Ethereum co-founder Gavin Wood was in China last week to promote Polkadot, its highly anticipated $ 1.2 billion blockchain project. He was warmly welcomed to the country where technology has gained an enthusiastic following.
The network protocol project is the first work of the Switzerland-based non-profit Web3 Foundation by Wood and aims to enable different blockchains to interact with one another.
TechNode met the former Ethereum CTO during the Beijing stop on its four-city tour. The event attracted a lot of attention in the capital with numerous developers and blockchain lovers present.
Polkadot recently completed a private token sale to fund its development, bringing its value to a whopping $ 1.2 billion, despite the Web3 Foundation not disclosing the full list of supporters. Chinese funds provided “quite substantial” support, Wood said.
Wood shares China’s enthusiasm for the blockchain sector and tells TechNode that the country is one of the key markets for its ambitious new venture.
Interoperability
The Polkadot protocol is based on a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus and creates an environment that allows data structures – not just blockchains – to connect to the network. It aims to address some core issues in blockchain networks such as interoperability, scalability, and security. Put simply, the goal is to build a secure blockchain network in which different types of blockchains work together and benefit from each other’s core competencies – a chain by chain, so to speak.
Although some media reports suggested that Polkadot was struggling to raise funds, Wood told TechNode that about 5% of the total token offering had been sold on a targeted basis.
The hyped project is not controversial. It has received a lot of opposition from the Ethereum community as Parity Technologies, Wood’s other company, powers large chunks of Ethereum and manages around $ 50 billion in assets. The similarities between Ethereum’s Polkadot and Serenity (also known as Ethereum 2.0) raise questions about potential conflicts of interest.
Wood said that Polkadot intended to be an “innovation platform” which was primarily his vision for Ethereum. But for him, the two projects have different approaches to the same vision.
Innovation will drive users and use cases, Wood said, adding that Polkadot wants to achieve this through its substrate, which can be viewed as a tool for developers to create new projects.
Polkadot will allow new projects to connect to both existing and new blockchain projects. And it allows flexibility, for example in deciding whether developers provide their own security or want to access Polkadot’s shared security.
The project is less about building a platform for the interoperability of existing projects, although that doesn’t mean that existing projects like Bitcoin and Ethereum aren’t valuable for building bridges. In fact, Polkadot will likely do that in the near future.
During the event in Beijing, Liu Yi, partner of crypto asset manager Random Capital, teased the Cdot network, which will provide relay services specifically for Polkadot’s parachains in China. The aim is to lower the threshold for creating new blockchain projects in the ecosystem. It will also work with the Web3 Foundation to provide training to local developers on the substrate of Polkadot and to incubate new blockchain projects.
Wood announced that Polkadot’s main network will be ready for launch as early as November. Before that, however, the team will focus on the kusama, an experimental version of polkadot, a “canary network” as he calls it that refers to a canary in the mine and warns of dangers and risks.
China’s blockchain eligibility
The project was able to attract Chinese capital not only because of Wood’s association with Ethereum, he said, but also because Chinese investors are aware of the significant interest and activity in the local blockchain and developer community. Wood has high hopes for the participation of Chinese developers.
China’s rapidly changing regulatory environment can be difficult, especially for outsiders, but regulation is not a key concern for Wood.
“If I wanted to bring a new payment system or a new token onto the market, that would be a problem [in China]but that’s not really what Polkadot is trying to do, ”he said. “This technology isn’t about cryptocurrency for me, it’s really about freedom of trust and the ability to build new businesses without even having to have a business … Although tokenization plays a role, it is neither crucial nor necessary for it all works. “
Additionally, Wood believes that the potential of the Chinese market resides in the entrepreneurship that is often seen in society.
Wood has noticed in recent years, when dealing with China and parts of Europe, that many people are on the lookout for new ideas, a fervor that he compared to that in the early days of capitalism. Because of this, he believes China is perfect for blockchain development.
“Blockchain is really all about having people who do perpetual business and other people who accept the business,” he said, adding that China in particular is home to an abundance of people who are ready and willing , to get involved.
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