Over the years, Ethereum has grown to become a giant cryptocurrency — second-largest by market cap. Furthermore, with the incredible surge in Ethereum price at the beginning of the year, Ethereum is arguably a cryptocurrency with a promising future.
However, the amazing success story of Ethereum wouldn’t be complete without Gavin Wood, the co-founder of Ethereum and also the former chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation.
Perhaps you already know a few things about Vitalik Buterin, the Ethereum main founder. Here is a chance to also learn about another solid man behind the creation of Ethereum — Gavin Wood.
Who Is Gavin Wood?
Gavin James Wood was born in Lancaster in the United Kingdom, where he also completed his secondary education, at Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He then proceeded to the University of York for his university education and afterward obtained a Master’s degree in Computer Systems and Software Engineering. In 2005, the amazing programmer obtained his Ph.D.
Gavin Co-Founded Ethereum
After obtaining his Ph.D. degree in 2005, Gavin went full-time into the computer visualization of music and showed no interest at all in cryptocurrency. But the story changed in 2013 when he met Vitalik Buterin and Jonny Bitcoin. Because of Gavin’s 25 years’ experience with coding, Jonny immediately caught interest in him and his works, with the hope of helping Buterin transform Ethereum from a white paper to a fully functional blockchain.
He was right after all. Within weeks of meeting with Buterin, the PoC-1 of Ethereum was written and presented at the North American Bitcoin Conference in January 2014. Six months after the conference, Ethereum was officially launched in Switzerland.
He Was a Former Chief Technology Officer of Ethereum
Owing to his vital role in the creation of Ethereum, Gavin was named the chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation. Before the official launch of Ethereum, Gavin Wood had been busy ideating and putting down the groundwork of Solidity — the smart contract programming language used as the basis for the Ethereum network.
Two years into his role as the chief technology officer of Ethereum, Gavin Wood together with Jutta Steiner, founded Parity Technologies to develop core blockchain infrastructure for Ethereum and other Web 3.0 networks. Parity has produced a free platform with tools including mining client software, a downloadable wallet, a framework for building blockchains, and a testing environment for new decentralized apps (Dapps).
Gavin Left Ethereum to Create Web3 Foundation and Polkadot
After leaving Ethereum in 2016, Gavin founded the Web3 Foundation, an initiative that advocated for a decentralized internet where users are in control of their data and identity. The foundation received lots of acceptance among the cryptocurrency community and beyond.
In 2019, Gavin and the foundation took a step further to create Polkadot, a project intended to connect blockchains and networks without the need for trust to enhance their security. Polkadot first launched in May 2020.
Gavin Wood has had a successful career as a programmer. He was not only successful with Ethereum but also with the Web3 Foundation and the creation of Polkadot. In the coming months of 2021, Gavin has revealed that his developmental activities will most likely revolve around Substrate 3.0 to bring full Ethereum compatibility to the Polkadot network.
