TerraUSD [UST] coming loose from its peg didn’t just drag down the price of the stablecoin, but led to LUNA’s market cap also diving and sent a shockwave of fear and anger through the communities participating in these projects.
But it’s not just a question of price, as investors speculated that Terra developers would migrate to other blockchains. So is this true or do developers still have hope in Terra?
Dive into development
It can’t be denied that Terra has seen a drop in development activity, as this metric has close to halved in the space of a few days. However, users need to acknowledge that there was a brief rise in development activity around mid-May. In order to conclude that developers are leaving, we will have to wait for a more conclusive fall.
Now, let’s take a look at the development activity on Avalanche [AVAX]. Data from Santiment shows no significant surge in developer activity on the network. In fact, this particular metric has been trending downwards since the market crash on 11 May and was pointing downwards even at press time.
What about Solana [SOL]? Well, there might be a case to make here. In spite of SOL falling in price along with most other major cryptos across the board, development activity moved decisively upwards and is close to pre-May crash levels. Considering that development activity on the network has been sliding since the end of April, this is significant news.
Meanwhile, Polygon [MATIC] has been showing a spike in development activity since about 16 May, even as MATIC’s price was slipping down. However, development activity dropped sharply around press time.
Finally, what about Cardano [ADA]? Though on a slight downtrend at press time, development activity on the network has been climbing quickly since about mid-May.
The devil is in the devs
Founder of the Waves [WAVES] project, Sasha Ivanov, recently stoked controversy when he tweeted that he had serious issues with the morals of developers who made “a fortune” from crypto.
Making a fortune off of crypto as a developer is like making a fortune off of cancer cure, morally reprehensible
— Sasha Ivanov 🌊 (1 ➝ 2) (@sasha35625) May 16, 2022
Opinions were split as some investors claimed that developers deserved to receive rewards for their labor, while others felt that developers should care about the project’s long-term viability and not just their pockets.