Polkadot’s Gavin Wood introduces new JAM chain graypaper at Token2049 

Speaking at Token2024 in Dubai, blockchain veteran Gavin Wood unveiled plans for a new protocol called JAM Chain built atop Ethereum and Polkadot principles. 

Wood is a blockchain developer with a decade of experience who is credited with co-founding multiple major decentralized networks, including Ethereum (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), and Kusama (KSM). 

The University of York alumni is also particularly known as the original author of Ethereum’s Yellow Paper, the formal definition of crypto’s second-largest blockchain after Bitcoin (BTC).

Gavin Wood: Polkadot JAM chain is a protocol, not software

Gavin Wood’s presentation at the Token2024 blockchain conference in Dubai introduced the Joint-Accumulate Machine or JAM chain as a protocol first and foremost rather than software. According to the Polkadot co-creator, JAM is designed to be faster and more decentralized in architecture and development expertise. 

“JAM is permissionless in nature, allowing anyone to deploy code as a service on it for a fee commensurate with the resources this code utilizes and to induce execution of this code through the procurement and allocation of core-time, a metric of resilient and ubiquitous computation, somewhat similar to the purchasing of gas in Ethereum. We already envision a Polkadot-compatible CoreChains service.”

JAM Gray Paper

Wood explained that Polkadot’s JAM Chain will deliver smart contract functionality through a decentralized hybrid system. Wood’s thesis revealed similarities with Ethereum’s EVM but pivoted to a new PMB paradigm driven by Polkadot’s underlying infrastructure. 

Wood implored interested participants and contributors to study JAM’s Gray Paper.

Furthermore, the Polkadot co-creator pointed to the JAM prize initiative backed by the Web3 Foundation to incentivize interactions. The fund will reward developers across various tiers of JAM implementations.  Builders will also have access to a full-scale replica of the chain called the JAM toaster, which is built to help with debugging and optimization. 

Wood said the Polkadot Fellowship, the technical body in charge of Polkadot upgrades, will finalize all tooling and software specifications needed to run the JAM chain once a proposal is published in the coming months.