Gavin Wood: Ethereum Co‑Founder, Web3 Architect, and Polkadot Builder
Gavin Wood is a computer scientist and technology entrepreneur best known for being a co‑founder of Ethereum and a former Chief Technology Officer of the Ethereum Foundation. He is also the founder of the Web3 Foundation and the chief architect behind Polkadot, a blockchain ecosystem designed to help decentralize the internet and connect multiple blockchains into a single network.
Wood’s work sits at the intersection of crypto, blockchain infrastructure, and open‑source development. From co‑founding Ethereum in 2014 to leading the development of Polkadot and Kusama, he has played a central role in shaping how modern smart contract platforms and Web3 ecosystems are built.
Who is Gavin Wood?
Gavin Wood is a computer scientist, developer, and entrepreneur known for being a co‑founder of Ethereum alongside Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and other early contributors. As an Ethereum co‑founder, Wood helped transform Ethereum from a whitepaper into a functioning blockchain protocol and one of the most widely used smart contract platforms in the world.
Before co‑founding Ethereum, Wood spent more than a decade working as an open‑source developer with a strong interest in game theory, distributed systems, and protocol design. That background later influenced his vision of building interoperable blockchains and delivering a true Web3 platform that goes beyond single‑chain limitations.
Wood first encountered Bitcoin in 2011. At the time, he was largely uninterested in cryptocurrency, viewing it mainly as a financial experiment rather than a technological breakthrough. Over time, his perspective shifted as he began to see how blockchain technology could decentralize systems, enable new digital economies, and support onchain applications beyond simple payments.
During Ethereum’s earliest development phase, Wood wrote much of the original code and served as chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation. He famously described Ethereum as “a computer at the center of the world,” reflecting his belief that blockchain could act as a global execution layer for decentralized applications and smart contracts.
Beyond Ethereum, Wood founded Parity Technologies, launched the Web3 Foundation, and later led the development of Polkadot and Kusama—networks designed to support scalable, interoperable blockchains within a shared ecosystem.
Personal history and early developer background
Gavin Wood was born in 1980 in Lancaster, England. From an early age, he showed a strong interest in computers, logic, and systems thinking. A neighbor introduced him to programming and helped him write his first computer programs. As a teenager, Wood also designed and co‑published a strategy board game, reflecting his early fascination with rules, incentives, and structured systems.
Wood graduated from the University of York in 2002 with a Master of Engineering degree in Computer Systems and Software Engineering. He later earned a PhD from the same university, focusing on music visualization and human‑computer interaction. His research explored how complex data, such as audio, could be navigated and understood through visual representations.
After completing his doctorate, Wood worked as a technical consultant for Microsoft, focusing on embedded domain‑specific languages. He also built software systems for OxLegal, a smart text contract editor used by law firms—an experience that later aligned closely with his work on smart contracts and blockchain protocols.
Gavin Wood in crypto and the cryptocurrency ecosystem
Although Wood initially dismissed Bitcoin, it played an important role in shaping his later thinking about decentralization. As the crypto space expanded to include tokens, stablecoins, DeFi applications, and new consensus models such as proof‑of‑stake, Wood became increasingly focused on the underlying protocol design rather than short‑term market trends.
For Wood, cryptocurrency was never just about price or speculation. His work consistently emphasized infrastructure, governance, and long‑term sustainability within blockchain ecosystems.
Ethereum
In 2013, Wood returned to cryptocurrency with a renewed perspective. He began connecting blockchain technology with ideas from computer science, cryptography, and game theory, and recognized its potential to support decentralized apps, transparent governance, and programmable financial systems.
Through a mutual contact, Wood was introduced to Vitalik Buterin, who had published the Ethereum whitepaper. After reading it, Wood decided to join the project as a developer, with the goal of turning the whitepaper into a working blockchain protocol.
In January 2014, Wood met with Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and other early contributors in Miami. What was intended to be a hackathon became a foundational moment in co‑founding Ethereum. Wood later noted that he ended up writing much of the first functional version of the Ethereum blockchain himself.
The team went on to present Ethereum at the North American Bitcoin Conference and later regrouped in Zug, Switzerland, to continue development. During this period, Wood focused heavily on Ethereum’s technical architecture.
He designed Solidity, the programming language used to write smart contracts on Ethereum and other blockchain platforms. Wood also authored the Ethereum Yellow Paper, a formal specification that precisely defined the Ethereum protocol and the Ethereum Virtual Machine. The Yellow Paper became a key reference for developers building on Ethereum.
As chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation, Wood helped shape Ethereum’s early developer ecosystem and guided its evolution into a leading smart contract platform.
Ethereum was co‑founded by a group that included Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, Mihai Alisie, Amir Chetrit, Joseph Lubin, and Jeffrey Wilke. Wood joined the core development team in early 2014, providing the technical leadership needed to move Ethereum from theory to production.
Parity Technologies
By 2016, Wood began to see structural limitations in Ethereum’s design. He pointed to challenges related to scalability, governance, upgradeability, and development speed. In his view, these constraints made it difficult for Ethereum to evolve quickly enough to support more complex decentralized applications.
Seeking a clean‑slate approach, Wood co‑founded Parity Technologies with Jutta Steiner. Parity focused on building core blockchain infrastructure, developer tools, and clients written in the Rust programming language, with the goal of supporting a more modular and flexible blockchain ecosystem.
Web3 Foundation
In 2017, Wood founded the Web3 Foundation, a non‑profit organization dedicated to funding research and development for decentralized technologies. The foundation has supported hundreds of Web3 and DeFi projects worldwide, reinforcing Wood’s long‑term vision of a decentralized internet built on open protocols.
Kusama
In 2019, Wood launched Kusama, an experimental and scalable blockchain network. Kusama serves as a live testing environment where developers can deploy apps, experiment with governance models, and test tokens and upgrades before launching on Polkadot.
Polkadot
Parity Technologies and the Web3 Foundation launched Polkadot in 2020. Wood described Polkadot as a next‑generation blockchain designed to connect multiple blockchains into a shared ecosystem. The network allows blockchains to communicate with each other while maintaining their own rules, transaction fees, and performance characteristics.
Polkadot was designed to address many of the limitations Wood observed while working on Ethereum, including interoperability, governance, and scalability. These design choices later became central to the development of Polkadot as a platform for decentralized apps, DeFi services, and onchain infrastructure.
In October 2022, Wood stepped down as CEO of Parity Technologies to become chief architect, while remaining a co‑founder and major shareholder. He explained that the decision would allow him to focus more directly on making Polkadot accessible and relevant to a broader global audience.
Wood left the Ethereum development team in 2016. While no official reason was given, observers have suggested that differences around funding, development pace, and technical direction played a role. These experiences strongly influenced the development of Polkadot and Wood’s broader approach to blockchain design.
Why Gavin Wood’s work matters
Wood’s impact extends beyond any single blockchain. His contributions to Ethereum, Polkadot, and the broader Web3 ecosystem have shaped how developers build decentralized apps, design protocols, and think about blockchain governance.
For developers, his work has provided tools and frameworks that support scalable, interoperable blockchains. For users, it has helped move blockchain technology closer to practical, real‑world applications.
Gavin Wood essentials
Gavin Wood is a computer scientist and entrepreneur known for being a co‑founder of Ethereum and a central figure in the Web3 movement.
He wrote much of Ethereum’s early code, authored the Ethereum Yellow Paper, and served as chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation.
Through Parity Technologies and the Web3 Foundation, Wood went on to launch Polkadot and Kusama, aiming to decentralize the internet by connecting blockchains into a unified, scalable ecosystem.
