Hello,
I have a programming background, but I'm relatively new to crypto/stocks.
Hi! Welcome to the forum and to the crypto world as well.
What would be some key metrics/performance indicated to calculate a coins growth potential for the future?
There's no specific key metrics to calculate the grow of any coin in the future. By doing this assumption you will most likely fall into speculations, most of those statements that are published are base on how those experts predicted the growth of bitcoin and it's like an intelligent guess.
I may build a web app w/ API's to do some calculations.
Just like btnt8888 said you can use it's market cap, total supply and add also your analysis.