Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson stated that artificial intelligence has diminished the value of developer counts as a measure of blockchain growth. Blockchains have historically used developer headcount to demonstrate expansion, but Hoskinson argues AI coding assistants have eliminated the scarcity that made this metric meaningful.
Hoskinson made the comments in defense of Midnight, a privacy-focused blockchain built on Cardano. The Midnight Foundation recently restructured its recruiting efforts, shifting focus away from outside developers and toward what Hoskinson calls builders.
The Shift in Developer Scarcity
For approximately a decade, blockchains ranked their progress by engineer count. Hoskinson noted that human coders were once a scarce resource, making the metric significant.
AI coding assistants have changed this dynamic. "You can have people who have no technical knowledge and no experience use these tools to look like a developer. So it's no longer a scarce and finite resource," Hoskinson said in a broadcast.
Verification Challenges
A practical consequence has emerged: code bounties and hackathons now face challenges distinguishing between human-authored work and AI-generated output. Hoskinson indicated that teams spend resources verifying authorship rather than attracting projects to their platforms. He expressed a preference for ventures with paying users and outside investors.
Internal Contradiction
The Midnight Foundation continues to run three hackathons with prize pools totaling $26,500, including a Korea-based contest that opened September 1. These programs reward code output despite Hoskinson's skepticism about developer metrics. Hoskinson acknowledged the discrepancy, stating he sees matters differently than the foundation.
Cardano (ADA) traded near $0.21, up 0.8% over a 24-hour period at the time of reporting. The extent to which builders replace departing developers in coming quarters remains uncertain.
