Exclusive Interview with Polkadot Founder Gavin: From Multi-Chain Network to World Computer, Unveiling the JAM Computing Platform and Web3 Innovation Pathways

Interview: Freya, PANews

Organizer: Yuliya, PANews

In the improvement of blockchain expertise, Gavin Wooden has made a big mark. As the founding father of Polkadot, co-founder of Ethereum, and the proposer of the Web3 idea, Gavin Wooden is undoubtedly an iconic determine in the blockchain subject. In 2025, an important transformation yr for Polkadot, Gavin Wooden launched into an Asian tour with the newest technological achievement—JAM (Be part of-Accumulate Machine). Throughout the occasion in Hangzhou, PANews performed an unique interview with this Web3 business chief, delving into Polkadot’s technological improvements, ecological improvement, and his distinctive insights on the way forward for Web3.

Gavin Wooden’s profession is stuffed with legendary moments. From incomes a PhD in Laptop Science from the College of York in the UK to changing into a core developer of Ethereum, and then founding Polkadot and driving it to turn into a pacesetter in the multi-chain ecosystem, every step he has taken has profoundly influenced the trajectory of the blockchain business. Nevertheless, Gavin Wooden is not only a tech geek; he’s additionally a music lover and part-time DJ. In the interview, he candidly expressed that though his present work focus is nearly fully on the improvement of JAM, he nonetheless hopes to decide up his DJ identification once more, discovering stability and inspiration in music. This twin ardour for expertise and artwork makes Gavin Wooden significantly distinctive in the blockchain subject.

In the interview, Gavin Wooden detailed a number of technological breakthroughs achieved by Polkadot this yr, together with optimizations in Asynchronous Backing, a brand new SDK launch cycle, and important enhancements in the decentralization of validation nodes. He particularly talked about that the “Spam Mining” efficiency benchmark take a look at of the Polkadot ecosystem demonstrates its main place in scalability. Moreover, the Web3 Basis has invested 10 million DOT in the improvement of the JAM ecosystem, aiming to domesticate JAM improvement groups globally and promote the implementation of this revolutionary computing platform.

The launch of JAM marks Polkadot’s transition from a multi-chain community to a “World Laptop.” Gavin Wooden emphasised that JAM is not only a sensible contract system, however a extremely versatile computing platform able to operating standard software program and reaching huge computational energy. This technological breakthrough elevates blockchain from the idea of a “distributed ledger” to a brand new peak, offering infinite prospects for future decentralized functions.

When discussing the way forward for Web3, Gavin Wooden acknowledged that reaching a really user-sovereign web continues to be an extended course of, however he’s assured in Polkadot’s function on this journey. Moreover, Gavin Wooden shared his views on the way forward for the crypto business. He believes that whereas there are some short-term speculative behaviors in the business, tasks genuinely devoted to fixing technical challenges will in the end stand out. He encourages newcomers and entrepreneurs to preserve curiosity, be daring in experimentation, and deeply perceive the design intentions and utility eventualities of blockchain expertise.

Right here is the textual content from the unique interview:

Key Achievements and Ecological Standing

PANews: What are the key achievements of Polkadot this yr? Which progress exceeded expectations, and which had been comparatively unsatisfactory?

Gavin Wooden: 2024 is certainly a turning level, shifting from cutting-edge analysis to product optimization and stability enhancement. The enhancements primarily contain two points: one is velocity optimization, corresponding to Asynchronous Backing; the different is improvement stability optimization, corresponding to adopting a brand new SDK launch cycle, releasing a long-term help (LTS) model each three months, and conducting common upkeep each two years.

By the finish of 2024, we efficiently demonstrated the “Spam Mining” efficiency of the Polkadot ecosystem, which proved that the mission is way forward of different blockchain tasks when it comes to scalability.

Furthermore, the decentralization of validation nodes has additionally considerably improved, though this depends extra on the steering of the technical framework moderately than enforcement.

