Cryptocurrency Communities – Which Have Remained the Most Active (Part 4 of 4)

If you have been following this series, you would have a solid understanding of the online community presence of cryptocurrencies and their communities.

A glimpse through reddit activity, online forum presence and blockchain-based social media left little doubt that Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash are leading the way, with Ethereum holding strong at position #3.

For the fourth and final part of the series, we will move away from the digital world.

While online presence can be falsified, there is nothing artificial about real-world enthusiasm about cryptocurrencies. This is why we consider meetup statistics as one of the most telling clues as to which coins actually matter to people, and which ones are purely used for speculation.

Criteria

As you have probably noticed from the previous articles, we believe that results based on hard numbers are more substantiated than analysis that leaves room for multiple angles of interpretation. This is why our criteria here are also strict.

We measure data from the go-to website for meetup scheduling – meetup.com. We are looking for meetups that contain the name of a cryptocurrency in their name, e.g. “Sydney Bitcoin Meetup”.

We go through every result to filter out inaccuracies based on name similarity – for example “Paris Bitcoin Cash Meetup” would be a match for both BTC and BCH – yet we only give a point to Bitcoin Cash.

Generalised cryptocurrency meetups such as “Capitalising on Cryptocurrency with Bitcoin & GPU Mining” also count, but give half a point – and only to cryptos mentioned in their name, not ones listed in the description.

In addition to cryptocurrency names, meetup results for terms such as “Lightning Network” for BTC and “Solidity” for ETH also give a point if they haven’t already fit previous criteria.

Without further ado, let us see the numbers.

The Winners

Bitcoin – 1019 meetups, 334 of which are general crypto meetups. Additionally four Lightning-network-related meetups did not contain “Bitcoin” or “BTC” in their name. Total score – 856

Ethereum – 273 meetups, 34 of which are general crypto/blockchain/ICO-related meetups. Additionally 7 solidity meetups did not contain “Ethereum” or “ETH” in their name. Total score – 263

EOS – 144 meetups. Total score – 144

Bitcoin Cash – 78 meetups, 2 of which are general bitcoin fork/crypto meetups. Total score – 77

Cardano – 54 meetups, for a total score of 54

NEM – 48 meetups, for a total score of 48

IOTA – 39 meetups, for a total score of 39

Tezos – 30 meetups for a total score of 30

Lisk – 26 meetups and a total score of 26

NEO – 22 meetups for a total score of 22 – with exceptionally high interest in the NEO Taipei and NEO Singapore groups.

Steem – 22 meetups for a total score of 22

Basic Attention Token – 20 meetups for a total score of 20

Holochain – 18 meetups for a total score of 18

Stellar – 20 meetups, 5 of which are general crypto-related. Total score – 17.5

Monero – 17 meetups, for a total score of 17

DASH – 15 meetups, for a total score of 15

Disappointments

Litecoin makes yet another appearance in the “disappointments” section. With only 2 dedicated meetups, and only 3 other mentions, it ranks far below any of the currencies listed above, despite its larger market cap.

With fewer dedicated meetups than dogecoin (with 3) and TRON (5), we have to conclude that genuine interest about the coin is difficult to find.

VeChain is another high-cap coin that didn’t impress with its one single meetup.

Nano also joins the list with only 2.

Ripple’s 5 dedicated meetups and 2 additional mentions (total score of 6) also fail to impress, considering its #2 position in market cap, ahead of Ethereum with its 263 points.

Stratis, Zilliqa and Bitcoin Gold have no meetups whatsoever, wrapping up this section.

Honorary mentions

Waves blockchain shows an impressive meetup-to-market-cap ratio thanks to its 14 meetup groups.

ZCash appears to spark some interest as well with 12 global meetup groups.

Qtum has its own 11, and Ether Classic is still alive and kicking with 6 – the same number as project Aeternity. Decred 5 groups, followed up by Pivx with 3 and Golem and Bitcoin SV with 2.

Bitcoin SV’s market capitalisation comes with expectations of higher numbers, however considering that it’s only a few weeks old, we will keep our judgements for a later date.

Summary

Bitcoin is still king in this category – and by a large margin. EOS conquers an impressive top 3 finish with its developer-heavy active community. Cardano’s top 5 standing is equally impressive.

Privacy-focused coins – large and smaller cap alike – retain genuine real-world interest as clearly shown by the numbers.

ERC20 tokens have little presence compared to full-fledged blockchains – BAT being an exception.

Ripple’s focus on institutions rather than end users results in a significantly lower standing than Stellar.

Bitcoin Cash makes yet another respectable finish, in contrast to Litecoin’s abysmal performance throughout the series.

And investors and speculators might be interested to see coins with active communities, and disproportionately low market caps – Steem, Holochain, Lisk, Tezos, Pivx and Decred being the obvious picks in this category.