Gavin Wood's latest opinion: Can Polkadot break through the "world computer" dilemma?

In 2025, Polkadot enters a critical period of technological transformation. As the founder of Polkadot, co-creator of Ethereum, and pioneer of the Web3 concept, Gavin Wood shared his latest thoughts on the future development of blockchain during a tour across Asia. This time, he brings not only a technological upgrade but also a redefinition of the entire industry’s direction.

From Multi-Chain Ecosystem to the “World Computer” Transformation

In the industry’s view, Polkadot’s initial positioning was as a multi-chain network with heterogeneous scalability. However, with the launch of JAM (Join-Accumulate Machine), Gavin Wood completely shifted Polkadot’s strategic focus—from interoperability to ultra-large-scale computing power.

Gavin Wood elaborated on the essence of this shift. In his opinion, blockchain was originally called a “distributed ledger,” which is a narrow concept. After Ethereum introduced smart contracts, it endowed blockchain with stronger computing capabilities, but traditional blockchains remained limited by the “ledger” model. The launch of JAM aims to create a true “world computer”—not just a smart contract system, but a computing platform capable of running conventional software with high versatility.

According to modeling data, JAM’s computing power will be increased by 10,000 to 1,000,000 times compared to Ethereum’s current level. Of course, Gavin Wood remains cautious, emphasizing that Polkadot has validated these performance metrics in real environments, using a “Toast mini supercomputer” for rigorous measurement to ensure modeling accuracy.

Technological Breakthroughs in 2024 and Ecosystem Blueprint for 2025

Gavin Wood describes 2024 as a turning point for Polkadot—from cutting-edge research to product optimization and stability enhancement. Specifically, efforts focus on two main areas:

Speed Optimization: The application of Asynchronous Backing significantly improves network efficiency. Development Stability: The new SDK release cycle adopts a Long-Term Support (LTS) model, with an LTS version released every three months and regular maintenance every two years.

By the end of 2024, the Polkadot ecosystem showcased results from the “Spam Mining” performance benchmark test, which verified Polkadot’s leading position in scalability from multiple dimensions. Meanwhile, the decentralization of validator nodes also saw significant improvement—this enhancement mainly relies on architectural guidance rather than enforcement, reflecting Polkadot’s design philosophy emphasizing distributed governance.

DOT real-time data reference: Current price $2.18, 24-hour increase +1.49%, circulating market cap $3.59B. This stable market cap lays a foundation for the continuous development of the Polkadot ecosystem.

Web3 Foundation’s $10 Million DOT Investment: Building the JAM Ecosystem

The Web3 Foundation has invested 10 million $DOT into the JAM ecosystem. The core goal of this funding is not broad ecosystem development but precise incentives for JAM implementation. Gavin Wood emphasizes that this investment aims to establish a decentralized JAM development team, so that JAM development no longer solely depends on the Web3 Foundation and Parity, but expands globally.

Specifically, the Web3 Foundation plans to cultivate dozens of JAM development teams and reserve hundreds of JAM experts. These experts need to master the core implementation of the JAM protocol and be capable of building services based on these implementations. As the complexity of modern blockchain protocols increases, talents with deep understanding of protocol details are needed to drive innovative applications.

Funding will follow a milestone system, with five key milestones set. The final milestone is particularly critical—requiring an independent external security audit to ensure that the implemented code is deployable in actual blockchain environments.

“Proof of Individuality” vs. “Identity”: New Topics in the Generative AI Era

Gavin Wood introduced a new concept in an interview: “Proof-of-Personhood,” rather than the traditional “identity verification.” These two concepts seem similar but are actually vastly different.

In an increasingly digital world, a fundamental challenge emerges: how do we ensure that the entities we interact with are truly human? The complexity lies in the fact that humans are biological beings, but their existence in the digital realm is software-based. When generative AI systems can communicate like humans—speaking, writing, understanding text, and even creating images and music—distinguishing real people from machines becomes more difficult than ever.

Gavin Wood pointed out that compared to the era before the 1900s, when humans were hard to imitate by machines, today we can be easily misled, with automated systems mistaken for real individuals. The introduction of proof-of-individuality mechanisms aims to rebalance the human-machine interaction in the digital world, helping users accurately determine whether they are interacting with a real person or a machine. This will become a global issue for the future development of Web3.

