From Identity Verification to Asset Ownership: Sign Leading the New Infrastructure of the Digital Society

2025-05-12 14:29

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Sign is not just a technical protocol or a single platform, but is instead about creating a trust and collaboration framework for the future. As identity compliance becomes a globally agreed-upon milestone, its infrastructure capability is becoming a key enabler of the digital society.

Source: Sign Protocol

Under the accelerating impact of the digital wave, the global way of operating is being redefined almost every day. So, how can a set of globally applicable standards be established to break through the barriers of data silos, inconsistent standards, and high compliance costs between independently operated identity systems, asset allocations, and regulatory rules within each sovereign country, becoming a "glass ceiling" in global collaboration?

To break this ceiling, what we need is a trust foundation that can be jointly accepted by sovereign nations, multinational corporations, and even the pure Web3 community. Sign is doing just that:

Sovereign-grade Identity: Through the Sign Protocol, official credentials such as passports and visas are securely moved onto the blockchain, helping governments unleash the potential of digital governance within a compliance framework.

TokenTable Standard: By modularizing and templating the complex token issuance, unlocking, and distribution processes, Sign enables enterprises and projects to release tokens like calling an API while ensuring regulatory traceability.

In essence, Sign aims to move "demand scenarios that need to be easily verifiable globally" to the blockchain through a unified standard, from identity verification to asset provenance, enabling individuals, enterprises, and governments to enjoy the convenience of global collaboration.

Project Overview: What Problems Does Sign Aim to Solve?

Project Summary

Sign is currently involved in building several national-level digital infrastructures, with the product already deployed in the UAE, Thailand, and Sierra Leone, planning to cover more than twenty countries and regions, including emerging digital governance practice hubs like Barbados and Singapore.

In terms of product metrics, the Sign Protocol has seen a magnitude increase in credential templates, the TokenTable platform has distributed a total amount exceeding $4 billion, covering over 40 million on-chain wallet addresses, serving over 200 projects, including various mainstream ecosystems such as Starknet, ZetaChain, and Notcoin.

The market's recognition of Sign is gradually being realized. Sequoia Capital has made cross-regional investments, and YZi Labs has led subsequent rounds. The Sign project has achieved $15 million in annual revenue, becoming one of the few participants in the identity and token infrastructure field with an actual revenue model, demonstrating strong market competitiveness and development potential.

Project Vision

In the current evolving landscape of global collaboration, Sign proposes the concept of a "hyper-sovereign database," seeking to use blockchain technology to create a globally verifiable and auditable information structure, driving the comprehensive integration of on-chain governance, on-chain economy, and on-chain identity on a global scale, becoming the underlying engine of global digital collaboration.

Core Positioning

The core architecture of Sign focuses on two key modules: Identity Verification Infrastructure and Asset Distribution Infrastructure. Based on this foundation, Sign is building a standardized, programmable, and cross-chain deployable trust layer protocol. This protocol can meet the basic requirements of Web3, possess an identity and distribution system highly compatible with the real world, and provide reliable guarantees for global trust and value transfer.

Technical Breakdown: Sign's Underlying Architecture and Product Matrix

Based on the Sign Protocol and its derivative products (TokenTable, SignPass, EthSign), Sign bridges the three major engines of on-chain identity, services, and assets, leading the next generation of digital society infrastructure construction.

Sign Protocol: A Chain-Agnostic Authentication Protocol

The Sign Protocol possesses outstanding scalability and flexible deployment capabilities. The system supports multi-chain deployment and can be locally deployed on sovereign chains according to regulatory compliance requirements. Leveraging Arweave for off-chain redundant backup of data ensures data security and persistence. The indexing layer is provided by SignScan, offering unified management capabilities, supporting standardized query and verification of on-chain credentials, greatly enhancing operational convenience and efficiency.

This protocol supports a local contract interaction mechanism and a remote deployment architecture, and can integrate with various identity sources from Web2 and Web3. By adopting asymmetric encryption and zero-knowledge proof mechanisms, Sign not only provides robust identity verification capabilities but also ensures the complete protection of user privacy, allowing users to enjoy convenient services without worrying about personal information leakage.

