Gavin Wood: JAM will become the next consensus standard, sparking a new industry revolution

Restarting the Innovation Engine After Ten Years

A decade ago, Gavin Wood’s EVM idea transformed the entire industry landscape. Since then, all public chain developers seem to have found a common “language.” Today, this pioneer strikes again, launching the JAM (Join Accumulate Machine) protocol, with high hopes: it will become the new default starting point for next-generation blockchain development, rather than a supplementary tool for a specific chain.

JAM is not just a technical upgrade proposal. Essentially, it is a set of independent infrastructure designs on which builders can construct their own systems. Multiple different tokens and ecosystems can even share the same security network—what does this mean for developers? When building the next-generation blockchain, there’s no need to start from zero anymore.

The Extraordinary Atmosphere of Decentralized Development

Pala Labs’ global tour is halfway through, and Gavin Wood is personally visiting various parts of the world, engaging in in-depth conversations with actual JAM developers and enthusiastic supporters. In this fully decentralized development model, what has he felt?

The enthusiasm and initiative shown by developers are unprecedented in the Polkadot era. They genuinely love this project and are willing to take on real responsibilities.

This difference stems from the fundamental divergence in development structures. Early Polkadot development was conducted within a traditional corporate framework. Although team members are passionate, under a corporate system, “initiative” is often just a natural byproduct of the system—you receive a salary, so you complete the work.

JAM is the opposite. Current developers do not have fixed salaries; they invest their own time, effort, and risk. They may receive funding or rewards in the future, but only after delivering results. This risk is borne by the developers themselves, and such a commitment says everything.

The logic of traditional companies is reversed: employees get high salaries first, and the company bears the risk. In JAM, developers are both investors and creators, and this dual identity fosters a rare sense of conviction—something almost nonexistent among traditional employees.

Traditional companies operate a top-down power system: the boss holds the highest authority, grants permissions to executives, who assign tasks to department heads, ultimately executed by grassroots staff. Everyone reports upward, follows instructions, and performance depends on superiors’ evaluations.

JAM breaks this model. In this project, Gavin is more like an advisor, providing suggestions only when consulted—sometimes brief, sometimes direct, but overall friendly. He wrote the Gray Paper, verified the feasibility of the design, and then tried to explain the logic to others.

But it’s not him who truly drives JAM forward. It’s the various development teams actively driving the evolution of this system. Whether motivated by passion, experience, or belief in future commercial value, they are proactively building. This atmosphere is something he only experienced in the early days of Ethereum around 2015—when everyone was full of passion, even if the Gray Paper was hard to understand, people were willing to spend time studying it deeply and turning it into real, operational software.

A New Paradigm Beyond EVM: The True Definition of JAM

If we had to explain JAM in language unfamiliar to Polkadot, what exactly is it? What can it do?

According to the Gray Paper, the JAM protocol combines the core advantages of two major camps:

On one hand, it inherits Polkadot’s cryptoeconomic mechanism—that’s what gives Polkadot its high scalability.

On the other hand, it adopts an interface and service model closer to Ethereum, allowing the main chain itself to perform programmable operations.

Unlike traditional architectures that can only program high-performance computing modules, JAM goes further: not only are computation units programmable, but the “collaboration processes” and “cumulative effects” between modules can also be controlled through programming—that’s the origin of the name “Join Accumulate Machine.”

Although JAM was initially proposed as a Polkadot upgrade and received broad community support, its design is not limited to Polkadot. It is a highly abstract, independent underlying architecture, which can be viewed as the foundational design of the next-generation blockchain.

JAM’s core capability is: securely and distributively scheduling and allocating the entire network’s workload, making applications running on it inherently scalable—something other solutions in the industry currently cannot achieve.

Furthermore, JAM supports interconnection of multiple network instances, meaning application scalability is no longer limited to a single chain. So, it’s not just a new chain architecture but could also become a paradigm for next-generation scalability solutions.

We should view JAM beyond the “Polkadot upgrade proposal” framework. According to Gavin’s development philosophy: he is more adept at creating from scratch than expanding existing systems. Therefore, JAM’s design is not an incremental improvement on the current framework but a re-creation from fundamental principles—like starting with a blank sheet.

Although JAM borrows some technical achievements from Polkadot, it incorporates many new ideas and mechanisms. These are systematically documented in the Gray Paper to separate it from the Polkadot context and to serve as a foundational architecture that embodies broader value—similar to the x64 instruction set back in the day.

Let’s revisit the history of x64. Intel initially designed the x86 instruction set for its processors, from 8086 to 80286, 80386, and then Pentium series, gradually becoming the standard for IBM-compatible PCs and dominating desktop computing. But when the industry was ready to transition to 64-bit, Intel’s own proposal was too ahead of its time and was not accepted by the market. Instead, AMD, once seen as a “follower,” based its 64-bit extension on Intel’s 32-bit instruction set, creating a simpler, more feasible AMD64. The market chose AMD’s solution, forcing Intel to abandon its own proposal and adopt AMD’s extension. Since then, the roles of leader and follower have reversed.

Intel was reluctant to use the name “AMD64,” so the standard gradually became neutrally called “x64.” Today, products from both companies are based on this unified instruction set architecture.

The reason for mentioning this case is that Gavin believes JAM has the potential to become the “x64 technology” of blockchain. It represents a rational evolutionary direction, especially for public chains that value Web3 resilience and decentralization principles.

This protocol adopts open designs in governance models, token issuance mechanisms, staking systems, etc., allowing different blockchain projects to customize these modules or even choose different programming languages.

JAM uses the PVM, a highly versatile instruction set architecture. Chains adopting it will benefit from JAM’s scalability and composability advantages, and in the future, may also collaborate and integrate with other chains via JAM.

