I have decided to do a weekly post on various ways I do due diligence, each Saturday I will highlight a resource for doing due diligence and how it helps. The first I will highlight is Github.
Why Github?
Github is used as version control for code. It's a way for code to be available online, for code to be shared between multiple people and for teams to tackle code as a unit. There's more to github, but those are the basics. Because Github is THE place for these services in the programming, many cryptocurrency development teams use it. Some do not, but that's a story for another day. About 80% will likely have a Github.
How Do I Find the Github?
When looking for a Github, the first place I look for the Github is on a cryptocurrency project's website. The symbol for Github is rather recognizable and is often used as an icon. Sometimes it's on the homepage, the wallet download page, or buried a bit on a developer page. If not, you can search on github using the project name or coin name.
Found the Github, Now What?
Once you've found the Github, you're looking for a few different things:
1. Activity Over Time -
This indicates continuous development. Since coins go inactive, this is important.
2. Actual Code -
I once found a Github that had updated their "README" file every few days for over a year, minor things like verb changes or punctuation changes. This generated activity over time but was not updating the codebase over time. You need to see code getting changes and there will be blurbs telling you what was changed.
3. Commits -
You'll see below what I mean. Commits are changes. PIVX is a 4 year old project with 10k commits. A commit is a good thing, it means the developers are maintaining the project. KoreCoin has 6 commits in a 5 day time period 2 years ago.
There are a few different views of the same data available, but they all add up to show the same thing, code being maintained or code abandoned.
Here is a screenshot of one view of the PIVX Github:
Here is a screenshot of one view of the KoreCoin Github:
These Graphs of Code Frequency are seen under the Insights Tab:
What Does the Github Tell Us?
A Github with activity over time is a project being maintained. There are exceptions to this, in cases where activity over time is bluffed through changes to the README, in new projects, and in projects that choose an alternative to Github. I rarely support projects that I can't see the code, because it is an indicator that there may be something to hide. A Github is but one aspect of due diligence, but can reveal a lot. Due diligence makes crypto safer and scams less rewarding!