As for any developments that aren’t passable, there are at present no significantly excellent shortcomings. Every of our optimizations is continuing as deliberate and reaching the anticipated outcomes.

PANews: The Web3 Basis has invested 10 million DOT in the improvement of the JAM (Be part of-Accumulate Machine) ecosystem. How will these sources be allotted? Are there particular areas (corresponding to DeFi or gaming) that can obtain precedence help?

Gavin Wooden: The aim of the 10 million DOT funding is to incentivize the implementation of JAM, moderately than broader ecosystem improvement. We hope to use this funding to set up decentralized JAM improvement groups, in order that the improvement of JAM is now not solely reliant on the Web3 Basis and Parity, however expands globally.

Our goal is to domesticate dozens of JAM improvement groups and create a whole bunch of JAM consultants, enabling them not solely to develop JAM implementations but additionally to construct providers based mostly on these implementations. It is a complicated protocol, and the complexity of recent blockchain protocols is growing, so we’d like skills who deeply perceive the protocol to drive the touchdown of modern functions. Subsequently, the focus of this funding isn’t on supporting particular areas like DeFi or gaming, however on constructing a powerful technical infrastructure and a reserve {of professional} expertise.

The allocation of funds might be based mostly on a milestone system, with 5 vital milestones set. The final milestone is especially crucial, requiring unbiased exterior safety audits to be sure that the carried out code meets the situations for deployment in an actual blockchain atmosphere.

Technological Improvements and Future Plans

PANews: Your proposed “Proof-of-Personhood” plan might be carried out in 2025, aiming to use ZK to deal with the identification verification challenges of the generative AI period. How will this mechanism affect the whole business?

Gavin Wooden: First, it will be significant to make clear that this technique goals to deal with the situation of “individuality” moderately than “identification.” As folks’s lives more and more shift on-line, the digital world faces a basic problem: how to be sure that the entities we work together with are certainly actual human people.

The complexity of this situation lies in the incontrovertible fact that people are organic beings, not digital natives. We work together with the digital world by way of gadgets like telephones and computer systems, however in actuality, it’s software program that’s speaking, not the particular person themselves. This example has turn into much more extreme in the context of the speedy improvement of generative AI expertise. AI methods can now talk in human-like methods, can communicate, write, perceive textual content, and even create photos and music, understanding the content material of photos. This technological development, mixed with the deepening digitization of society, presents unprecedented challenges.

In contrast to the period earlier than the 1900s, when it was troublesome for machines to imitate or impersonate folks as a result of digital methods didn’t exist, we now can simply be misled into mistaking automated methods for actual people. That is the core situation that the private identification mechanism goals to remedy.

This expertise goals to rebalance the scales of human-computer interplay in the digital world. Though the manifestation of this drawback varies throughout totally different societies, it would in the end turn into a world problem. The implementation of the private identification mechanism will assist set up a basic reality in the digital world: permitting customers to precisely decide whether or not they’re interacting with actual folks or machines.

PANews: In contrast to the early parallel chain structure, what important enhancements does JAM convey?

Gavin Wooden: JAM represents a big evolution of blockchain. Though from a technical perspective, it’s merely an enchancment of the current applied sciences in Polkadot (most applied sciences, aside from the JAM digital machine, exist already in Polkadot), its affect on what blockchain can do is revolutionary.

Blockchain was initially referred to as a “distributed ledger,” a time period generally utilized in the monetary business to describe its performance. Nevertheless, blockchain is excess of only a ledger, particularly after Ethereum launched good contracts, which endowed it with stronger computational capabilities. However, earlier blockchains had been nonetheless restricted to a “ledger” mannequin, whereas JAM goals to create a real “World Laptop,” which isn’t only a good contract system however a computing platform able to operating standard software program with excessive versatility.