Polkadot 2.0: How Does It Compare to Solana and Ethereum?

Facing strong competition from Solana and Ethereum, Polkadot adopts an inclusive and flexible strategy. In Polkadot 2.0, native support for EVM-compatible smart contracts will be integrated, running directly within the $DOT environment—this is a strategic and significant shift for Polkadot.

While this change is not as revolutionary as JAM, it repositions Polkadot as a high-performance, scalable smart contract platform that supports Solidity and Ethereum-compatible technologies. Cross-chain trustless solutions like Hyper Bridge and Snow Bridge within the Polkadot ecosystem enable seamless interaction with EVM-compatible networks.

Furthermore, Polkadot’s PVM (Polkadot Virtual Machine) is highly versatile, capable of supporting virtually any virtual machine that meets determinism and self-containment criteria. MoveVM may be suitable for PVM, and SVM (Solana Virtual Machine) clearly also meets these standards. This is the core reason for Polkadot’s shift toward PVM—its openness allows any qualifying programming language to run on it.

Kusama’s New Positioning: From “Canary” to Innovation Testbed

Kusama was initially designed as Polkadot’s “canary” test network, providing an experimental platform for new features and upgrades. From this perspective, Kusama has fulfilled its mission well. However, Gavin Wood believes Kusama should break through its original positioning, maintaining its experimental nature while focusing more on exploring cutting-edge industries, especially:

• Zero-Knowledge Cryptography
• Identity Authentication and Proof-of-Personhood
• Other innovative industries with high potential

Additionally, the 10 million $DOT resources at Kusama’s genesis should be used wisely to support the development of these frontier areas.

The Long Road of Web3: How Far Are We from a Truly User Sovereign Network?

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

Polkadot’s initial development trajectory was quite similar to Ethereum’s over the next four or five years—both aimed at heterogeneous scalability. However, with the launch of JAM, Polkadot has shifted from interoperability to expanding functionality and composability. While multi-chain architecture still holds value, JAM provides developers with greater freedom, freeing them from being limited to specific models.

Reflection on the Crypto Industry: True Innovators Will Break Through

Regarding the future of the crypto industry, Gavin Wood’s attitude is both pragmatic and optimistic. He points out that if “crypto industry” refers to the “token industry” or “cryptocurrency industry,” then this industry is on a downward slope, and not slowly. More projects are not attempting to solve real technical challenges but are supporting fraudulent projects, promoting excessive centralization, and neglecting security considerations.

What’s more disappointing is that some decision-makers’ actions allow certain industry participants to profit from public funds. However, Gavin Wood still believes that projects truly committed to solving technical problems and capable of successful implementation will ultimately surpass those only interested in short-term gains and speculation.

Advice for Newcomers and Entrepreneurs: Stay Curious and Dare to Experiment

Gavin Wood offers clear advice to young developers and entrepreneurs: The key is to create real value, maintain an experimental spirit, and drive innovation.

First, deeply understand the design intent of blockchain systems and their practical applications, rather than blindly following trends. Some projects want to deploy applications on blockchain without understanding why blockchain is needed. Some teams want to create a blockchain without clear necessity. True innovation comes from deep thinking and continuous experimentation.

Second, dare to try. Even if nine out of ten experiments fail, the experience gained from failure is valuable, and occasional success can lead to unexpected breakthroughs. Gavin Wood cites physicist Richard Feynman—he won a Nobel Prize for quantum physics research, which started from a casual observation in a restaurant. He noticed that spinning plates in the air always wobbled slightly, and this seemingly trivial question eventually led to important scientific discoveries.

Therefore, stay curious, explore boldly, and do not underestimate the power of interdisciplinary thinking. True innovation often comes from those who dare to ask questions and seek answers. 2025 may not look particularly optimistic, but for those truly committed to innovation, it remains an era full of opportunities.

Finding Balance Between Work and Interests

As a part-time DJ, Gavin Wood admits he currently has little time for music creation. His main focus is on JAM development, coding, and advancing the Proof-of-Personhood project. However, he believes maintaining balance in life is very important and appreciates spending time with family, despite frequent business trips.

For Gavin Wood, mathematics and coding are also part of art to some extent, but he genuinely loves music and hopes to find more time for himself this year. This dual passion for technology and art makes him stand out in the blockchain industry.