Metrics: Tracking the Internet Computer’s Growth
A look at the Internet Computer’s developer activity and expanding ecosystem of dapps and users.
The Internet Computer’s public launch catalyzed a wave of developer activity and community growth within the IC ecosystem. Thousands of developers and entrepreneurs are hard at work building on-chain instant message and social media dapps, decentralized exchanges and marketplaces with zero gas or minting fees, NFTs hosted entirely on-chain, secure enterprise software, as well as play-to-earn games and metaverse projects that are impossible elsewhere.
To mark the IC’s first anniversary since Genesis, the inaugural Supernova Hackathon saw hundreds of projects building dapps, services, and products using the world’s most advanced general-purpose blockchain. Thousands of viewers watched demo presentations from the top 42 project submissions, with the best among them sharing $6 million in prizes and funding.
Supernova brought a wave of new developers and users into the ecosystem and helped to kickstart amazing projects and decentralized applications on the Internet Computer. But beyond the activity and excitement of Supernova itself, the event signaled an inflection point for the IC ecosystem’s maturity and growth.
Canisters
The total number of canister smart contracts deployed on the Internet Computer reflects the increasing usage of the blockchain and the development of dapps and projects. This number has progressively grown since the beginning of 2022, and it increased substantially during Supernova and beyond. Some 19,700 canisters were deployed in the six weeks prior to the start of Supernova, with another 27,500 canisters deployed over the six weeks that followed — an increase of 40%.
The pace of this growth continues to show momentum, with an additional 33,500 canisters deployed in the five and a half weeks since the end of the hackathon. The IC recently eclipsed a milestone of 100,000 canisters, and is well on its way to reaching 150,000 canisters soon.
ICP Burned for Computation
Developers on the Internet Computer burn ICP into cycles to be used to pay for computation and storage, making ICP burn for computation (removing burns for DeFi) an excellent measure for determining the growth of the IC ecosystem. In the six weeks prior to Supernova, 3,812 ICP tokens were burned for cycles computation. During Supernova, this figure jumped to 13,791 ICP burned for cycles. While ICP burning has slowed in July, the rate remains well above the 2022 average.
Github Repositories
Coming into May 2022, DFINITY had identified 1,470 public GitHub repos for the Internet Computer. By the end of May that number had grown to 1,697. However June and July had even more rapid growth in repos as June ended with 2,055. July ended with 2,404 public GitHub repositories working on the Internet Computer, representing an increase of roughly 70% since just prior to Supernova’s start.
Internet Identity Accounts
The Internet Identity cryptographic authentication system enables you to sign in securely and anonymously to dapps on the Internet Computer. A total of 7,931 new Internet Identity anchors were created during the six weeks of Supernova, compared to 3,193 during the six weeks prior to Supernova — an increase of 148%.
Grants
Applications for developer grants also increased significantly during and after Supernova. A total of 48 applications were submitted in June, and another 65 applications were submitted in the first three weeks of July, with enterprising developers pitching their ideas to help build out a progressively dynamic ecosystem.
Going Forward
The amazing projects built during Supernova helped to power a remarkable increase in many of the metrics that help us evaluate the growth of the Internet Computer, and we’re thrilled to see this effect persist as the IC ecosystem continues to develop.
As these and other IC projects build out their user bases, raise funds, implement integrations, and increase their application functionalities, they will continue to drive further adoption, activity, and engagement in the ecosystem — delivering more innovation and value to the Internet Computer community.
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