It has been said that cryptocurrency’s volatility mirrors the instability that sometimes characterizes the backend team behind developing these assets. It is well known that Gavin Wood, one of Ethereum’s co-founders, quit his CEO role at Parity Technologies to start Polkadot.
However recent revelations from a Polkadot insider seem to have thrown some light on why he parted ways with Vitalik Buterin and team.
Conflicts and Departures Within the Ethereum Team
In a series of posts on X, Goku, an insider familiar with the developments, claimed that Wood was forced to leave Ethereum. This departure came after three years of hard work for its success.
Goku supported his assertion with references to posts from Wood and other relevant materials in the post. In 2015, the Ethereum team comprised top developers, including Charles Hoskinson, Joseph Lubin, Mihai Alisie, Anthony Di Iorio, Vitalik Buterin, and Gavin Wood.
However, the team proved unstable, and some were forced to move on to other things after they could not agree on the pathway to Ethereum’s vision. Hoskinson, for instance, created the Cardano blockchain, while Lubin is focused on developing ConsenSys.
Alisie also left Ethereum to focus on making the AKASHA dream a reality, and Di Iorio has gone to develop the Jaxx wallet. This leaves Buterin, Wood, and others in the core Ethereum team.
Ming Chan’s Management and Gavin Wood’s Conflict of Interest Dilemma
However, another wind of internal rancor soon blew, creating tension between Wood and the team. Issues focused on development, communications, tribalism, competition, and low funds. This became full-blown when Ming Chan, a new Executive Director, was appointed.
Although Chan was drafted in as Executive Director to handle the Ethereum Foundation’s finances, this catalyzed Wood’s exit. She embarked on a cleanup exercise and ran a tight budget to ensure efficient cost management.
For instance, Chan eliminated all unnecessary legal costs, closed the London communications office, and more. Chan’s financial management led to the Ethereum Foundation’s drastic reduction of the ETHDEV project, which Gavin Wood led.
This seemed to have frustrated him, per Goku’s account. Meanwhile, Wood failed to get Buterin on board Parity (previously ETHCore) the team launched in 2015. Chan also received concerns about a “Conflict of Interest” from the Ethereum community.
This involves Wood’s being a full-time developer at ETHDev while running ETHCore. According to Goku, Chan clarified to Wood that the conflict of interest could not continue. While Wood claimed he had no conversation with Chan, the reluctance to fund his project was sufficient to drive home the message.
The Birth of Polkadot
Gavin Wood sent messages to Vitalik Buterin to sort things out, but they were unanswered. Wood had to quit to focus on the Polkadot project. The Gavin-led protocol initially released its Whitepaper in 2016 and launched in 2020.
Polkadot has been described as the next big thing in blockchain technology and an optimal version of Ethereum. This is despite not being a direct competitor to ETH based on their technological uniqueness.
At its inception, Polkadot showed promise in market capitalization and is considered a potential top 10 digital currency based on bullish analyst’s sentiment. At the moment, Polkadot Price has dropped by over 49% in the Year-to-Date (YTD) period to $ 4.28
