Key Points

  • Crypto development activity helps you judge whether a project is shipping real work, or living on marketing cycles.
  • GitHub activity for a crypto project is useful, but only when you check the right signals (releases, contributors, issues, pull requests), not raw commit counts.
  • A “strong community” is not the same as adoption… you want builders, users, governance participation, and support activity, not just followers.
  • Good communities create documentation, tooling, meetups, hackathons, and repeat contributor behaviour… weak ones mainly create noise.
  • Use one repeatable checklist so every altcoin gets judged the same way, even when you are excited.
  • If any terms feel unfamiliar, keep the Crypto Glossary open while you read.

Quick Answer

To evaluate a crypto community, look for evidence of builders and users, not just social size. To check developer activity in crypto, review public GitHub signals (recent releases, active contributors, issue and pull request flow), then cross-check with ecosystem proof (grants, hackathons, governance forums, documentation updates). Strong projects leave clear public footprints across multiple channels.

Where This Lesson Fits

Lesson 9 covered regulatory compliance and why rules can shape whether a project can scale. Lesson 10 focuses on the two things that keep an altcoin alive over years… builders shipping, and a community that supports growth beyond price chatter.

This lesson is part of the Fundamental Analysis for Beginners series. For the full lesson map and all supporting guides, visit the Fundamental Analysis hub.

What “Community” Means In Crypto

Most people use “community” as shorthand for “the project has a lot of loud supporters”.

For research, community is more specific. It is the combined force of:

  • Builders creating apps, tools, and integrations
  • Users returning because the product is useful
  • Governance participants making decisions and funding work
  • Support contributors helping others onboard and troubleshoot
  • Educators producing guides, demos, and developer resources

A large social audience can exist without any of the above. That is why you need proof signals.

timelapse photo of people passing the street
Photo by mauro mora / Unsplash

How To Evaluate A Crypto Community

Use these as your core checks. You do not need all of them, but you should see several.

Signal 1: Builder Density And Ecosystem Behaviour

Ask one simple question: are people building things that make the chain or protocol more useful?

What to look for:

  • A grants programme with real winners and shipped outcomes
  • Hackathons that produce projects that still exist months later
  • Developer documentation that improves over time
  • Tooling, SDKs, dashboards, indexers, wallets, integrations

Real example you can verify: Solana grants and funding
Solana publicly maintains grants and funding pathways for builders. That is a builder signal you can verify without relying on social claims.

Signal 2: Governance Participation That Looks Real

Governance is not perfect, but it leaves footprints when the community is doing actual work.

What to look for:

  • An active governance forum with ongoing proposal discussion
  • Transparent processes for drafts, temperature checks, and on-chain votes
  • Delegates, working groups, and post-vote accountability

Real example you can verify: Arbitrum Governance Forum
Arbitrum’s governance forum shows live categories for proposals, technical discussion, and announcements, including a visible volume of proposals.

Real example you can verify: Uniswap governance discussion and process
Uniswap runs an active governance forum, and the Uniswap Foundation documents key requirements and phases for on-chain proposals.

Signal 3: Support Quality And Onboarding Friction

Projects with real users usually develop support gravity.

What to look for:

  • Clear docs and FAQs that solve recurring user issues
  • Active developer channels that answer questions
  • Bug reports and issue tracking that looks normal, not hidden
  • Public changelogs and transparent incident write-ups

If everything is always “perfect” and there are no real issues being handled in public, that can be a warning sign, not a badge of honour.

a couple of traffic lights that are on a pole
Photo by an thet / Unsplash

Crypto Development Activity: What It Is, And What It Is Not

Development activity is a proxy for effort and shipping… not a guarantee of success.

It helps answer:

  • Is the team and contributor base doing sustained work?
  • Are they maintaining and upgrading what they have shipped?
  • Are they responding to problems, audits, and user feedback?

But it does not answer:

  • Is the token cheap or expensive?
  • Will the token outperform?
  • Is adoption guaranteed?

