Gavin Wood, Polkadot co-founder bows out from Parity

The Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood will remain as Chief Architect of Parity Technologies Ltd.

Gavin Wood, one of the people who started the blockchain platform Polkadot, is no longer the CEO of Parity Technologies Ltd.

Wood, who started the blockchain infrastructure provider in 2015 with TJ Saw, Aeron Buchanan, Jutta Steiner and Ken Kappler, became CEO in late 2020. Before that, he was the Chief Technology Officer of Parity.

According to a Parity statement. Wood is resigning for personal and health reasons but will still offer to advise services to the team. As an expert in his former position, he handed CEO responsibilities over to Jutta Steiner who served as CEO until 2020.

Parity Technologies Ltd is best known for developing the Parity Ethereum client. And has been a major player in the Ethereum ecosystem since its founding. It also leads the development of Polkadot, an interoperable blockchain network designed by Wood.

The news of Wood’s departure from Parity comes as Polkadot continues to gain momentum among the crypto community. Just last month, the Polkadot ecosystem surpassed $10 billion in market value for the first time.

Despite this success, Parity Technologies has also faced challenges in recent years. Including a high-profile security breach in 2017 that led to millions of dollars worth of Ethereum being frozen. Wood’s departure may signal a shift in the company’s direction. 

Wood ‘never craved’ CEO role

As said in the company news update from Friday. Wood is leaving his position because he doesn’t think it’s a role where he can do well. He also says that he has never wanted to be CEO.

“People who have worked with me know that I like to think, code, design, and plan. I work best when I have time to myself to think about a problem for a long time, or when I can put some thoughts into an article. I have never wanted to be the CEO.” he states in the blog post.

Björn Wagner becomes the new CEO, and Wood becomes the Chief Architect. This means that Wood will have more work to do. Presently, he is still Parity’s largest shareholder.

“Now that I can focus again, I want to explore how we can make Polkadot and Web3 more accessible and appealing to a larger audience,” he notes.

He believes that the expected attention on Polkadot and Web3 should commence. Developing the chain-integrated social primitives he believes is key to the objective of providing “a genuine Web3 platform.”

Wood is one of the co-founders of Ethereum, which is the world’s largest smart contracts platform. He also helped develop Polkadot and Kusama.

It is not yet known how Wood leaving will affect Parity, a company that makes blockchain infrastructure and Polkadot. The company has had some problems in the past, like when $150 million worth of Ethereum was hacked in 2017.

Wood is no longer the CEO of the company. Jutta Steiner is the CTO and is leading the company right now. It is not yet known who will replace Wood as CEO. Steiner says that Parity will continue to develop Polkadot and other products according to plan.

About Parity Technologies Ltd

Parity Technologies is a blockchain infrastructure company founded in 2015 by Gavin Wood and Jutta Steiner. In addition to Polkadot, they are also the developers of the Parity Ethereum client.

Polkadot’s mission is to create a decentralized web where different blockchains can work together. This would allow for more scalability and innovation.

Some people in the blockchain community are surprised by this news. Gavin Wood is a famous person in the Ethereum and Polkadot space. He helped create Ethereum. He was also the chief technology officer at Parity Technologies Ltd.

It will interesting to see how this plays out in the long run. Meanwhile, it will be nice to know your thoughts on this. Please hit the comment section and tell us what you think!