Back in late 2024, I shared a post visualizing Bitcoin Core contributors.
Fast forward to today. With an LLM sidekick by my side, I thought: Why not go deeper?
After weeks of back-and-forth validation and pipeline building, I'm excited to share:
Orange Dev Tracker (dashboard) – a comprehensive dashboard decoding Bitcoin's development DNA.
Here's what you'll discover:
The Contributor Universe: Every contributor, meticulously deduplicated, to the extent possible*. See their contributions broken down by type (consensus, test, etc.) and impact.
Functional DNA: The codebase dissected into 11 categories (Consensus, Wallet, P2P, etc.). Watch which parts of the fortress are expanding and which are being reinforced.
The Global Heartbeat: A 15-year heatmap revealing Bitcoin's evolution from US-centric development to a truly global, 24/7 operation.
The Professional Era: Track the seismic shift from volunteer hobbyists to sponsored developers. See how organizations like Chaincode, Spiral, and Brink are shaping Bitcoin's future.
The 1% Rule: Visual proof that less than 12 people drive 65% of critical changes. Meet the guardians of the protocol.
Recruitment Velocity:
- How many new contributors join each year
- Retention curves showing who sticks around
- Churn vs. net growth patterns
Global Distribution: Showing contributors from every corner of the world. We are getting new contributors from Asia and Africa?
Love your feedback!
- What metrics or views are missing?
- Do you disagree with any categorizations? Or see errors.
- How can we make this more insightful
Check it out and let me know what you think:
Orange Dev Tracker (dashboard) (lands directly on the dashboard)
(Scrollytelling courtesy of Gemini Pro – why not if I can get it with almost no effort?) (full story)
Some images so you feel it's worth checking it out:
It's all awesome.
If you're thinking about what's next, I'd love a text description, a single sentence or a few lines, describing the trend shown in a graph/chart or what the distribution suggests.
You do this sparingly already, and it's super helpful, so if it were in more places I think it'd go a long way.
Yes, for sure, that's the right way to do it. I'll add them in the next iteration