Cardano (ADA) Founder "Developer Count is Now Meaningless"...AI Destroyed 'Scarcity'

▲ Cardano (ADA), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Coding/AI Generated Image

It has been argued that the 'developer count' metric, which has been used to gauge the growth potential of the blockchain ecosystem, is no longer valid as artificial intelligence (AI) has broken down coding entry barriers.

According to BeInCrypto on September 13 (local time), Charles Hoskinson, founder of Cardano (ADA), explained the development strategy surrounding the privacy-focused blockchain Midnight, asserting that the era of evaluating project competitiveness by the number of developers has ended. The Midnight Foundation recently scaled back parts of its organization responsible for attracting external developers and shifted its strategy to focus on actual business building personnel, whom Hoskinson calls 'builders'.

Hoskinson's logic is that AI has eliminated the scarcity of developers. For the past decade, the blockchain industry has used the number of engineers writing code as a key indicator of ecosystem growth. However, with the spread of AI coding tools, even people without technical knowledge or development experience can now create functional software. He stated, "People without technical knowledge or experience can use these tools to appear like developers," adding, "Developers are no longer a scarce and limited resource."

The problem is that it has become difficult to distinguish between code writers and actual capabilities. This is because participants in code bounty programs and hackathons can submit AI-generated results as if they wrote them themselves. It is pointed out that a structure could be created where project operators spend time verifying whether code was written, instead of attracting new services. Hoskinson emphasized that projects should be evaluated based on securing actual paying users and attracting external investment, rather than simple code output.

However, inconsistencies in strategy remain within the Midnight ecosystem itself. The Midnight Foundation is currently running three hackathons with a total prize pool of $26,500, and a related competition also started in Korea on September 1. Contrary to Hoskinson's argument that developer count and code production are difficult to trust, the foundation is still operating programs that reward code results. Hoskinson also admitted that he and the foundation have different perspectives on this issue.

Ultimately, the next two quarters are expected to determine the success or failure of Midnight's strategic shift. The key is how quickly they can secure products for which actual users pay and teams that attract external capital, moving away from the approach of simply increasing developer numbers. Hoskinson argues that as AI has boosted developer productivity, the criteria for evaluating blockchain ecosystems are also shifting from 'how many people write code' to 'what is being built and who is using it'.

[Article Summary]

-Charles Hoskinson argued that with the proliferation of AI coding tools, the developer count metric in the blockchain ecosystem has become less effective in demonstrating competitiveness.

-Hoskinson emphasized that actual business building capabilities, such as securing paying users and external investment, should be evaluated rather than code output.

-The Midnight Foundation reduced some of its developer organization but continues to operate hackathons totaling $26,500, revealing internal strategic differences.

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