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 development of blockchain technology, Gavin Wood has made a significant mark. As the founder of Polkadot, co-founder of Ethereum, and the proposer of the Web3 concept, Gavin Wood is undoubtedly an iconic figure in the blockchain field. In 2025, a crucial transformation year for Polkadot, Gavin Wood embarked on an Asian tour with the latest technological achievement—JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine). During the event in Hangzhou, PANews conducted an exclusive interview with this Web3 industry leader, delving into Polkadot's technological innovations, ecological development, and his unique insights on the future of Web3.

Gavin Wood's career is filled with legendary moments. From earning a PhD in Computer Science from the University of York in the UK to becoming a core developer of Ethereum, and then founding Polkadot and driving it to become a leader in the multi-chain ecosystem, each step he has taken has profoundly influenced the trajectory of the blockchain industry. However, Gavin Wood is not just a tech geek; he is also a music lover and part-time DJ. In the interview, he candidly expressed that although his current work focus is almost entirely on the development of JAM, he still hopes to pick up his DJ identity again, finding balance and inspiration in music. This dual passion for technology and art makes Gavin Wood particularly unique in the blockchain field.

In the interview, Gavin Wood detailed several technological breakthroughs achieved by Polkadot this year, including optimizations in Asynchronous Backing, a new SDK release cycle, and significant improvements in the decentralization of validation nodes. He specifically mentioned that the "Spam Mining" performance benchmark test of the Polkadot ecosystem demonstrates its leading position in scalability. Additionally, the Web3 Foundation has invested 10 million DOT in the development of the JAM ecosystem, aiming to cultivate JAM development teams globally and promote the implementation of this revolutionary computing platform.

The launch of JAM marks Polkadot's transition from a multi-chain network to a "World Computer." Gavin Wood emphasized that JAM is not just a smart contract system, but a highly versatile computing platform capable of running conventional software and achieving massive computational power. This technological breakthrough elevates blockchain from the concept of a "distributed ledger" to a new height, providing infinite possibilities for future decentralized applications.

When discussing the future of Web3, Gavin Wood stated that achieving a truly user-sovereign internet is still a long process, but he is confident in Polkadot's role in this journey. Furthermore, Gavin Wood shared his views on the future of the crypto industry. He believes that while there are some short-term speculative behaviors in the industry, projects genuinely dedicated to solving technical challenges will ultimately stand out. He encourages newcomers and entrepreneurs to maintain curiosity, be bold in experimentation, and deeply understand the design intentions and application scenarios of blockchain technology.

Here is the text from the exclusive interview:

Key Achievements and Ecological Status

PANews: What are the key achievements of Polkadot this year? Which progress exceeded expectations, and which were relatively unsatisfactory?

Gavin Wood: 2024 is indeed a turning point, shifting from cutting-edge research to product optimization and stability enhancement. The improvements mainly involve two aspects: one is speed optimization, such as Asynchronous Backing; the other is development stability optimization, such as adopting a new SDK release cycle, releasing a long-term support (LTS) version every three months, and conducting regular maintenance every two years.

By the end of 2024, we successfully demonstrated the "Spam Mining" performance of the Polkadot ecosystem, which proved that the project is far ahead of other blockchain projects in terms of scalability.

Moreover, the decentralization of validation nodes has also significantly improved, although this relies more on the guidance of the technical framework rather than enforcement.

As for any developments that are not satisfactory, there are currently no particularly outstanding shortcomings. Each of our optimizations is proceeding as planned and achieving the expected results.

PANews: The Web3 Foundation has invested 10 million DOT in the development of the JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine) ecosystem. How will these resources be allocated? Are there specific areas (such as DeFi or gaming) that will receive priority support?

Gavin Wood: The goal of the 10 million DOT funding is to incentivize the implementation of JAM, rather than broader ecosystem development. We hope to use this funding to establish decentralized JAM development teams, so that the development of JAM is no longer solely reliant on the Web3 Foundation and Parity, but expands globally.

Our aim is to cultivate dozens of JAM development teams and create hundreds of JAM experts, enabling them not only to develop JAM implementations but also to build services based on these implementations. This is a complex protocol, and the complexity of modern blockchain protocols is increasing, so we need talents who deeply understand the protocol to drive the landing of innovative applications. Therefore, the focus of this funding is not on supporting specific areas like DeFi or gaming, but on building a strong technical infrastructure and a reserve of professional talent.

The allocation of funds will be based on a milestone system, with five important milestones set. The last milestone is particularly critical, requiring independent external security audits to ensure that the implemented code meets the conditions for deployment in a real blockchain environment.

