When evaluating a network, developer activity is one of the few metrics that tends to matter over long time horizons. It doesn’t move quickly, it isn’t flashy, and it usually doesn’t react to short-term price swings. That’s precisely why it’s useful.
Below is a current, data-driven look at Kaspa developer activity as of January 13, 2026, based on publicly visible repositories and contribution data.
Core protocol development
Kaspa’s main reference implementation today is the Rust full node. This repository shows 47 unique contributors over its lifetime. Before the Rust transition, the legacy Go implementation accumulated 38 contributors before being deprecated in 2025.
This transition is important to interpret correctly. The move from Go to Rust did not mark a reset or a loss of developer interest. Instead, it reflects a technical shift, with existing contributors continuing their work while new developers joined during and after the rewrite. The higher contributor count on the Rust node suggests expansion rather than simple migration.
In practical terms, this means core development has remained active while evolving technically, rather than stagnating or fragmenting.
Ecosystem-wide development
Looking beyond the core node gives a more complete picture. When aggregating activity across:
- the core protocol repositories,
- wallets (desktop and mobile),
- explorers and tooling,
- infrastructure and improvement proposal repositories,
there have been 64 unique developers contributing code within the last 12 months.
This number matters because Kaspa development is not centralized in a single codebase or team. Different components are maintained by smaller, focused groups, which is typical for infrastructure-oriented networks. Core protocol work tends to have a tighter contributor set, while application-layer projects often have fewer but highly specialized maintainers.
What GitHub data does — and doesn’t — capture
It’s also important to be clear about the limits of this data.
GitHub contributor counts only reflect public code contributions. They do not include:
- independent researchers reviewing or stress-testing the protocol,
- teams building privately before open-sourcing,
- academic or experimental work that never lands directly in official repositories.
As a result, the true number of people working on Kaspa-related research or development is likely higher than what public repositories alone show.
Trend over time
Looking at changes over the past few years, developer contributions across the Kaspa ecosystem increased significantly through 2025, with estimates pointing to roughly 50% year-over-year growth during that period. Activity has continued into early 2026, with ongoing commits and maintenance rather than a visible slowdown.
This kind of growth is not usually driven by short-lived narratives. Developers tend to commit time where they see long-term technical relevance, especially in protocol-level work where learning curves are steep and incentives are delayed.
Closing perspective
No single metric defines a network’s future, and developer counts alone are not a guarantee of success. But taken at face value, the data shows that Kaspa development today is active, distributed, and ongoing, supported by both a core protocol team and a wider set of ecosystem contributors and independent participants.
It’s not a headline indicator — but it is a structural one.
