FTX’s failure is not a harbinger of crypto: Gavin Wood

• Gavin Wood co-founded Ethereum, Polkadot and Parity Technologies among other top crypto platforms.
• He says FTX’s implosion offers a chance for crypto to go for “decentralised, trust-free technology.”
• Wood stepped down as CEO of Parity in October, announcing his decision allowed him to focus more on building Polkadot.

Gavin Wood, the co-founder of blockchain platform Polkadot, says FTX’s failure isn’t a precursor of what’s to come in the crypto sector. It doesn’t count for the future of cryptocurrency, (even if a setback). 

As for why, he says the collapsed exchange was a mismanaged platform that tried to hide behind a massive marketing strategy. 

FTX was a ‘mismanaged, heavily-marketed’ company

The FTX token has lost nearly 98% of its value in the past month, all because FTX happened and most people within crypto are extremely irritated that it did. Of particular concern has been the impact to millions of people who didn’t get out as it became clear the Sam Bankman-Fried led exchange was in trouble.

And then 130 FTX affiliated entities filed for bankruptcy – with all these coming just months after SBF had painted himself as crypto’s ‘white knight.’

But despite the contagion that has followed the FTX fiasco, Wood says the event is nowhere near being a ‘harbinger for crypto.’ 

According to the Polkadot co-founder, if there’s anything, FTX has demonstrated one thing: the cryptocurrency industry needs to work towards “better decentralised and trust-free technology.” Wood shared his sentiment on Friday.

“I’m sick of hearing crypto confused with a heavily-marketed centralised, mismanaged exchange. FTX’s failure is far from a harbinger of crypto. Quite the opposite: it’s a concrete demonstration of the need for more, better decentralised, trust-free technology.”

I’m sick of hearing crypto confused with a heavily-marketed centralised, mismanaged exchange. FTX’s failure is far from a harbinger of crypto. Quite the opposite: it’s a concrete demonstration of the need for more, better decentralised, trust-free technology.

— Gavin Wood (@gavofyork) November 25, 2022

Wood stepped down as CEO of Parity Technologies, the firm he co-founded and which is behind the development of Polkadot, in October this year.

As we highlighted, the Ethereum co-founder noted his move was to help him focus more on Polkadot. He is currently the Chief Architect at Parity. Wood is also the founder of Kusama and Web3 Foundation.