Sign Co-founder Yan Xin: Blockchain Reshapes the Global Trust Mechanism

In the wave of decentralization, trust remains the key link between the real world and Blockchain integration. Sign, as a leading on-chain verification system, centers around the Sign Protocol, allowing information such as identity, protocols, and credit to be globally verifiable like Blockchain transactions. Sign co-founder Yan Xin deeply analyzes Sign's vision, technical breakthroughs, and future plans, exploring how to reshape the trust mechanism through Blockchain and promote on-chain public services.

Yan Xin introduced that he and two partners founded Sign in 2021. After 4 years of development, they have created the global verification system Sign Protocol, which allows information such as identity, protocol, and credit to be verified worldwide. In 2024, Sign's revenue reached 15 million dollars. The company has received support from several well-known investment institutions.

The goal of Sign is to migrate important scenarios and public services to the Blockchain. They believe that the Blockchain is the most powerful world ledger, with real-time, accurate, and auditable characteristics. Sign is committed to enabling more information, qualifications, and identity data to be verified directly on-chain, and to completing the verification efficiently and easily on a global scale.

Yan Xin stated that Sign is planning to collaborate with more governments and international organizations to use Blockchain as a platform to enhance government efficiency and deliver public services. They have formed a diverse team, with members from top universities around the world, all firmly believing that Blockchain is expected to reshape the underlying logic of global trust and establish a true era of supranational infrastructure.

When talking about the Sign Protocol, Yan Xin likened it to an "on-chain notary." In real life, we rely on authoritative institutions such as notary agencies, banks, or governments for certification. In the blockchain world, the Sign Protocol takes on a similar role, ensuring that every piece of information and every transaction on the chain is endorsed by a certified identity through a proof mechanism across the entire blockchain, guaranteeing its authenticity and validity.

For ordinary users, the core value of the Sign Protocol lies in providing transparent and secure verification of users' identities and information through Blockchain technology. The on-chain identity is not just a wallet address, but represents a "person" with a complete social credit and background. This identity has a higher level of credibility, enabling users to participate more conveniently in the Web3 world and establishing a higher level of trust in various decentralized applications.

Yan Xin believes that there are a large number of scenarios in real life that require verification but are inefficient. For example, when Chinese citizens apply for a U.S. visa, they need to prepare various supporting documents, and this process takes weeks, while it can be completed in a few minutes through technological means. The Sign Protocol aims to improve the efficiency of these scenarios.

In terms of privacy protection, the Sign Protocol extensively uses zero-knowledge proof technology but has not yet started using fully homomorphic encryption. Their scenarios mainly focus on verification, without the need to compare or upload sensitive information.

Regarding the EthSign product, Yan Xin emphasized its core advantages include free verification worldwide, no subscription required, no spam, and permanent encrypted storage. EthSign is based on the U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act and is recognized by most international standards.

SignPass is a new authentication system developed by Sign, which has been implemented in Sierra Leone and one of the emirates of the UAE. In response to the regulatory requirements of different countries, SignPass adopts a dual-track strategy of technical compliance and policy compliance to ensure global compatibility.

Looking to the future, Sign plans to explore "on-chain governmental efficiency" and promote blockchain applications at an international level, migrating public services to the blockchain as a public infrastructure. They will also launch a Sign App similar to Alipay, integrating identity verification, wallet management, and various application functions.