My thoughts
I, personally, am not planning to launch a new token based on the JAM protocol. I don’t consider it sensible for Parity and the Web3 Foundation to launch such a token though I’ll let those organisations’ leaderships speak for themselves. I am generally against taking actions which I do not think would ultimately bring a net gain for Polkadot.
I do often explore ideas which I think could provide long-term value to Polkadot. Occasionally, these involve new tokens, generally symbiotic with DOT.
The DOT token is the mainstay of the Polkadot product economy and I very much expect it to stay this way. The existence of JAM doesn’t change this.
Polkadot and JAM are synergistic. With JAM, Polkadot gets more, faster cores, metering, connectivity, storage and the ability to use a whole new execution model.
On Polkadot
Polkadot is, first and foremost, a product. It secures and connects blockchains. It is powered by a decentralised network of actors.
The Polkadot Paper published in 2017 defined the baseline product vision. It is no longer a paper promise; it is a battle-tested production network that sets the bar for data availability and compute capacity, resilience, and secure cross-chain interoperability.
As a state-of-the-art roll-up host, it already powers heavyweight workloads: Mythos runs mainstream gaming titles NFL Rivals and FIFA Rivals; Hydration keeps DeFi solvent through protocol-executed partial liquidations; Frequency anchors a censorship-resistant social graph already serving millions of users; Hyperbridge supplies trust-free bridging as a cryptographic coprocessor—plus many other teams too numerous to list here.
The forthcoming Polkadot Hub upgrade will introduce a native RISC-V smart-contract platform, lowering entry-barriers for builders and charting a path through the toughest rollup challenges—securing integrations with CEXs, custodians and bridges, and accessing native stablecoins and liquidity at scale.
All of these improvements are really all about making the Polkadot product better, in order to gain usage, create demand and build a successful economy.
On JAM
JAM is a Web3 protocol. (For those who don’t understand the distinction between a protocol and a network or token, a protocol is the common bit between Ethereum and Ethereum Classic, or Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. It’s the technical underpinnings, stripped of specific organisations, computers, community, history or token.) It is strictly and minimally specified and has no single reference implementation or single financial interest behind it which might compromise its neutrality. JAM is capable of being used in a multitude of situations and is not bound to a single interest group.
Expertise and IP on JAM is not walled into a company as has become the industry norm. I have lectured on the JAM protocol extensively around the world and it is possible to understand enough to make a full implementation of JAM from one main paper, its references and a handful of published technical conventions. There are almost 40 teams known to be building their own independent implementation of JAM. No teams implementing JAM are under any kind of legal or moral responsibility toward me, Parity or the Web3 Foundation. The JAM Implementers’ Prize incentivises teams with locked DOT to deliver high-quality implementations. Teams now have sufficient expertise that they not only regularly contribute back to the JAM specification but also make suggestions on how to improve it.
The JAM protocol has been under development for more than two years now. Its specification, the Graypaper, was written and maintained almost exclusively by me and was not in any way funded by the Polkadot treasury. It was intentionally written to be independent of both the existing Polkadot and Ethereum protocols, though it does have some technical and design elements in common with each of them.
Last year, the Polkadot stakeholders voted in favour of using the JAM protocol as part of a future technical upgrade path.
It is conceivable that other protocols and tokens may decide the same.
On the Web3 Foundation and Parity
The Web3 Foundation is in a very healthy state of finances. It has a clear, legally-binding, mission statement of supporting and nurturing Web3 protocols.
In pursuit of this mission, the Web3 Foundation presold DOT tokens in 2017 on the basis of them being useful within the scope of this product. Polkadot has been, and in my view should continue to be, Web3 Foundation’s primary target but need not be the only one. Under its clearly stated remit, the Web3 Foundation funds the JAM Prize and the procurement of the JAM Toaster hardware.
Parity is, and in my view should continue to be, directed to focus primarily on Polkadot product improvement together with optimised value capture.
On JAM networks and tokens
I hope that JAM and the PVM be not only milestones on Polkadot’s upgrade path, but also a standard, neutral Web3 protocol.
Nothing - not me, not you, not Parity and not the Web3 Foundation prevents any one (or more) of the JAM implementation teams launching their own JAM network along with its own token. Indeed, nothing stops any existing network launching their own JAM instance and transitioning to it.
In fact, that freedom is the point; it embodies the open-source permissionless ethos which brought us here. I believe that this presents an opportunity for the entire Web3 industry to make a significant technological leap and an excellent chance for Polkadot to expand its relevance, connectivity and mindshare across the space and beyond.