Technological Innovations and Future Plans

PANews: Your proposed "Proof-of-Personhood" plan will be implemented in 2025, aiming to use ZK to address the identity verification challenges of the generative AI era. How will this mechanism impact the entire industry?

Gavin Wood: First, it is important to clarify that this system aims to address the issue of "individuality" rather than "identity." As people's lives increasingly shift online, the digital world faces a fundamental challenge: how to ensure that the entities we interact with are indeed real human individuals.

The complexity of this issue lies in the fact that humans are biological beings, not digital natives. We interact with the digital world through devices like phones and computers, but in reality, it is software that is communicating, not the person themselves. This situation has become even more severe in the context of the rapid development of generative AI technology. AI systems can now communicate in human-like ways, can speak, write, understand text, and even create images and music, understanding the content of images. This technological advancement, combined with the deepening digitization of society, presents unprecedented challenges.

Compared to the era before the 1900s, when it was difficult for machines to imitate or impersonate people because digital systems did not exist, we now can easily be misled into mistaking automated systems for real humans. This is the core issue that the personal identification mechanism aims to solve.

This technology aims to rebalance the scales of human-computer interaction in the digital world. Although the manifestation of this problem varies across different societies, it will ultimately become a global challenge. The implementation of the personal identification mechanism will help establish a fundamental truth in the digital world: allowing users to accurately determine whether they are interacting with real people or machines.

PANews: Compared to the early parallel chain architecture, what essential improvements does JAM bring?

Gavin Wood: JAM represents a significant evolution of blockchain. Although from a technical perspective, it is merely an improvement of the existing technologies in Polkadot (most technologies, except for the JAM virtual machine, already exist in Polkadot), its impact on what blockchain can do is revolutionary.

Blockchain was initially referred to as a "distributed ledger," a term commonly used in the financial industry to describe its functionality. However, blockchain is far more than just a ledger, especially after Ethereum introduced smart contracts, which endowed it with stronger computational capabilities. Nevertheless, previous blockchains were still limited to a "ledger" model, while JAM aims to create a true "World Computer," which is not just a smart contract system but a computing platform capable of running conventional software with high versatility.

In terms of performance, our modeling shows that JAM's computational power will be 10,000 to 1,000,000 times greater than the current level of Ethereum. Of course, models can easily draw inaccurate conclusions, and many blockchain projects exaggerate their claims. However, Polkadot's performance has been validated in real-world environments, and we have conducted rigorous measurements using the "Toast small supercomputer" to ensure the accuracy of this modeling data. If the data is correct, JAM will truly achieve massive computational power, marking an important milestone in blockchain technology.

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

Gavin Wood: Kusama was initially designed as Polkadot's "canary" test network, primarily to provide a testing ground for new features and upgrades of Polkadot to verify their feasibility and stability. From this perspective, Kusama has indeed fulfilled its mission well.

However, now Kusama should break through its original positioning, maintaining its experimental nature while shifting its focus to exploring more cutting-edge areas. Particularly in the following directions:

• Zero Knowledge Cryptography
• Proof-of-Personhood
• Other areas with innovative potential

Additionally, Kusama started with 10 million DOT at its genesis, and these resources should be utilized wisely to support future development.

PANews: Compared to Solana and Ethereum, how do you think Polkadot can better attract developers and users?

Gavin Wood: In the past, there were multiple parallel chains within the Polkadot ecosystem that provided EVM compatibility, but they were independent ecosystems with their own tokens and teams. This situation has changed in Polkadot 2.0—Polkadot will natively support EVM-compatible smart contracts and run directly in the DOT environment.

This is an important shift for Polkadot. Although it is not as thorough as JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine), it is still strategically significant. It positions Polkadot as a high-performance and scalable smart contract platform that supports Solidity and Ethereum-compatible technologies. Moreover, trustless bridging solutions like Hyper Bridge and Snow Bridge within the Polkadot ecosystem will also enable seamless interaction with EVM-compatible networks.

Polkadot's PVM (Polkadot Virtual Machine) is highly versatile and can accommodate almost any virtual machine as long as it does not require special runtime support. For example, MoveVM may be suitable for PVM, and SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) clearly meets this standard. This is also the reason for Polkadot's shift to PVM—its openness allows any language that meets the characteristics of determinism and self-containment to run on it.

In terms of competitive landscape, Polkadot has not deviated from its original path but has chosen a more flexible approach to adapt to market demands. The Ethereum ecosystem has accumulated a large number of developers, so Polkadot should adopt a more inclusive attitude, rather than sticking to WebAssembly and its unique development approach, but rather cater to market demands and support the languages and tools that developers prefer.

