Introduction

This dashboard reveals the trends in new users joining and transacting on L1 blockchains: Algorand, Ethereum, Solana and Terra.

Method

Analysis timeframe:

• There are two portions of the analysis, one which starts from the beginning of 2021 for broader trends, and another which starts at the beginning of 2022 for a closer look.

• Available Solana data in particular only begins in December 2021, which is part of the reasoning for the charts with the shorter timeframe (2022 only).

• The timeframe ends at the time of this writing on 4 May 2022, which means that the last day's data is incomplete as the day is not over, but it is nevertheless provided to capture time-sensitive insights.

Calculations:

• For Ethereum, Solana, and Terra, new users per day are calculated as the number of transaction senders or signers (wallets) if their first ever transaction on a particular blockchain falls on that day.

• For Algorand, based on available data, two methods were used to calculate daily new users: wallets created on a particular day, vs. wallets with the first transaction (as sender). Both methods were used in order to compare results. This methodology gets addressed in more details later in the dashboard, hand-in-hand with the relevant charts.

• Multisig transactions are excluded and do not count as any wallet's first transaction (particularly for Solana and Terra), to eliminate uncertainty over whether all or part of the signatories are new users.

Data Results

Takeaways: New User Trends

Algorand tends to have spikes in new user acquisition, and in between those peaks there is a slow and steady trickle of new users coming in. In comparison, other blockchains' user acquisition is much more steady, whether consistently high in the tens and hundreds of thousands (like Ethereum and Solana), or consistently more modest (like Terra) at below 10k a day (of course this growth is modest only in comparison to the giants, and impressive regardless).

Algorand started the year strong, with a big spike in new user growth in January 2022. Algorand's media, community, and conference presence enabled this growth as the year began. The blockchain had announced new partnerships, projects, and launched conference (Decipher) and media integration (including YouTube influencer partnership).

A peak in the 2nd half of February 2022 started on 16 February, when Algorand's flagship wallet was relaunched as Pera wallet, attracting new users onto the ecosystem (source: Pera Wallet). This update comes on the coattails of leadership change. On 10 Feb 2022, previous Algorand Foundation CEO Sean Lee had exited, and new CEO Staci Warden stepped in. Data shows that the initial impact of the leadership transition was negative to the Algorand ecosystem with liquidity exiting it (source: Flipside Crypto analysis by SocioCrypto). However, in the following week Algorand seems to have rebounded by drawing in a fresh new audience (upwards of 200-300k new active wallets a day for a straight week).

The most recent spike for Algorand has been on the day of this analysis, 4 May 2022. It is likely associated with the announcement that Algorand will become the official blockchain of FIFA (source: Algorand).

Author

This analysis was created by catscatscode (Flipside, Twitter) for Flipside Crypto's "New Users on Algorand vs. Ethereum vs. Solana vs. Terra" Algorand bounty.

The above chart covers a time period of nearly 1 1/2 years and highlights broader trends.

To see more recent trends in user acquisition, and to get a more complete picture of a time period where all 4 chains' data are available, below we zoom in on 2022 data:

Methodology note:

There were 2 different ways to calculate daily new users for Algorand with available Flipside Crypto data. One method is the same as for other three blockchains: the users whose first transaction of any type falls on a particular day. The second method is unique to the algorand schema - it allows to pinpoint the creation block for each wallet, after that the wallet may or may not be active, but one can possibly argue that wallet creation counts as a new user.

The above chart uses the first method (date of wallet's first transaction is the date of new user's acquisition). For comparison, the chart below utilizes the second method (the date of wallet creation block) for Algorand only. One can see that, although a small percentage of newly created wallets are not immediately active (executing transactions) on the same day, they represent a negligible share. The trends for Algorand new user acquisition are the same between these two methods.