By way of efficiency, our modeling reveals that JAM’s computational energy might be 10,000 to 1,000,000 occasions larger than the present degree of Ethereum. After all, fashions can simply draw inaccurate conclusions, and many blockchain tasks exaggerate their claims. Nevertheless, Polkadot’s efficiency has been validated in real-world environments, and now we have performed rigorous measurements utilizing the “Toast small supercomputer” to guarantee the accuracy of this modeling knowledge. If the knowledge is appropriate, JAM will really obtain huge computational energy, marking an vital milestone in blockchain expertise.

PANews: How do you view the future improvement of Kusama?

Gavin Wooden: Kusama was initially designed as Polkadot’s “canary” take a look at community, primarily to present a testing floor for brand spanking new options and upgrades of Polkadot to confirm their feasibility and stability. From this angle, Kusama has certainly fulfilled its mission nicely.

Nevertheless, now Kusama ought to break by way of its unique positioning, sustaining its experimental nature whereas shifting its focus to exploring extra cutting-edge areas. Significantly in the following instructions:

• Zero Data Cryptography
• Proof-of-Personhood
• Different areas with modern potential

Moreover, Kusama began with 10 million DOT at its genesis, and these sources needs to be utilized properly to help future improvement.

PANews: In contrast to Solana and Ethereum, how do you assume Polkadot can higher appeal to builders and customers?

Gavin Wooden: In the previous, there have been a number of parallel chains inside the Polkadot ecosystem that offered EVM compatibility, however they had been unbiased ecosystems with their very own tokens and groups. This example has modified in Polkadot 2.0—Polkadot will natively help EVM-compatible good contracts and run straight in the DOT atmosphere.

This is a crucial shift for Polkadot. Though it isn’t as thorough as JAM (Be part of-Accumulate Machine), it’s nonetheless strategically important. It positions Polkadot as a high-performance and scalable good contract platform that helps Solidity and Ethereum-compatible applied sciences. Furthermore, trustless bridging options like Hyper Bridge and Snow Bridge inside the Polkadot ecosystem can even allow seamless interplay with EVM-compatible networks.

Polkadot’s PVM (Polkadot Digital Machine) is very versatile and can accommodate nearly any digital machine so long as it doesn’t require particular runtime help. For instance, MoveVM could also be appropriate for PVM, and SVM (Solana Digital Machine) clearly meets this normal. That is additionally the cause for Polkadot’s shift to PVM—its openness permits any language that meets the traits of determinism and self-containment to run on it.

By way of aggressive panorama, Polkadot has not deviated from its unique path however has chosen a extra versatile strategy to adapt to market calls for. The Ethereum ecosystem has accrued a lot of builders, so Polkadot ought to undertake a extra inclusive angle, moderately than sticking to WebAssembly and its distinctive improvement strategy, however moderately cater to market calls for and help the languages and instruments that builders desire.

Web3 Imaginative and prescient and Outlook for DOT ETF

PANews: How far is the business from a really user-led web? What adjustments have occurred in Polkadot’s function?

Gavin Wooden: Since the Web3 idea was proposed in 2014, reaching a really user-sovereign web continues to be an extended course of. Though this course of has taken longer than initially anticipated, such a metamorphosis might by no means be accomplished in the brief time period.

Polkadot was initially a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain community, largely related to the improvement course of Ethereum over the subsequent 4 to 5 years. Whereas some might level out the particular variations between the two, basically, Polkadot’s unique aim was the imaginative and prescient that Ethereum now hopes to obtain.

Nevertheless, with the launch of JAM, Polkadot’s focus has shifted from interoperability to scalability and composability. Whereas the multi-chain structure nonetheless holds worth, JAM supplies builders with larger freedom, permitting them not to be confined to particular patterns. Polkadot has now remodeled from a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain community right into a “World Laptop” targeted on scalability and composability. This shift not solely permits it to help heterogeneous L2 blockchains but additionally makes the deployment and execution of good contracts extra environment friendly.