TokenTable: Digital Asset Distribution Engine

TokenTable is the most comprehensive digital asset distribution engine in the industry. The Unlocker module provides a fully on-chain trusted token unlocking solution suitable for complex unlock logics such as linear release and event triggers. The Merkle Distributor adopts a hybrid design, saving Gas costs while retaining the flexibility of distribution logic. The Signature Distributor focuses on centralized high-efficiency distribution scenarios, accommodating activities requiring social interaction and complex behavioral incentives.

SignPass: On-Chain Identity System

SignPass introduces a highly configurable on-chain identity system aimed at governments and organizations, which can strongly support their efficient applications in digital governance, resource allocation, and user authentication, among many other scenarios. Through SignPass, user identities can be easily reused across different protocols and platforms, becoming authoritative credentials for participating in on-chain governance and various activities, greatly enhancing users' convenience and identity in the digital world.

EthSign: The First On-Chain Signature Application

As an early product in the Sign ecosystem, EthSign has evolved to become the representative application for on-chain electronic signatures. All contract signing records are permanently stored on the blockchain, ensuring the immutability of contract content at both legal and technical levels. This provides a solid and reliable foundation for on-chain business activities. Whether it is cooperation between enterprises or transactions between individuals and institutions, EthSign ensures the security, transparency, and trustworthiness of the signing process.

Economic Model: SIGN Token Information

As an ERC-20 standard-based token, SIGN serves as the core incentive mechanism and utility token of the Sign protocol. The current maximum token supply is set at 10 billion, with an initial circulating supply ratio of 12%, of which the tradable portion is approximately 8.5%. This mechanism ensures early market stability while also providing ample space for long-term governance incentives and laying a solid foundation for ecosystem development.

The role of the SIGN token spans across various aspects of ecosystem usage. At the protocol usage and deployment level, SIGN is used as computational resource fuel. On the community front, the token has staking and governance capabilities, allowing participation in product parameter settings and protocol upgrade proposals. Additionally, SIGN also fulfills a value consensus function, providing holders with a channel to participate in long-term ecosystem direction decisions.

Capital and Community: From "Top-tier Investment" to "Cultural Consensus Body"

Since its establishment, the Sign project has successfully raised $32 million due to its outstanding innovation and significant development potential. Early investments from Sequoia Capital across the Americas and Asia provided strong financial support for the project's initiation and development.

In subsequent rounds, led by YZi Labs, further propelled the project's expansion and upgrade. This capital structure not only covers major global markets but also fully reflects Sign's potential for globalization in industry awareness, compliance layout, and business implementation, laying a solid foundation for its future development.

The Sign ecosystem has built a globally recognized builder community with a sense of cultural identity around Orange Dynasty. In terms of on-chain governance, SignPass, as an on-chain identity carrier, has been introduced into the DAO participation system, allowing community members to participate in proposals and voting decisions based on identity credentials, forming an on-chain identity social network with signing, socializing, verifying, and distributing as its core interaction structure. This mechanism is driving a new form of on-chain relationship among users, protocols, and assets.

Medium-to-Long-Term Strategy

In the mid-term, Sign will launch a Sovereign Layer2 solution as a government-side customized Rollup service. Through deep integration of on-chain identity and token systems, Sign is outlining the prototype of an "on-chain nation." At the same time, the "Sign Stack" public infrastructure stack will continue to be rolled out, providing developers with standardized calling interfaces and development environments, further advancing the maturity of the Web3 application ecosystem.

Building the Cornerstone of Trust: Sign Leads the New Era of Digital Civilization

Sign is not just a technical protocol or a single platform but is establishing a future-oriented system of trust and collaboration. As identity compliance becomes a global consensus, its infrastructure capabilities are becoming a key support of the digital society.

With its cross-chain compatible architecture, privacy protection technology, and real-world use cases, Sign demonstrates how Web3 is moving beyond niche applications towards a feasible path to national-level use cases. A more trustworthy, transparent, and verifiable digital civilization may be opening up from here. Sign will play an indispensable role in this transformation, leading us towards a future full of opportunities and possibilities.