Max Rebol: Polkadot is AWS for Web3 and Why JAM is the Future of Blockchain Scalability
Max Rebol, Polkadot Ambassador and CEO of Harbour Industrial Capital, runs an exclusive venture capital fund supporting projects in the Polkadot ecosystem. He is also the co-founder of PolkaPort East, a Hong Kong-based strategic growth initiative that aims to bridge the East and West in the blockchain industry.
In a recent interview with BeInCrypto at Consensus Hong Kong, Rebol shared key insights on Polkadot and its technical development. With over 15 years of experience working in Asia and a finance background from Morgan Stanley, he leverages his expertise in both traditional and blockchain financial markets to identify promising opportunities in the Polkadot ecosystem.
The interview comes shortly after the JAM Tour – initiated by Gavin Wood in 2025 – made a stop in Asia. The tour focused on showcasing the JAM upgrade, which will make Polkadot a decentralized multi-core supercomputer, through technical presentations and developer events.
How did Polkadot take advantage of Consensus Hong Kong?
"Polkadot had a strong presence at Consensus Hong Kong. We hosted a dedicated Polkadot area, showcasing our entire ecosystem. The highlight was the presentation by Gavin Wood, founder of Polkadot, on the upcoming JAM upgrade. PolkaPort East managed all the Polkadot representatives at the event, which was a great opportunity to showcase our technical progress to the global community."
What makes Polkadot different from other Layer 1 blockchains?
"Polkadot was built with a long-term vision and a different strategy. Gavin Wood, our founder, previously co-founded Ethereum and played a key technical role in the early days of that project. After disagreements over how to scale, Gavin decided to leave and build Polkadot from scratch with a parachain architecture, a model that allows for horizontal rather than vertical scaling.
Polkadot's parachains can communicate directly with each other, eliminating the bottleneck that Layer 2 solutions on Ethereum face. Ethereum has to go back to the main chain before performing transactions between Layer 2s, which reduces performance and creates complexity."
What is JAM and how will it change Polkadot?
"JAM is not a standalone project but a major performance upgrade for Polkadot. It optimizes the performance of the network and helps Polkadot scale further while maintaining decentralization and security. JAM is like designing an optimized multi-core system, allocating resources more intelligently to the necessary processes, thereby increasing processing speed without requiring too powerful hardware. This allows ordinary users to still operate JAM validators on standard hardware at low cost, keeping the network decentralized and high-performance."
Are there any real-world examples of Polkadot being used in businesses or governments?
"Polkadot is now acting as the AWS of Web3, providing a decentralized computing platform for many applications. A prime example is Mandala Chain in Indonesia, which is working with the Indonesian government to deploy blockchain-based systems for health records and driver's licenses. Citizens can control their data and decide who can see it, which is a big step forward in the adoption of Web3 technology."
What other areas is Polkadot seeing growth in real-world applications?
"PEAQ Network, a DePIN project we recently invested in, allows machines to trade data with each other. For example, car owners can monetize the data their cars generate, such as traffic and weather information, anonymously. Companies like Tesla and Volkswagen can buy this data to develop their AI models, without worrying about using each other's platforms."
With the security and scalability issues that many blockchains are facing, how has Polkadot approached this issue?
"Polkadot tackles the issue in a smart way, keeping security and decentralization as non-negotiable principles. However, we have focused on solving scalability by optimizing resources and allocating them intelligently. With JAM, anyone can run a validator on standard hardware without a large investment, which keeps the network decentralized and the performance stable, meeting the needs of billions of users."
Conclusion
Max Rebol provided an insight into the future of Polkadot, emphasizing how the platform differentiates itself in solving the challenges of scalability and decentralization. With innovations like JAM and the implementation of real-world projects at the national scale, Polkadot is affirming its position as a