PANews: Nasdaq submitted a 19b-4 modification for the DOT spot ETF at the finish of February 2024, and the market typically expects the DOT spot ETF to be authorised in 2025. What affect do you assume it will have on the Polkadot ecosystem?

Gavin Wooden: The Web3 Basis has completed lots of work beneath the earlier regulatory atmosphere to show that DOT doesn’t fall beneath the class of securities. General, the dialogue with regulators has been optimistic and constructive, receiving a substantial diploma of help, aside from the then SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. Nevertheless, there are at present two principal uncertainties:

• The present authorities administration has modified, which can lead to a shift in regulatory attitudes.
• The monetary market itself is an especially complicated system, and the affect of any coverage adjustments is troublesome to predict precisely.

Relating to the affect of ETF approval on the ecosystem, I imagine the monetary market is like “black magic,” making it troublesome to predict. In such a chaotic and complicated system, it’s arduous to precisely estimate the particular results of any single motion.

Recommendation for Newcomers/Entrepreneurs

PANews: How do you view the way forward for the crypto business? For newcomers, how can they develop their careers on this business?

Gavin Wooden: It relies on their objectives. If “crypto business” refers to the “token business” or “cryptocurrency business,” then this business is on a downward trajectory, and it’s occurring shortly. Extra and extra tasks aren’t trying to remedy actual technical challenges however moderately help fraudulent tasks and promote extreme centralization, whereas missing consideration for broader safety.

What’s much more disappointing is that sure energy holders are making selections that enable some business members to revenue from public funds. This isn’t useful for the business’s improvement. Nevertheless, I nonetheless imagine that these genuinely devoted to fixing technical challenges and able to profitable implementation will in the end surpass those that focus solely on short-term pursuits.

2025 might not be a very optimistic yr. However for these really dedicated to innovation and prepared to face challenges, that is nonetheless an period filled with alternatives. Though they could not obtain a lot consideration or ample funding help, we are going to nonetheless see some important technological breakthroughs in the subsequent 18 months.

PANews: What recommendation do you’ve got for entrepreneurs?

Gavin Wooden: The hot button is to really create worth, preserve an experimental spirit, and drive innovation. It’s important to deeply perceive the design intentions of blockchain methods and their sensible utility eventualities, moderately than blindly following traits. Some tasks want to deploy functions on blockchain with out understanding why blockchain is required. There are additionally groups that need to create blockchains with out clarifying their necessity.

True innovation comes from deep considering and steady experimentation. Be daring in making an attempt, even when 9 out of ten experiments fail, it would not matter, as a result of the expertise of failure is equally worthwhile, and an occasional success might lead to surprising breakthroughs. Many nice discoveries usually stem from curiosity and interdisciplinary considering.

Take physicist Richard Feynman for example; he received a Nobel Prize for a quantum physics examine that started with an off-the-cuff commentary in a restaurant. He observed {that a} spinning plate all the time wobbled barely in the air, and he didn’t perceive why this occurred. This seemingly trivial query in the end led to important scientific discoveries.

Subsequently, preserve curiosity, discover bravely, and don’t underestimate the energy of interdisciplinary considering. True innovation usually comes from those that dare to ask questions and delve into their solutions.

PANews: As a part-time DJ, do you continue to carry out DJ units usually? How do you preserve a stability between pursuits and work?

Gavin Wooden: Presently, I’ve nearly no time to DJ. Nevertheless, I hope to discover a while to get again into it quickly. However for now, my principal focus is on the improvement of JAM, coding, and advancing the Proof-of-Personhood mission.

However, I imagine it’s nonetheless essential to preserve stability in life. I’m grateful to give you the option to spend a while with my household, who additionally perceive that I want to journey for work, corresponding to this tour in China. At the similar time, I imagine that creative creation is a good type of self-expression. For me, math and coding are, to some extent, additionally part of artwork, however I really love music and hope to discover extra time for myself this yr.