Cardano Creator: AI Has Undermined the Measurement of Blockchain Growth

Charles Hoskinson, the founder of Cardano, believes that AI tools have devalued the number of developers as a metric for measuring blockchain growth. He stated that now individuals without sufficient technical knowledge can generate code with the help of AI and present themselves as developers. Hoskinson made these remarks in defense of Midnight, Cardano's privacy-focused blockchain. The Midnight Foundation recently reduced part of its team dedicated to attracting external developers and shifted its focus towards "creators." Hoskinson explained that for years, the number of active engineers in a network was one of the common metrics to indicate the growth of blockchain ecosystems, but AI coding tools have changed this situation. He added that individuals with no technical knowledge or experience can use these tools and appear similar to a developer. This change has made it difficult to distinguish between codes written by participants in programming competitions and coding reward schemes. Instead of focusing on the number of developers, Hoskinson considers attracting projects with users who pay for their products and targeting foreign investors to be a more important goal. However, the Midnight Foundation still holds programs to attract and evaluate developers and is currently hosting three hackathons with a total prize pool of $26,500.