Gavin Wood

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Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood in 2017.jpg
Wood in 2017
Born
Gavin James Wood

Education Lancaster Royal Grammar School
Alma mater University of York
Known forCo-founder of Ethereum and former CTO of the Ethereum Foundation; co-founder of Polkadot; CWO and Chairman of Parity Technologies; author of the Polkadot White Paper and the Ethereum Yellow Paper
Scientific career
Thesis Content-based visualisation to aid common navigation of musical audio  (2005)

Gavin James Wood is an English computer scientist, a co-founder of Ethereum, and creator of Polkadot and Kusama. [1] [2]

Contents

Early life

Wood was born in Lancaster, England, United Kingdom. He attended the Lancaster Royal Grammar School. He graduated from the University of York with a Master of Engineering (MEng) in Computer Systems and Software Engineering in 2002 and completed his PhD entitled "Content-based visualization to aid common navigation of musical audio" in 2005. [3]

Career

Before working on Ethereum, Wood was a research scientist at Microsoft. [1] He was one of the founders of the Ethereum blockchain, which he has described as "one computer for the entire planet," [4] with Vitalik Buterin, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin during 2013–2014. [5] [6] He also served as the Ethereum Foundation's first chief technology officer. [7] [8] [9] Wood left the Ethereum Foundation in January 2016. [10]

Wood founded Parity Technologies (formerly Ethcore), which developed a client for the Ethereum network and creates software for companies using blockchain technology, with Jutta Steiner, who also previously worked at the Ethereum Foundation. [1] [8]

He founded the Web3 Foundation, a nonprofit organization focusing on decentralized internet infrastructure and technology, starting with the Polkadot network. [8]

Support for Ukraine

Amid the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Wood donated $5.8 million in cryptocurrency to support Ukraine. [11]

Publications

Related Research Articles

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Solidity is a programming language for implementing smart contracts on various blockchain platforms, most notably, Ethereum. Solidity is licensed under GNU General Public License v3.0. Solidity was designed by Gavin Wood and developed by Christian Reitwiessner, Alex Beregszaszi, and several former Ethereum core contributors. Programs in Solidity run on Ethereum Virtual Machine or on compatible virtual machines.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vitalik Buterin</span> Canadian programmer (born 1994)

Vitaly Dmitrievich Buterin, better known as Vitalik Buterin, is a Canadian computer programmer and co-founder of Ethereum. Buterin became involved with cryptocurrency early in its inception, co-founding Bitcoin Magazine in 2011 and Dark Wallet in 2013 together with Amir Taaki and Cody Wilson In 2015, Buterin deployed the Ethereum blockchain with Gavin Wood, Charles Hoskinson, Anthony Di Iorio, and Joseph Lubin.

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A cryptocurrency wallet is a device, physical medium, program or an online service which stores the public and/or private keys for cryptocurrency transactions. In addition to this basic function of storing the keys, a cryptocurrency wallet more often offers the functionality of encrypting and/or signing information. Signing can for example result in executing a smart contract, a cryptocurrency transaction, identification, or legally signing a 'document'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polkadot (cryptocurrency)</span> Cryptocurrency

Polkadot is a blockchain platform and cryptocurrency. The native cryptocurrency for the Polkadot blockchain is the DOT. It is designed to allow blockchains to exchange messages and perform transactions with each other without a trusted third-party. This allows for cross-chain transfers of data or assets, between different blockchains, and for decentralized applications (DApps) to be built using the Polkadot Network.

Cryptoeconomics is an evolving economic paradigm for a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of digital economies and decentralized finance (DeFi) applications. Cryptoeconomics integrates concepts and principles from traditional economics, cryptography, computer science, and game theory disciplines. Just as traditional economics provides a theoretical foundation for traditional financial services, cryptoeconomics provides a theoretical foundation for DeFi services bought and sold via fiat cryptocurrencies, and executed by smart contracts.

Anthony Di Iorio is a Canadian entrepreneur primarily known as a co-founder of Ethereum and an early investor in Bitcoin. Di Iorio is the founder and CEO of the blockchain company Decentral, and the associated Jaxx wallet. He also served as the first chief digital officer of the Toronto Stock Exchange. In February 2018, Forbes estimated his net worth at $750 million–$1 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Hoskinson</span> American cryptocurrency entrepreneur

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StarkWare Industries is an Israeli software company that specializes in cryptography. It develops zero-knowledge proof technology that compresses information to address the scalability problem of the blockchain, and works on the Ethereum platform. In May 2022, the company's estimated value was $8 billion, an increase from $2 billion six months earlier.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Francisco, Danny Fortson in San (25 June 2017). "British coder revealed as brains behind bitcoin rival". The Sunday Times. ISSN   0956-1382 . Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  2. "Ethereum Blockchain Killer Goes By Unassuming Name of Polkadot". Bloomberg.com. 17 October 2020.
  3. Wood, Gavin James (2005). Content-based visualiszation to aid common navigation of musical audio (Ph.D). University of York. Archived from the original on 11 July 2022. Retrieved 11 July 2022.
  4. "Ethereum: the competitor to Bitcoin which could transform entire industries". New Statesman. 12 April 2016. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  5. "Ethereum Regains Title as Second Most Valuable Cryptocurrency Behind Bitcoin". Fortune. Archived from the original on 8 January 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2021.
  6. Post, Claire Brownell Financial (27 June 2017). "Vitalik Buterin: The cryptocurrency prophet | Financial Post". Financial Post. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  7. Paumgarten, Nick (15 October 2018). "The Prophets of Cryptocurrency Survey the Boom and Bust". The New Yorker. ISSN   0028-792X . Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  8. 1 2 3 Shieber, Jonathan (1 November 2017). "The future of Blockchain infrastructure, with Gavin Wood and Jutta Steiner". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 January 2020.
  9. Jain, Aman (17 August 2021). "Founders' Fork: The Ethereum Architects Now Locked in Battle". Entrepreneur. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
  10. Wood, Gavin. "The last Blog Post". Ethereum.org. Ethereum Foundation. Retrieved 15 March 2022.
  11. MacKenzie Sigalos (3 March 2022). Ukraine has raised more than $54 million as bitcoin donations pour in to support the war against Russia. CNBC . Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  12. Ethereum Yellow Paper
  13. Polkadot White Paper