Gavin Wood Explains the Future Vision of Web3: From Multi-Chain Architecture to the Breakthrough of the World Computer

Gavin Wood, with his unique perspective, redefines the development trajectory of the blockchain industry. As the founder of Polkadot, co-creator of Ethereum, and proposer of the Web3 concept, Gavin Wood launched a revolutionary technology—JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine)—in 2025, bringing new imagination to the entire industry. During his tour in Hangzhou, this iconic figure in the blockchain industry elaborated on Polkadot’s technological innovation directions, ecosystem development strategies, and his unique insights into the Web3 world.

Technological Leap in 2024: The Three Core Advancements of Polkadot

2024 marks a turning point for Polkadot. Gavin Wood emphasized that the focus this year shifted from cutting-edge research to product optimization and stability enhancement. The main improvements involve two directions: speed optimization (such as implementing asynchronous rollback) and development stability optimization (new SDK release cycle mechanisms).

According to Gavin Wood, the Polkadot ecosystem successfully demonstrated the “Spam Mining” performance benchmark test at the end of last year, fully validating its leading position in scalability. At the same time, the decentralization level of validation nodes has significantly improved, mainly driven by the guiding mechanism of the technical architecture rather than enforced measures. Currently, Polkadot adopts a strategy of releasing a Long-Term Support (LTS) version every three months, with regular maintenance every two years, greatly enhancing the developer experience.

JAM Revolution: From Distributed Ledger to the World Computer

The launch of JAM signifies a major transformation of Polkadot from a multi-chain network to a “world computer.” Gavin Wood emphasized that JAM is not just an upgrade of smart contract systems but a highly versatile computing platform capable of running regular software and achieving massive-scale computing power.

Traditional blockchains are called “distributed ledgers,” a common term in the financial industry. However, after Ethereum introduced smart contracts, blockchain’s computing capability greatly increased. JAM further advances this evolution, aiming to create a true “world computer” that not only supports smart contracts but can also run general-purpose software. According to Polkadot’s modeling, JAM’s computing power is expected to be 10,000 to 1,000,000 times higher than Ethereum’s current level. To ensure data accuracy, the team used the “Toast Mini Supercomputer” for rigorous measurements to verify these performance metrics’ authenticity.

EVM Compatibility and Cross-Chain Interoperability: Polkadot’s Market Adaptation Strategy

On the market competition front, Gavin Wood outlined strategic adjustments for Polkadot 2.0. Previously, the Polkadot ecosystem included multiple parachains offering EVM compatibility, but they operated independently. In Polkadot 2.0, EVM-compatible smart contracts will be natively supported at the protocol layer, running directly within the $DOT environment.

This change does not conflict with the original approach but offers a more flexible way to meet market demands. Polkadot’s PVM (Polkadot Virtual Machine) is highly versatile, capable of supporting almost any virtual machine—provided it does not require special runtime support. MoveVM and Solana Virtual Machine (SVM) meet this standard. Gavin Wood believes that Ethereum’s ecosystem has accumulated a large developer base, and Polkadot should adopt a more inclusive attitude, supporting developers’ preferred languages and tools rather than sticking to a single development approach.

Meanwhile, trustless cross-chain solutions like Hyper Bridge and Snow Bridge will enable seamless interaction between Polkadot and EVM-compatible networks, further strengthening its position as a multi-chain ecosystem hub.

Funding Incentives and Talent Development: Strategic Deployment of 10 Million $DOT

The Web3 Foundation has invested 10 million $DOT into JAM ecosystem development. The core goal of this funding is to incentivize JAM implementation rather than broad ecosystem expansion. Gavin Wood emphasized that this investment aims to establish a decentralized JAM development team, moving beyond reliance on the Web3 Foundation and Parity, to a global scale.

The goal is to cultivate dozens of JAM development teams and create hundreds of JAM experts. These experts will not only develop JAM implementation solutions but also build related services based on these implementations. As modern blockchain protocols become increasingly complex, talents with deep understanding of protocols are needed to drive innovative applications. Therefore, this funding focuses not on supporting specific industries like DeFi or gaming but on building a strong technical infrastructure and professional talent reserve.

Funding will follow a milestone-based approach, with five key milestones set. The final milestone is particularly critical, requiring an independent external security audit to ensure the deployability of the code in actual blockchain environments.

