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Dr. Gavin Wood is a British programmer, creator of Polkadot and Kusama and also co-founder of Ethereum, a decentralized platform for running smart contracts. He is also the founder of Parity Technologies, a software company that builds infrastructure and tools for decentralized applications.
After his stint at Ethereum as CTO, he founded Polkadot and authored its whitepaper. Polkadot is a blockchain interoperability protocol to address the limitations of existing blockchain networks to enable them to work together in a more seamless and efficient way. He is considered one of the leading figures in the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries.
Background
Wood was born in 1980 in Lancaster, United Kingdom. To complete his early education he attended Lancaster Royal Grammar School. In his childhood, he would often indulge in economics and game theory. He was so interested that he even co-published a strategy board game of his own design. After his schooling, he went to the University of York to get a Masters in Engineering, followed by a PhD.
After graduation, he worked as a software developer and consultant for several years, gaining valuable experience in the field of software development and project management. In 2007, he joined tech giant Microsoft as a software consultant. He is also said to have been associated with companies like InTechnology PLC, OxLegal and Frontier Developments.
Blockchain career
Wood jumped into the world of cryptocurrency and blockchain in 2013 and co-founded Ethereum with Vitalik Buterin. Ethereum is a platform that runs exactly as programmed without any chance of fraud, censorship or third-party interference. He joined as the Chief Technical Officer (CTO), is the creator of the first version of the Ethereum software client, called “Geth”, and was the lead developer of the core Ethereum protocol. Moreover, he played a vital role in the development of smart contracts for Ethereum Blockchain.
Gavin Wood is also known for his work on Ethereum’s programming language, Solidity, and for co-authoring the Ethereum Yellow Paper, which laid out the technical specifications for the Ethereum network. The Ethereum Yellow Paper outlines the technical details of the Ethereum network, including the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which is the runtime environment for smart contracts on the Ethereum platform.
But after working for only 2 years with Ethereum Foundation, he left to start his own company in 2015. This company was Parity Technologies, where he was also the the lead developer. As Wood has worked in the Ethereum Foundation, he was aware of the flaws in the proof of work (PoW) mechanisms.
This led him to creating a blockchain known as Polkadot, which uses the proof of stake (PoS) mechanism. In PoS, developers can create a parachain blockchain to communicate with the ledger.
Parity Technologies has also released a Parity Ethereum Software client written in another Ethereum language known as Rust. Wood’s work has led to an experimental development environment for Polkadot known as Kusama, which he is also the creator of. In 2017, Gavin Wood founded another company called Web3 Foundation which focuses on the stability and development of decentralization.
Impact
Because of all of the achievements. Gavin Wood’s net worth is around $500 million. He is currently working to expand his company more. Through his leadership, Polkadot is known to be among the best performing blockchains in current times.
Wood is a sought-after speaker and has presented at numerous conferences, including TEDx and the World Economic Forum. He is widely respected for his technical expertise and his contributions to the development of decentralized technologies.
His legacy will likely continue to be felt for many years to come, as his contributions have helped to shape the direction of the blockchain and cryptocurrency industries.