown into a leading Substrate developer community in the industry. With a mature community ecosystem, we build a comprehensive growth path for developers by producing Substrate-related technical articles, organizing online and offline technical activities, offering a series of developer courses, and hosting the Polkadot Hackathon, continuously enabling developers to explore the Polkadot and Substrate ecosystems.
The OneBlock+ Developer Community is growing rapidly, continuously attracting excellent developers to build and innovate for the prosperity of the ecosystem. Let’s delve into the data to fully understand the OneBlock+ Developer Community.
Key Points:
- A high proportion of experienced developers in the community
- Frequent and high-quality online and offline activities create an active developer community
- The Substrate development course has trained nearly 3,000 Chinese-speaking developers
- The popularity and number of entries in the Polkadot Hackathon soared in 2023
- Nearly 200 Polkadot and Substrate ecosystem startups have emerged from the five Polkadot Hackathons
Developer Profile: Newcomers Continuously Entering, Mainly from Developed Regions
Substrate developers are core members of the OneBlock+ community. As of June 30, 2023, community members cover multiple countries and regions around the world, totaling 37,488 developers. To gain a deeper understanding of the developer profile in the community, we sampled nearly 2,000 Chinese-speaking developers from the community and collected and organized their personal related information. Let’s take a look at the key data of OneBlock+ community developers.
From the perspective of the developers’ actual development experience, 6.61% of the members have no actual development experience, while developers with more than three years of experience account for up to 44.44%, showing that the OneBlock+ community has a group of experienced developers. In addition, the power of developer newcomers cannot be ignored, with members with less than three years of development experience accounting for 48.96%. Cultivating new Substrate ecosystem developers and continuously empowering excellent developers is the initial intention of the OneBlock+ community that has never changed.
From the perspective of the age of the community developers, those born in the 1990s and 1995s together account for 54.01%, constituting the backbone of the community developers. The number of new generation members born after 2000 is also not to be underestimated, accounting for 16.3% in the developer community. Mature developers born in the 1970s and 1980s account for 29.69%. In short, OneBlock+ community developers are distributed in all age groups, from experienced developers to newcomers to development, developers of all age groups are constantly injecting innovation into the community.
From the perspective of the gender of the developers, the gender ratio in the OneBlock+ community is disparate, with male developers accounting for 87.25% and female developers accounting for 12.75%, a nearly 9:1 male to female ratio. The blockchain field, as a typical technology-driven industry, has relatively fewer female developers. In addition, it should also be noted that the number of female developers is gradually rising, and the power of women in the crypto field is on the rise.
Looking at the educational background of developers, developers with undergraduate degrees account for as much as 73.74%, while developers with master’s and doctoral degrees together account for 16.7%. In fact, education is not the only criterion for judging individual capabilities. In the OneBlock+ community, the majority have undergraduate degrees or above, but developers with other educational backgrounds are also making their own contributions.
Finally, in terms of the geographical distribution of developers, foreign Chinese-speaking developers account for 6.68% of the community. These foreign Chinese-speaking developers mainly come from the United States, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, and Malaysia, accounting for a total of 60%. Domestic developers dominate the community, with the top cities being Beijing (22.3%), Shanghai (21.23%), Hangzhou (13.08%), and Guangdong (10.28%). This data is positively correlated with the level of blockchain industry development in each city.
Comprehensive Construction of Polkadot and Substrate over Five Years
Technical articles and events are one of the most rapid, efficient, and low-threshold ways for developers to engage with the Polkadot and Substrate ecosystem. Over the past few years, the OneBlock+ community has continuously produced a large number of original articles and hosted numerous online and offline events.
Original Articles
The “OneBlock 社区” and “OneBlock Community” WeChat Official Account are the main platforms for article output. The “OneBlock 社区” Wechat Official Account was established in 2019, mainly publishing content related to Substrate technology updates and courses. As of June 30, 2023, a total of 126 original contents have been published. Among them, 33 issues of Substrate Ecosystem Technology Chronicles, 23 issues of Substrate Ecosystem Project Technology Monthly Report, and 46 articles related to Substrate courses are published every month. It can be seen that the OneBlock+ community continues to follow the technical iterations of the Substrate ecosystem and continuously cultivates ecosystem developers with quality courses.
The “OneBlock Community” Wechat Official Account was established in 2018 and has several sections such as “Good Technical Articles”, “Exciting Events”, “OneBlock Encyclopedia”, “Exclusive Interviews”, “Technical Live Broadcasts”, “Hackathons”, “Ecosystem Recruitment”, “Course Incentive Plan” and “Ecosystem Project Support Plan”. Among them, the “Exciting Events”, “Exclusive Interviews”, and “Ecosystem Recruitment” sections are very popular, with an average single article reading volume of 1,000+ and a maximum single article reading volume of up to 21,000+ times. This reflects the community developers’ interest in exploring development opportunities in the Web3 field.
