In simple terms, Gavin provided his thoughts on the following issues:
1. How will the Bootstrap service of JAM develop?
Gavin believes that the Bootstrap services currently being developed by Parity are not yet complete, but will continue to improve over the next few months, with richer features and clearer documentation.
However, just as there are many different versions of a computer's BIOS, there may be multiple teams developing their own Bootstrap services in the future. Each service can choose to implement part of or an extended version of Parity's standard format as needed. This means that Bootstrap services in the future will be diverse and interchangeable, rather than controlled solely by Parity.
2. What does Gavin mean by π10⁹? Is it related to the total DOT supply?
Yes, π10⁹ (which is about 3.14 billion) is a fixed DOT supply scheme envisioned by Gavin.
He proposed that the total amount of DOT be directly stated in the genesis block of the JAM network, for example, π10⁹. The purpose of this is:
• Completely remove the modification authority of the total DOT supply from on-chain governance, so that no one can easily change it through voting in the future.
• If a change must be made, it can only be done through a 'hard fork' of the entire network.
This will significantly enhance the stability of DOT economic policies, avoiding abuse or frequent changes in governance.
3. How will future versions of the JAM protocol be defined? Who decides?
Each version of the JAM protocol will correspond to a version of the Gray Paper.
The latest Gray Paper represents the latest JAM protocol, and some versions will undergo external audits to become 'production-ready' official versions.
The Polkadot community can decide for themselves which version of JAM to run the mainnet on, and other networks can choose similarly.
4. Will Gavin always lead the Gray Paper? Or will others participate?
He will continue to serve as the chief editor of the Gray Paper for a while, but also plans to establish a 'Gray Paper Editorial Committee (GPEB)' to involve more excellent technicians in jointly deciding the long-term direction of JAM.
If Gavin steps down in the future, this committee will become the actual governance body of the JAM protocol.
5. What if the Polkadot community does not like this committee?
Polkadot has complete sovereignty. If it does not agree with the development direction of the GPEB, it can fork out a new protocol itself, or even fork a new version based on the Gray Paper (for example, called Blue Paper 😄).
Gavin also plans to place the Gray Paper under a public license after the release of version v1.0 (possibly a copyleft open-source license with patent protection), allowing for free forking under appropriate conditions.
6. Who will fund this editorial committee (GPEB)?
If Polkadot continues to use JAM, Gavin believes that the Polkadot treasury should fund the operations of this editorial committee (meetings, research, decision-making).
If other networks also use JAM, he hopes they can provide support as well.
The initial GPEB members will be invited by Gavin, and those who have deeply participated in the implementation of JAM and have a strong technical background will be given priority consideration.
In the future, he will also appoint a deputy editor, gradually transferring the power to choose and invite members to the GPEB, Fellowship, Web3 Foundation, etc.
