Podcast host Matt Zahab sat down for an exclusive interview with Bill Laboon, the Director of Education and Governance Initiatives at the Web3 Foundation, a not-for-profit entity supporting the Polkadot ecosystem.
Laboon discussed Polkadot and various aspects of its ecosystem, the real competitors to Polkadot and the Web3 Foundation, and how the Foundation and Parity turned out to be centralized points in a decentralized project.
He spoke about the community reaching 1,000 referendums and the need for more end-user-focused apps for crypto to go mainstream.
### Will the Real Competitor Please Stand Up
Web3 Foundation is a not-for-profit company, meaning it doesn’t aim to make money. It has funds that the team uses for day-to-day operating expenses.
Instead, the Foundation was founded to bring about the decentralized internet, a world where people own their own data, Laboon told Matt.
One of the many ways they’re accomplishing this is by supporting the Polkadot ecosystem.
To help shepherd Polkadot, the Foundation provides education, outreach, and grants. It also does coordination and interacts with the community.
Furthermore, they do research and produce papers that are useful to the entire ecosystem.
Notably, the team has talked to people from various other ecosystems, including Cosmos, Ethereum, and Cardano, in an effort to bring them together.
These are not Polkadot’s competitors, Laboon said. “We’re working towards the same goal in different ways, and we do a lot of interoperability with them.”
Actually, argued the director, “our competitor really is the Web2 world. We have different ways of going about our way of winning.”
Moreover, while Web3 Foundation focuses on Polkadot, it always had a “broader mandate.”
Therefore, they have provided funding to people building other projects and researching other ecosystems, which doesn’t directly benefit Polkadot but is more generalized.
### 1000 Referendums: Experience in Democracy
In July, the Polkadot community celebrated its 1,000th referendum.
Anyone can issue a referendum. The large community of DOT holders makes all decisions by voting.
The ecosystem is “entirely decentralized,” Laboon said. “The control is entirely in the hands of the DOT holders,” including any upgrades, updates, or spending from the treasury.
Polkadot has its OpenGov governance system where one DOT equals one vote.
“It’s just a very direct democracy. And this has been very challenging,” Laboon remarked.
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