Articles in the “Good Technical Articles” section often have a high number of forwards, with an average single community repost count of 20+ and a maximum single reading volume of 3,989 times, showing that the quality of original technical content is high and continues to receive reading and attention from community members. As of June 30, 2023, a total of 322 original articles have been published. Among them, 45 original “Good Technical Articles” were published in 2023, 55 in 2022, and 75 in total from 2019 to 2021, with a total reading volume of 175,000 times. Indirect output of reprinted technical articles totaled 134, with a total reading count of 40,200 times.
The Exclusive Interviews section can help developers more directly absorb industry development experience. So far, we have launched 32 interview articles, interviewing diverse profiles such as industry developers, entrepreneurs, investors, female developer groups, hackathon teams, etc. In addition, the “OneBlock Encyclopedia” section is a special column for interpreting Web3 industry terms and professional concepts planned by the community in 2022. We hope to enable Web3 practitioners and enthusiasts to quickly grasp the frontier knowledge of blockchain and provide knowledge gain for novice developers. So far, 10 issues have been launched.
Exciting Events
To help Chinese developers understand and learn basic knowledge of Substrate, and better use Substrate technology to contribute to the Substrate ecosystem construction, OneBlock+ has been organizing various online and offline technical activities such as AMA, OfficeHour, Workshop, Space, etc. since August 2019. So far, more than 80 issues have been successfully held, with a total of over 10,000 online views. Each event invites well-known experts and technical gurus from the Polkadot and Substrate ecosystem to share topics and practical experiences related to Substrate technology with everyone.
OneBlock+ has also held several offline exchange events in various places. So far, we have held more than 20 offline workshops, developer gatherings, and other activities in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Xi’an, Chengdu, Wuhan, Hefei, Hong Kong, Hangzhou, and other places, with more than 2,000 participants. Through offline activities, we help developers establish connections with like-minded entrepreneurial partners, investors, and industry leaders.
Substrate Development Course Reaches 180,000 Views, Contributing Talent to the Polkadot Ecosystem
The Substrate Blockchain Development series of courses jointly hosted by the OneBlock+ community and the official Parity have successfully held 11 beginner courses, with a course video view count as high as 130,000; 6 advanced courses, with a course video view count as high as 50,000, attracting the attention and participation of over 3,000 developers from home and abroad. Many excellent project contributors to the Polkadot ecosystem have participated in this course. Below we will introduce key data of the series of courses.
Student Profile
According to statistics, nearly 80% of the registered students come from technical development positions, and non-technical positions only account for about 4%. Among them, about 6% are current students, which shows that the understanding of blockchain technology among current students is deepening, and some groups have chosen to study in depth. There are also about 3.5% of freelancers, and some students’ occupations are unknown.
The Substrate development framework is written in Rust language. Currently, 57.18% of course students have relatively junior Rust experience level before the course, and 24.16% of students have some application and practice, while 11.95% of students have never understood it. Most of the course students master Python, Javascript, Go, C/C++, Rust, Java. As the learning path of Rust language is relatively steep, developers who understand Rust can often get twice the result with half the effort in Substrate course learning.
Course Performance
Since the course started in 2019, nearly three thousand developers have been enrolled to participate in the course. Among them, the Substrate Blockchain Development Beginner course has successfully held 11 sessions, enrolling a total of 1,329 developer students, with 544 students graduating successfully, accounting for 41%, and the average excellence rate of students in each course is about 17%. The course teaching video reading volume has reached 129,451 times. The Substrate Blockchain Development Advanced course has successfully held 6 sessions, enrolling a total of 514 developer students, of which 255 students graduated successfully, accounting for 50%, and the average excellence rate of students in each course is about 15%. The course teaching video reading volume has reached 47,801 times.
It can be seen that whether it is a beginner course or an advanced course, the students have a high enthusiasm for course learning, each course video has a high play volume, and basically half of the students can graduate successfully. Undeniably, the learning process of the Substrate development framework is indeed not easy, and the proportion of excellent graduates is relatively small.
In addition, in order to better meet the diverse development needs of developers, we also offer the Moonbeam Beginner — Easy Start to Cross-chain Solidity Development course, tailor-made for zero-based developers to quickly deploy cross-chain, with 810 course students. And the SubQuery Beginner — Easy to Learn Blockchain Data Index Development course, allowing developers to easily build data sources for blockchain projects, with a total of 384 course students.
In summary, the Substrate Blockchain Development series of courses offered by the OneBlock+ community are all public welfare courses. As long as the course students can meet the graduation standards, they can refund the tuition fee for free. We always uphold the idea of helping students learn and master Substrate development through a course, striving to provide developers with quality course services.
