Polkadot Creator Gavin Wood Resigns as Parity CEO

Gavin Wood – creator of Polkadot and co-founder of Ethereum – has exited his leadership position from the network’s major infrastructure provider, Parity Technologies. However, he will still remain closely involved with the company. 

• Though he will no longer be CEO, Wood will remain Parity’s majority shareholder, and will transition into a new role as its “Chief Architect.”

• “The role of CEO has never been one which I have coveted,” said Wood in a statement about the transition on Friday. ”I can act at being a CEO well enough for a short while, but it’s not where I’m going to find eternal happiness.”

• Wood said his exit will free up time for him to focus on coding new blockchain and web 3 technologies, including “chain-integrated social primitives.”
• He also said he will be pointing his focus towards making Polkadot and Web 3 more accessible for the general population. 
• The new CEO will be Björn Wagner, one of Parity’s co-founders. 
• Wood was an early participant in the crypto ecosystem, contributing to Ethereum’s development just one month after Vitalik Buterin issued its initial whitepaper. 
• Polkadot – his  primary focus today – helps separate blockchains communicate with each other, making them interoperable and enabling cross-chain transfer of assets. Its native crypto, DOT, is the 12th largest cryptocurrency by market cap. 
• A host of other crypto CEOs have resigned over the past few months, including Celsius CEO Alex Mashinksy and multiple executives at Genesis.