Sign Co-founder Yan Xin: Building On-chain Trust, Reshaping Global Public Services

In the wave of decentralization, trust remains the key link between the real world and blockchain integration. As a leading on-chain verification system, Sign is committed to allowing information such as identity, protocols, and credit to be verified globally, based on its core product, Sign Protocol, just like blockchain transactions. This article delves into Sign's vision, technological breakthroughs, and future plans, as well as how to reshape trust mechanisms through blockchain and promote public services on-chain.

The co-founder of Sign, Yan Xin, introduced their team background and development history. As a startup founded in 2021, Sign has already achieved significant results, with revenue reaching 15 million USD in 2024. The company has received support from several well-known investment institutions, including Sequoia Capital and the investment department of a certain well-known trading platform.

The core goal of Sign is to migrate the world's most important scenarios and public services to the blockchain. They believe that the blockchain is the most powerful global ledger, with real-time, accurate, and auditable characteristics. Sign is committed to enabling more information, qualifications, and identity data to be directly verified on-chain, achieving an efficient and simple verification process globally.

When discussing the concept of "trust" in a "trustless network", Yan Xin pointed out that while blockchain itself is a trustless network, decision-making in the real world is still based on trust. To enable blockchain to support more complex real-world applications, it is necessary to introduce real-world trust mechanisms on-chain. Sign deploys smart contracts across multiple blockchains and designs a unified format for these contracts, allowing various organizations and individuals to verify through the on-chain system.

Sign Protocol is described as an "on-chain notary" that ensures the authenticity and validity of every piece of on-chain information and every transaction through a proof mechanism across the entire chain, backed by certified identities. For ordinary users, this means that their identities and information can be transparently and securely verified, thereby gaining more convenience and a higher level of trust in the Web3 world.

When discussing the necessity of verification, Yan Xin pointed out many real-life verification scenarios that are needed but have not yet been well addressed, such as international visa applications and the KYC processes of trading platforms. He emphasized that although blockchain technology offers new solutions to these issues, it still needs to cooperate and be compatible with existing systems to achieve true application.

In terms of privacy protection, the Sign Protocol makes extensive use of zero-knowledge proof technology but has not yet involved fully homomorphic encryption. Their design philosophy is to only conduct necessary verifications without needing to compare or store sensitive information on-chain, in compliance with privacy protection regulations such as GDPR.

Regarding the EthSign product, Yan Xin emphasized that its core advantages lie in features such as free verification globally, no subscription required, no spam, and permanent encryption and storage of documents. EthSign is based on the U.S. Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act and is recognized by most international standards.

SignPass, as a new authentication system, has begun to provide support for certain countries and regions. In response to the diverse regulatory requirements around the world, SignPass adopts a dual-track strategy of technological compliance and policy compliance to ensure compatibility under different legal frameworks.

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

Through these innovative measures, Sign is striving to create a globally compliant and cutting-edge new paradigm of Web3 digital identity, dedicated to realizing the vision of borderless trust and transferable identity.