Hackathon Popularity Soars, with Over 800 Developers Participating
The Polkadot Hackathon, jointly hosted by OneBlock+ and Parity, has successfully held 5 sessions, with over 200 teams and 800+ developers signing up to participate. We have witnessed the growth of hundreds of projects in the competition. Below we will introduce the key data of the Polkadot Hackathon over the years.
We have successfully held 5 Hackathon competitions: the Spring 2021 Shanghai, the Summer 2021 Hangzhou, the Summer 2022 Hangzhou, the Winter 2022 Chengdu, and the 2023 Shanghai. Each competition has seen a growing number of participating projects, with as many as 80 participating projects at the 2023 Shanghai, a 67% increase from the previous one, and 15 winning projects, an 88% increase from the previous one. It can be seen that the Hackathon hosted by the OneBlock+ community continues to be popular among developers, and we have also strived for more awards for participating projects. The popularity and popularity of the Polkadot Hackathon reached a leap in 2023.
Specifically, the total number of registrants for the five competitions were 110, 85, 145, 208, and 324 respectively. Similarly, the total number of registrants for the Summer 2023 Shanghai increased by 56% year-on-year. Further analysis of the source of the registrants reveals that about 25% of the participants have participated in the ‘Substrate Blockchain Development’ series of courses hosted by OneBlock+ and Parity. It can be seen that from theoretical learning in technical courses to development in practice, the OneBlock+ community provides developers with a Web3 growth path.
In addition, the sponsors of the Polkadot Hackathon over the years have shown an upward trend, and these sponsors mostly come from the winning teams of the previous Polkadot Hackathon. They accumulate project development experience, funding, and resources by participating in the Hackathon. After the growth and development of the project to become a star project in the ecosystem, they then give it back to the ecosystem and provide Bounty awards for participating startups.
Looking at the number of participating projects advancing in each track of the past competitions, the “Parachain track” is popular with DeFi, NFT, gaming, storage, DAO, decentralized market chain and other directions; the “Smart Contract (and related)” track is popular with smart contract platforms, smart contract developer tools and other directions; and the “Blockchain Tools” track is popular with wallets, product suites and other directions. It can be seen that the Polkadot Hackathon fund projects are constantly exploring in diverse fields.
The most popular types are DeFi and NFT, with 19 DeFi class advancing projects, accounting for 20%, and 20 NFT class advancing projects, accounting for 21%. DeFi and NFT are two relatively mature tracks in the crypto field, and most of the participating developers choose to create changes on the basis of predecessors, which is a strategy for quickly building startups.
Building the Substrate Ecosystem with the OneBlock+ Developer Community
Looking back at the OneBlock+ developer community from 2018 to 2023, with the support of all developers in the community, we have achieved and grown. The number of community developers has achieved rapid growth from 0 to 37,488, technical articles have received over 200,000+ readings on the whole network, online and offline activities have covered 12,000+ developers, Substrate development courses have trained nearly 3,000 developers, and the Polkadot Hackathon has trained nearly 200 startups. There are also shortcomings, we will continue to improve in the timeliness of technical articles and course services, and will also hold more offline activities in various places across the country, to bring tangible benefits to developers everywhere.
Choosing Substrate is because the characteristics of Substrate make it more likely to attract excellent developers and builders, and thus contribute to the construction of the next generation of value networks.
Choosing the OneBlock+ developer community is because we revolve around the Substrate ecosystem, frequently produce high-quality articles, hold online and offline technical activities, help developers understand Substrate technology, and master the dynamics of cutting-edge technology. Further, we have set up Substrate development technology courses to help developers understand the technical principles in depth. From theory to practice, the annual Polkadot Hackathon provides developers with a stage for actual combat and opportunities for entrepreneurship. In the future, we will continue to build in the following aspects:
- Enrich the course outline to practical use cases of Rust beginner courses and XCM guides
- Provide Substrate courses in languages other than Chinese to different regions (English, Vietnamese, etc.)
- Provide more community interaction activities, increase community developer stickiness, and assist developers in building the ecosystem
Next, we look forward to establishing cooperation with more excellent Substrate ecosystem projects, jointly creating more high-quality technical courses and content, hosting more abundant Hackathons with ecosystem projects, inviting more developers to join the Substrate ecosystem, and continuing to support Substrate ecosystem developers and entrepreneurs, continuing to dig and help Substrate ecosystem quality projects, thereby promoting the development of the global Substrate technology ecosystem.
About OneBlock+
OneBlock+ is the first and the largest blockchain developer community in China. At OneBlock+, we provide full support for developers with their substrate studies and further set off their career paths. We host Polkadot Hackathons every season to attract top-notch developers to build and innovate for the prosperity of the ecosystem. As a greater China technology resource integrator, OneBlock+ also partners with developers, communities, business elites, and key media who have business insights and experiences in the blockchain industry to provide educational events, such as technical courses, webinars, AMAs, and offline events for the industry. Want to shape the crypto world together? Come and join us today!
