DappRadar: only 28% of active dapp users were on Ethereum blockchain as of January, losing major ground to Tron and EOS, which now leads with 48% of dapp users
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg : Tweets: @lrettig and @brendanblumer Tweets: Lane Rettig / @lrettig : I disagree strongly with most of the claims in this article. The figures on dappradar don't even begin to measure the things that really matter. Ethereum continues to gain luster by the day. I sent @olgakharif a long response (see below) and she included none of it. http://twitter.com/... Brendan Blumer / @brendanblumer : “#EOS accounts for 48% of all active dapp users” in just 10 months; congrats crew http://www.bloomberg.com/... via @technology
Context & Ripple Effects
DappRadar's January tally put EOS ahead of Ethereum on active dapp users — 48% to 28% — just ten months after EOS's mainnet launch, and Block One's Brendan Blumer immediately claimed it as validation. Ethereum developer [[a:|Lane Rettig pushed back hard, arguing the tracker's figures 'don't even begin to measure the things that really matter,' a dispute over whether raw user counts are the right scoreboard for chain competition.
The argument matters because the same period produced dueling scorecards: Dapp.com's own 2019 report counted $10B in dapp volume across nine chains with active users doubling year over year. Which metric wins shapes where developers and capital land next.
First-order effects
- Blumer converts the number into a marketing asset for EOS, while Ethereum's camp is forced onto the defensive, contesting methodology rather than celebrating usage.
Second-order effects
- Competing analytics firms like Dapp.com gain an opening to publish alternative rankings, fragmenting the measurement layer that investors and developers rely on to pick platforms.
Third-order effects
- The user-count lead proved a poor predictor: within roughly a year, EOS developer activity had fallen 85% year over year while Ethereum held about 80% of the smart-contract space, and Ethereum dapp users doubled in Q2 2020 with DeFi accounting for 97% of activity. The durable lesson is that value-locked and developer traction, not logged-in wallets, became the metrics that decided chain winners.
The trend: Blockchain platform competition is shifting its scoreboard from raw active-user counts toward developer activity and value locked, as the EOS-Ethereum divergence of 2019-2020 made clear.