Consecutive ATH smart contract deployments and rising usage of Web3 script libraries indicate that despite the lengthy market downturn, Web3 developers are still working hard.
Developers, with one Web3 platform claiming they are "more active than ever" - notably on the Ethereum network.
Web3 development platform Alchemy revealed in a new Q3 2022 report released on Oct. 13 that 2022 might be the "greatest year yet" for Web3 developers.
As per the report, over 36% of all smart contracts ever released and certified on the blockchain were in 2022, a total of nearly 118,000 compared to the over 323,700 ever deployed.
This is despite the fact that the Ethereum price has dropped by about 66% since the beginning of the year, and the total value locked in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols has dropped by roughly 70% year to date, according to sources data.
Nonfungible token (NFT) trade volumes have also dropped by 98% since late January.
Alchemy states that smart contract deployment surged by 40% from the first quarter of the year, with successive all-time highs recorded every month during the third quarter, culminating at 17,376 in September alone.
The data also reveals that smart contract deployments climbed 143% from the third quarter of 2021 to more than 48,500 in the third quarter of 2022.
According to Alchemy, smart contract deployment surged by 14% in the two weeks following Ethereum's Merge — when the blockchain switched from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake consensus — implying that some developers may have been waiting for the event to launch their projects.
The company also investigated the use of two Web3 script libraries, Ethers.js and Web3.js, which enable developers to access blockchain data and create Web3 products.
The team discovered that the number of developers installing either library has surged thrice from Q3 2021 to over 1.5 million downloads per week on average.
Although some have suggested that the present crypto bear market is an excellent opportunity to launch Web3 products, this has not necessarily been the case in prior cycles.
As per Alchemy's report, the 2017 to 2020 bear market witnessed a 45% drop in smart contract installations over the middle of the cycle, from 2018 to 2019, though that indicator has rebounded by 50% this year from 2021.
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