Gavin Wood, co-founder of Ethereum, Polkadot, and Kusama, asserts that the true potential of Web3 technology hinges on eliminating fees from cryptocurrency transactions.
In an interview with Cointelegraph at the Web3 Summit in Berlin, Wood expressed his vision of making Web3 universally accessible. “My biggest hope is that we can really make [Web3] free for everyone,” he stated.
Wood’s latest project, a tattoo-based Web3 identity system known as “proof-of-ink,” is part of his broader mission to establish a cost-free Web3 ecosystem on a global scale.
Reflecting on Ethereum’s early days, Wood revealed that he and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin once contemplated removing Ether (ETH) from the network entirely. “Vitalik and I were talking about the possibility of basically getting rid of Ether, the currency. Something that now appears to be unthinkable,” Wood remarked. However, they ultimately chose to retain Ether, using it as a tool to prevent spam and fund ongoing development.
Wood now advocates for decoupling Ether from the Ethereum network, arguing that this step is necessary to bring billions of Web2 users into the Web3 fold. “It will be hard to divorce Ethereum from Ether in an effective way that makes it sufficiently responsive to the sort of applications that we will need to produce and deploy on Web3,” he noted.
He highlighted the progress of Polkadot’s JAM chain, which is moving toward nearly fee-free cryptocurrency transactions. Wood suggested that a permanent solution to eliminating fees might be found in developing “Web3 individuality,” a concept that could potentially render transaction fees and anti-spam measures obsolete.
In a recent interview with Bullish CEO Tom Farley, Wood voiced concerns over the lack of long-term vision in current blockchain projects. He criticized the prevailing trend of prioritizing short-term gains, where developers build quickly to sell, often driven more by hype than substance.
While acknowledging that this is just a theory, not supported by hard economic data, Wood believes this short-sighted approach is distorting the market. He noted that significant investments are flowing into Layer 1 blockchains that may not have a meaningful future.
Interestingly, Wood suggested that even Ethereum and Bitcoin might not be immune to the broader challenges facing blockchains. However, he conceded that Bitcoin, as the first cryptocurrency and a primary store of value, could stand apart due to its unique market position.
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