Gavin Wood, co-founder of , , and , believes that for Web3 technology to reach its full potential, cryptocurrency transactions should be fee-free.

Speaking to Cointelegraph at the Web3 Summit in Berlin, Wood shared his vision of making Web3 accessible to everyone, stating: “My biggest hope is that we can actually do this [Web3] free for everyone.”

Wood’s latest initiative, a tattoo-based Web3 solution called “proof-of-ink,” is part of his ongoing effort to promote a free Web3 ecosystem worldwide.

Wood also revealed that he and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin initially considered removing the Ether (ETH) token from the Ethereum network. “Vitalik and I talked about the possibility of getting rid of Ether, the currency. Something that now seems unthinkable,” Wood said.

However, the founders ultimately decided to keep Ether to prevent spam and raise funds for further development.

Wood argued that developers need to take action to decouple Ether from the Ethereum network to allow billions of Web2 users to connect to Web3.

“It will be difficult to effectively decouple Ethereum from Ether in a way that makes it responsive enough for the applications we will need to build and deploy on Web3,” he noted.

Wood pointed to Polkadot’s JAM chain, which is moving toward making cryptocurrency transactions nearly free. He noted that a more lasting solution to eliminating fees could be developing “Web3 individuality,” which could eliminate the need for transaction fees and anti-spam mechanisms.

The Polkadot founder said in a recent interview with Bullish CEO Tom Farley that he believes there’s a lack of drive to create projects with long-term value — ones that will remain relevant and useful a decade from now. Instead, he sees many focused on short-term gains, building quickly to sell, often to buyers who simply pass it on, driven more by hype than substance.

Wood admits that this is just his theory, unsupported by any demanding economic data, but he believes that this approach pollutes the market and leads to huge investments in Layer 1 blockchains that may not have any viable future.

Interestingly, Wood argued that Ethereum, and perhaps even , may not be exceptions to the rules governing which blockchains survive. However, he believes that Bitcoin, as the first cryptocurrency and primarily a store of value, may be an exception due to its unique position in the market.