Web3 Vision and Outlook for DOT ETF

PANews: How far is the industry from a truly user-led internet? What changes have occurred in Polkadot's role?

Gavin Wood: Since the Web3 concept was proposed in 2014, achieving a truly user-sovereign internet is still a long process. Although this process has taken longer than initially expected, such a transformation could never be completed in the short term.

Polkadot was initially a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain network, largely similar to the development direction of Ethereum over the next four to five years. While some may point out the specific differences between the two, essentially, Polkadot's original goal was the vision that Ethereum now hopes to achieve.

However, with the launch of JAM, Polkadot's focus has shifted from interoperability to scalability and composability. While the multi-chain architecture still holds value, JAM provides developers with greater freedom, allowing them not to be confined to specific patterns. Polkadot has now transformed from a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain network into a "World Computer" focused on scalability and composability. This shift not only enables it to support heterogeneous L2 blockchains but also makes the deployment and execution of smart contracts more efficient.

PANews: Nasdaq submitted a 19b-4 amendment for the DOT spot ETF at the end of February 2024, and the market generally expects the DOT spot ETF to be approved in 2025. What impact do you think this will have on the Polkadot ecosystem?

Gavin Wood: The Web3 Foundation has done a lot of work under the previous regulatory environment to demonstrate that DOT does not fall under the category of securities. Overall, the dialogue with regulators has been positive and constructive, receiving a considerable degree of support, except for the then SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. However, there are currently two main uncertainties:

• The current government administration has changed, which may lead to a shift in regulatory attitudes.
• The financial market itself is an extremely complex system, and the impact of any policy changes is difficult to predict accurately.

Regarding the impact of ETF approval on the ecosystem, I believe the financial market is like "black magic," making it difficult to predict. In such a chaotic and complex system, it is hard to accurately estimate the specific effects of any single action.

Advice for Newcomers/Entrepreneurs

PANews: How do you view the future of the crypto industry? For newcomers, how can they develop their careers in this industry?

Gavin Wood: It depends on their goals. If "crypto industry" refers to the "token industry" or "cryptocurrency industry," then this industry is on a downward trajectory, and it is happening quickly. More and more projects are not attempting to solve real technical challenges but rather support fraudulent projects and promote excessive centralization, while lacking consideration for broader security.

What is even more disappointing is that certain power holders are making decisions that allow some industry participants to profit from public funds. This is not beneficial for the industry's development. However, I still believe that those genuinely dedicated to solving technical challenges and capable of successful implementation will ultimately surpass those who focus solely on short-term interests.

2025 may not be a particularly optimistic year. But for those truly committed to innovation and willing to face challenges, this is still an era full of opportunities. Although they may not receive much attention or sufficient funding support, we will still see some significant technological breakthroughs in the next 18 months.

PANews: What advice do you have for entrepreneurs?

Gavin Wood: The key is to truly create value, maintain an experimental spirit, and drive innovation. It is essential to deeply understand the design intentions of blockchain systems and their practical application scenarios, rather than blindly following trends. Some projects wish to deploy applications on blockchain without understanding why blockchain is needed. There are also teams that want to create blockchains without clarifying their necessity.

True innovation comes from deep thinking and continuous experimentation. Be bold in trying, even if nine out of ten experiments fail, it doesn't matter, because the experience of failure is equally valuable, and an occasional success may lead to unexpected breakthroughs. Many great discoveries often stem from curiosity and interdisciplinary thinking.

Take physicist Richard Feynman as an example; he won a Nobel Prize for a quantum physics study that began with a casual observation in a restaurant. He noticed that a spinning plate always wobbled slightly in the air, and he did not understand why this happened. This seemingly trivial question ultimately led to significant scientific discoveries.

Therefore, maintain curiosity, explore bravely, and do not underestimate the power of interdisciplinary thinking. True innovation often comes from those who dare to ask questions and delve into their answers.

PANews: As a part-time DJ, do you still perform DJ sets often? How do you maintain a balance between interests and work?

Gavin Wood: Currently, I have almost no time to DJ. However, I hope to find some time to get back into it soon. But for now, my main focus is on the development of JAM, coding, and advancing the Proof-of-Personhood project.

Nevertheless, I believe it is still very important to maintain balance in life. I am grateful to be able to spend some time with my family, who also understand that I need to travel for work, such as this tour in China. At the same time, I believe that artistic creation is a great form of self-expression. For me, math and coding are, to some extent, also a part of art, but I truly love music and hope to find more time for myself this year.