Polkadot Co-founder Gavin Wood Offloads CEO Title

Björn Wagner to serve as blockchain builder Parity Technologies’ new chief executive

share

key takeaways

  • Wood took on the Parity Technologies CEO role in 2020 but is looking to focus more on the business’s technology side
  • Wagner joined Parity a year after its founding in 2016 and was its chief commercial officer

Polkadot co-founder Gavin Wood is stepping down as CEO of Parity Technologies, the developers behind the proof-of-stake blockchain.

Parity co-founder Björn Wagner is set to replace Wood in the role, Wood wrote in a Friday blog post. Wood is set to remain the company’s majority shareholder and plans to transition to Parity’s “chief architect.”

“I’ll be pointing my regained focus towards exploring how we can contribute to making Polkadot and Web3 more relevant to large swathes of the population,” Wood said. “This will begin by helping the community design and build several interesting chain-integrated social primitives which I think are crucial for us to deliver a true Web3 platform.”

Parity was co-founded by Wood — as well as Aeron Buchanan, TJ Saw, Ken Kappler and Jutta Steiner — as EthCore in 2015. Before that, Wood co-designed the Ethereum protocol in 2013 with Vitalik Buterin and worked as chief technology officer of the Ethereum Foundation for about two years.

Wagner joined Parity as a co-founder a year later and went on to hold the title of the company’s chief commercial officer, according to his LinkedIn.

Wood took the chief executive reins in 2020, after the last of the initial founders exited Parity. 

“Over these last two years, quite possibly the largest element of the job as CEO has been to preside over the outfitting of our C-suite,” Wood said. “I saw this essentially as a means of freeing myself up to return to work full-time where I belong, on technology.”

Parity launched Polkadot with Web3 Foundation in May 2020 after several years of developing the blockchain. Wood, in a statement at the time, called Polkadot “the biggest bet in this ecosystem against chain maximalism.”

Polkadot launched parachain auctions last November — allowing projects vying for a spot in the ecosystem to launch their own crowdfunding efforts using the blockchain’s native token, DOT.

DOT’s market capitalization of roughly $6.8 billion is 11th highest among crypto coins — ahead of polygon (MATIC) and behind dogecoin (DOGE).


Don’t miss the next big story – join our free daily newsletter.

Tags

Upcoming Events

HYATT REGENCY SALT LAKE CITY

TUES, OCT. 8, 2024

Guided by the expertise of Blockworks Research Analysts team, this one day event will feature senior leaders, entrepreneurs, and developers from across the crypto industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in an immersive experience to explore the latest trends, […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Pack your bags, anon — we’re heading west! Join us in the beautiful Salt Lake City for the third installment of Permissionless. Come for the alpha, stay for the fresh air. Permissionless III promises unforgettable panels, killer networking opportunities, and mountains […]

recent research

hivemapper.jpeg

Research

We believe crypto market participants overlook Hivemapper’s fundamental potential due to a poor understanding of both the niche map data market and Hivemapper’s positioning relative to incumbents. Hivemapper’s token model catalyzes both a cost and product advantage via unmatched map freshness and near real-time accuracy, which is its wedge into a market characterized by stale data and high data collection costs. Its current and potential future product suite may represent one of the strongest possibilities for PMF in crypto today.

article-image

Exploit shows centralization can sometimes be an asset

article-image

The Fidelity Ethereum Fund, like other proposed ETH ETFs, seeks to stake a portion of its assets, according to the firm’s Wednesday registration statement

article-image

The DAO first voted on enabling SAFE transfers over a year ago

article-image

The final Bitcoin halving, where the mining reward becomes smaller than one satoshi, is expected to occur in 2140

article-image

The Department of Justice and Commodity Futures Trading Commission announced back-to-back lawsuits against KuCoin Tuesday

article-image

Judge Failla found that Coinbase didn’t operate as an unregistered broker in offering its wallet service