Polkadot ($DOT), a blockchain network often described as a “blockchain of blockchains,” has maintained its position as the leading cryptocurrency network by development activity, after surpassing Cardano ($ADA) earlier this year.

According to data from on-chain analytics firm Santiment, Polkadot remains the leading cryptocurrency in terms of development activity, with Kusama (KSM) and Cardano (ADA) following closely behind as the top three digital assets in this regard.

The term “development activity” refers to the amount of work completed by a cryptocurrency project’s developers on the project’s public GitHub repositories within the past 30 days.

Unlike other measures, Santiment’s metric focuses on “events” rather than the total number of commits. Events encompass various actions taken on GitHub repositories, such as pushing a commit, forking a repository, or creating an issue.

This approach provides a more accurate representation of the developers’ actual work, as it prevents duplication or inaccuracies that may occur when measuring development activity solely by commits.

For instance, forking creates a duplicate copy of a repository, including all previous commits. By counting the forking action as a single event, Santiment avoids falsely attributing older commits to new developers.

According to Santiment, Polkadot and Kusama boast a significant lead over other cryptocurrencies in development activity, with values of 4,117 for both coins. Meanwhile, Cardano, currently in third place, has experienced a recent decline, bringing it closer to Cosmos ($ATOM) in fourth place.

Kusama, it’s worth pointing out, is a public pre-production environment for the Polkadot network. Over the past few years, both DOT and KSM have demonstrated steady growth in development activity, while ADA has remained relatively stable, albeit at high values.

Development activity is an important indicator of developers’ commitment to a project, and while it is not the only metric, a high level of activity can be a positive sign that a coin is not merely an exit scam.

As CryptoGlobe reported, Polkadot saw its active user numbers surge 300% amid last year’s cryptocurrency market rout. Polkadot’s main blockchain, called the relay chain, does not support smart contracts, but other blockchains connected to it can support them. 

As a result, Polkadot is expected to become a growing ecosystem of cryptocurrencies that competes with other smart contract networks such as Ethereum, the BNB Chain, and more. It was launched in 2020 and brings a number of technical features that help it reach its goal.

DOT is the native cryptocurrency of the Polkadot network and serves as its governance token. DOT holders can stake their tokens to vote on network upgrades and help decide the future of Polkadot by actively participating in its governance, according to CryptoCompare.

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