Substitute and Complementary Open Source Software in Blockchain

Abstract

Recently, blockchain technologies seem to have emerged from a period of disillusionment named in the hype cycle, and development has become active again. In this research, substitute and complementary repositories were identified from GitHub records in order to grasp the state of representative blockchain platforms: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Hyperledger, Ripple, and Corda. Within many blockchain platforms, it is common to have complementary relationships. Ethereum and Hyperledger also have a complementary relationship across platforms. The results showed that Ethereum is reactivating Hyperledger, whose development is stabilizing. This research proposes a methodology to find next-step software development from the network based on developers' skills via their movements between repositories.