Recently, Gavin has been contemplating a new direction—hope to disclose it soon—namely, how to deepen the integration of two heterogeneous blockchain networks: although they have different token systems, both are based on the JAM architecture, and while maintaining their independence, they can share a common security network. He believes that even if this is not the final form of the blockchain industry, it will be a major breakthrough capable of changing the entire industry landscape.

From a broader perspective, JAM is very likely to become a universal foundational technology adopted across the industry, just like Ethereum’s early technology. Many public chains have chosen to adopt or partially adopt Ethereum’s EVM, with its transaction format and execution logic gradually becoming an industry standard. JAM possesses the same neutral technical potential, capable of crossing different tokens and networks.

As Gavin repeatedly emphasizes, JAM must become a neutral underlying technology. He believes its design is sufficient to support the blockchain industry’s evolution over the next 5-10 years or even longer. Of course, the entire system will continue to evolve. If zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) become economically feasible, some modules of JAM might be replaced. But overall, as a reasonable system innovation, JAM’s application will not be limited to the Polkadot ecosystem—any chain that recognizes its value can adopt it within its governance framework.

Moreover, from the beginning, JAM has adhered to principles of decentralization and “normative priority”: first releasing protocol specifications, then organizing implementation, and inviting over 35 independent teams worldwide to participate in development. This approach ensures the natural dispersal of knowledge and control. This helps JAM become a truly neutral and widely adopted core technology in the Web3 world.

Words to Young Developers: Web3 Is Not a Choice, But a Responsibility

Pala Labs now interacts with many passionate JAM developers, many of whom are young or even students. If you could say one thing to them—perhaps like Gavin himself 20 years ago, loving creation and dreaming of a free society—what would you most want to convey?

Join early, persist, follow your own value judgments. If you believe in free will and individual sovereignty—core ideas originating from the Enlightenment—then you should act on them, because no one else can bear this responsibility for you.

But will artificial intelligence exacerbate issues of identity forgery?

Today’s trust systems are rapidly collapsing. In 2014 or 2015, the concept of the “post-truth era” was popular, implying people no longer believe in objective facts. While this observation has some value, philosophically it’s not entirely accurate. Gavin has always insisted: truth exists, and people have a responsibility to seek it. If a decision isn’t based on the most rational, reliable truth, it’s doomed to fail.

However, we have entered the “post-trust era”: either people doubt everything, or they blindly trust dangerous agitators. Both extremes are destroying societal rationality. Against this backdrop, AI further worsens the problem.

Of course, AI has brought positive impacts in many fields, such as improving communication and enriching artistic expression. Gavin himself uses it as a DJ and music creator. But at the socio-economic, political, and geopolitical levels, the risks of AI should not be underestimated. Relying solely on regulation is insufficient. Usually, regulation only limits lawful individuals’ use of AI in free societies, but cannot prevent malicious organizations or unfree states from using AI against free societies. So regulation itself is not a solution.

What is truly needed is a more powerful and robust technological foundation to limit the destructive potential of artificial intelligence—whether from internal misuse or external threats.

In his view (though perhaps biased), only Web3 technology can truly resolve this dilemma. The reason is simple: AI’s essence is “weakening truth, strengthening trust.” When we rely on AI, we depend on organizations providing models and services—whether those training large models or those running models on closed servers and returning results. But we cannot audit the training data, nor understand why the model produces certain answers; even the trainers themselves may not fully understand the internal mechanisms of the models.

In contrast, a more trustworthy approach is that everyone can verify truth with their own ability. However, as society increasingly depends on AI and blindly trusts it, we are slowly moving toward a “seemingly objective but blind trust.” Because AI’s logic is “less truth, more trust,” we need to counterbalance with Web3’s “less trust, more truth.”

In a free society, what should truly be done is not to impose stricter controls on Web3, but to act immediately: reduce unnecessary restrictions, and provide tangible support and funding to Web3 infrastructure builders.

A 5-6 Year Outlook for JAM Developers

It’s hard to predict the future precisely, but I can share some experiences. In November 2013, Gavin was living in London. He had a friend called “Johnny Bitcoin,” who was also a friend of Vitalik. They often met at bars, drinking beer and chatting. One time, Johnny mentioned that Vitalik was working on a new project based on Bitcoin, called Ethereum, and needed developers. Gavin joked, “Sure, I’ll do it.” Because he always thought he was good at programming, his friend suggested, “Since you’re so capable, just develop Ethereum.” That’s how he became one of Ethereum’s developers.

At that time, the Ethereum white paper was like a vision document, containing enough technical details to make it feasible. Over the next 4-5 months, everyone collaborated to develop various compatible versions, eventually forming the Ethereum Yellow Paper—the official protocol specification. Gavin was an independent developer then, working with Vitalik and Jeff to implement the Go version of Ethereum. Later, he became a co-founder of Ethereum, created Parity, and continued building other products.

This was the start of his blockchain journey—building protocols from scratch as an independent developer, using his own time, from nothing to something. He’s not sure if the JAM development team can enjoy a similar journey. But for him, it’s truly the beginning of life—there’s no other choice but to start here—and time has proven that this path’s potential far exceeds expectations.

Of course, it’s not just about coding. You also need to learn communication: connecting with potential investors, showcasing projects, thinking about application scenarios based on protocols, writing smart contracts, promoting projects, offering advice, etc. Coding is just the core, but there’s a lot of surrounding work. Over the past 11 years, Gavin has hardly stopped coding. Honestly, it goes back even further—since he was 8 or 9, he almost never truly stopped—his longest break was three months backpacking in Central America.

This is the path he has walked. If young developers have enough passion and ability, I believe nothing can stop them from taking this road—the only difference now is, the goal is JAM, not Ethereum!