Treat it as a quality filter, not a price prediction tool.

How To Check Developer Activity In Crypto Using GitHub

Here is a practical workflow you can reuse for any project.

Step 1: Find The Correct GitHub Organisation And Core Repositories

Start from the project’s official website and documentation, then confirm you are in the right GitHub org.

Red flag: multiple “official” repos with no clarity on which one matters.

blue and black penguin plush toy
Photo by Roman Synkevych / Unsplash

Step 2: Check Releases And Versioning First

Releases tell you whether software is being shipped in a structured way.

What to look for:

  • Recent tagged releases
  • Release notes that explain changes
  • A cadence that fits the project type (fast-moving apps vs slower infrastructure)

A repo with constant commits but no releases can be busywork. A repo with releases but no discussion can be centralised. You want a healthy mix.

black and white striped textile
Photo by Mitchell Luo / Unsplash

Step 3: Check Contributors And The Shape Of Work

Look at:

  • Unique contributors over time
  • Whether work is concentrated in one or two accounts
  • Pull requests merged by multiple maintainers
  • Issues being opened, discussed, and closed with visible progress

This is how you avoid being fooled by raw commit spam.

Step 4: Check Issue Quality And Response Behaviour

Issues are where you see real engineering behaviour.

What to look for:

  • Repro steps and clear bug reports
  • Maintainer responses
  • Labels, milestones, and prioritisation
  • Fixes linked to releases

If issues are ignored for months, or disabled entirely, that is information.

Step 5: Cross Check With Independent Dev Data

Public GitHub review is manual. You can also use datasets that aggregate development activity across ecosystems.

Two references worth knowing:

  • Electric Capital’s Developer Report, ecosystem-level trends from open source data
  • Santiment’s approach to measuring development activity using GitHub events rather than naive commit counts

Worked Example: What “Developer Momentum” Looks Like In Public Data

This is how to turn the idea into something concrete.

Electric Capital’s developer reporting highlighted that, in 2024, Solana attracted 7,625 new developers out of 39,148 new developers entering crypto, with Ethereum still leading overall developer share.

What to learn:

  • Ecosystem builder momentum can shift over time
  • New developer growth is a real signal, but it still needs adoption and product proof
  • Use this as a directional input, then verify on the ground with grants, hackathons, docs, and GitHub workflow

Common Traps To Avoid

  • Treating follower counts as “community strength”
  • Trusting screenshots of “partnerships” or “users” without any supporting footprint
  • Looking at raw commit totals instead of releases, contributors, and issue flow
  • Assuming low GitHub activity means no development (some teams build privately), but also assuming “private repos” explains everything
  • Confusing loud narratives with sustained builder behaviour

Mini FAQs

What is crypto development activity?
Crypto development activity is evidence that a project is building and maintaining software over time, often measured through public repository work and release behaviour.

How to check developer activity crypto projects show?
Review releases, contributor activity, pull requests, and issue handling in the project’s public GitHub, then cross-check with ecosystem signals like grants and hackathons.

What is GitHub activity for a crypto project?
GitHub activity includes visible engineering events like commits, pull requests, issues, reviews, releases, and contributor participation in public repositories.

How to evaluate a crypto community properly?
Look for builders, governance participation, documentation, support behaviour, and repeat contributors, not just social size.

Can a strong community exist without real adoption?
Yes. A project can have a large audience and still have weak user retention or limited builder activity, which is why you need multiple proof signals.

Next Lesson

In this lesson you learned how to evaluate a crypto community using proof signals, and how to check crypto development activity using GitHub and independent dev datasets.

Next, Lesson 11 shows you how to evaluate competitors, compare positioning, and avoid “category blindness” when two projects claim to solve the same problem.

For the full lesson map and all supporting guides, visit the Fundamental Analysis hub.

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The filter beats the feed.

This content is for education and information only and should not be considered financial advice. Crypto assets are volatile and high risk. You are responsible for your own research and decisions, and you should consider seeking independent financial advice where appropriate.