Fund your dependencies

Open Source Observer argues that npm downloads are a poor metric for crypto ecosystem growth and that funding the open source dependencies behind crypto networks is needed. Responding to a chart in Messari's Crypto Theses for 2024, which came from a16z's State of Crypto 2023, the article says downloads for web3.js, ethers and wevm (wagmi + viem) hit all-time highs in late 2023. It proposes alternative metrics: at least 4,000 active open source developers work on projects depending on these libraries, and more than 80K unique addresses on OP Mainnet use apps that depend on them. The article also cites the December 2023 Ledger incident as a reminder that crypto networks are only as secure as their weakest dependency.