Proof-of-Personhood: Identity Verification Challenges in the AI Era

Gavin Wood revealed a key plan for 2025—“Proof-of-Personhood,” aiming to leverage zero-knowledge cryptography to address core challenges in the era of generative AI. First, it’s important to clarify that this system solves the issue of “individuality,” not “identity.”

As daily life becomes increasingly digital, the digital world faces a fundamental challenge: ensuring that interaction counterparts are truly real human individuals. Humans are biological beings, not digital natives. We interact with the digital world via phones, computers, and other devices, but what we communicate with are software, not the person themselves. This problem becomes even more severe with the rapid development of generative AI—AI systems can now communicate, create, and even understand images at human levels.

Compared to before the 1900s, when humans were difficult to be mimicked by machines, today it’s very easy to mistake automated systems for real people. The Proof-of-Personhood mechanism aims to rebalance the human-machine interaction in the digital world, helping users accurately determine whether they are interacting with a human or a machine.

Kusama’s Transformation and Frontier Exploration

Kusama was originally designed as Polkadot’s “canary” test network, successfully fulfilling the mission of testing new features and upgrades. However, Gavin Wood believes Kusama should break through its original positioning, maintaining its experimental nature while shifting focus toward frontier industry exploration, including zero-knowledge cryptography, identity authentication, and other innovative directions. Kusama’s genesis had 10,000,000 $DOT, and these resources should be used wisely to support future development.

Long-term Web3 Progress and $DOT ETF Outlook

Since the concept of Web3 was proposed in 2014, achieving a truly user-sovereign network remains a long process. Gavin Wood admits that this process is longer than initially expected but emphasizes that such a transition cannot be completed in a short period.

Polkadot, initially a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain network, in some ways aligns with Ethereum’s future four or five-year development trajectory. However, with the launch of JAM, Polkadot’s focus has shifted from interoperability to scalability and composability. It has evolved from a heterogeneous scalable multi-chain network into a “world computer” focused on scalability and composability, supporting not only heterogeneous Layer 2 blockchains but also making smart contract deployment and execution more efficient.

Regarding the prospects of $DOT spot ETFs, Gavin Wood said that financial markets are like “black magic”—hard to predict. Although the Web3 Foundation has done extensive work under past regulatory environments to prove that $DOT is not a security, there are currently two major uncertainties: government regulators have changed, and the impact of monetary policy changes is difficult to forecast accurately. Therefore, the specific influence of ETF approval remains hard to estimate precisely.

Industry Reshuffle and Innovation Opportunities: Gavin Wood’s Advice for Newcomers

Discussing the future of the crypto industry, Gavin Wood made a distinction: if “cryptocurrency industry” refers to “token industry” or “crypto asset industry,” then that industry is in decline. Many projects have not attempted to solve real technical problems but instead support fraudulent projects, promote over-centralization, and lack security considerations. Some authorities even make decisions that allow industry participants to profit from public funds.

However, Gavin Wood believes that projects truly committed to solving technical challenges will ultimately surpass speculators focused only on short-term gains. 2025 may not be a particularly optimistic year, but for those genuinely dedicated to innovation, opportunities still abound. Although they may not receive much attention or funding, significant technological breakthroughs will still be seen in the next 18 months.

For entrepreneurs, Gavin Wood emphasizes the need to deeply understand the design intent and practical application scenarios of blockchain systems rather than blindly following trends. Some projects want to deploy on blockchain without understanding why blockchain is needed; some teams want to create a blockchain without knowing its necessity. True innovation comes from deep thinking and continuous experimentation—even if nine out of ten experiments fail, the experience gained is valuable.

Gavin Wood cites physicist Richard Feynman—who won the Nobel Prize for quantum physics but started from casual observations of spinning dinner plates. This seemingly trivial question ultimately led to important scientific discoveries, illustrating the value of curiosity, bold exploration, and interdisciplinary thinking.

Finding Balance Between Music and Code

As a part-time DJ, Gavin Wood admits he currently has almost no time for DJ performances but hopes to get back into it soon. His main focus now is on JAM development, coding, and advancing the Proof-of-Personhood project.

Nevertheless, Gavin Wood believes maintaining balance in life is crucial. He appreciates his family’s understanding and also believes that artistic creation is an important form of self-expression. Mathematics and coding are, to some extent, art as well, but he genuinely loves music. Gavin Wood looks forward to regaining more of his own time this year to find inspiration and balance through music.