Written by: Deep Tide TechFlow
As a fan of the Chinese Super League, I recently noticed that a local club launched a season ticket package, allowing you to watch all home games of the 2025 season on-site if you grab one.
But I didn’t manage to get one because fans holding 2024 season tickets have priority purchasing rights. Although the club’s intention with this move was to give back to long-term supporters, the reality is quite the opposite:
Many of last year’s season tickets were snatched up by scalpers, who never watch the games but resell the viewing rights at high prices. True fans can only choose to buy scalper tickets that are several times above market price or have no game to watch.
As a blockchain professional, this has prompted me to think about “how blockchain truly impacts real life”:
How can the club sell season tickets to real fans?
The crux lies in how to accurately and efficiently verify the buyer’s fan identity.
So if we write data such as the attendance rate of fans at past matches and the purchase records of products around the club onto the blockchain, leveraging the powerful verification function of blockchain as a distributed data system, can we easily verify fan identities when purchasing tickets?
Looking at the leopard through a tube, the verification scenarios in life are actually everywhere, but most of them suffer from inefficiencies, high costs, and lack of rigor. If we can put large-scale real-world data on the blockchain, enabling data to be efficiently, simply, and cost-effectively verified at any time and place, would this not be an effective way to realize the value of blockchain technology and promote its large-scale adoption?
With this thought in mind, I began to understand the “on-chain verification” track, and to my surprise, people had already focused on this entry point as early as 2020, continuously building a complete product, a rich ecosystem, and an active community over the years.
This project is the full-chain verification protocol Sign Protocol.
Harness the core value of blockchain databases to deconstruct verification challenges on-chain.
Verification is everywhere in life.
When you check in at the hotel, you need to provide the relevant identification documents to verify your reservation;
When you join a new company, you need to provide educational qualifications, professional skill certificates, and other materials to verify your abilities and commitments.
When you want to take out a loan to buy a house, you need to provide household registration/social security payment information, bank statements, proof of stable income, etc., to verify whether you are qualified to purchase a house…
But if you observe carefully, you will find that the traditional verification system actually has many problems:
The daily verification lacks rigor, just like the league season tickets that were not actually purchased by real fans.
However, important verification often becomes inefficient and costly under the dominance of power institutions.
Taking applying for a U.S. visa as an example, usually you need to prepare a lot of materials:
Identity materials: household registration, ID card, etc.
Financial status materials: bank statements; income proof; property certificates, etc.
Employment Status: Certificate of Employment Issued by the Company
Itinerary arrangements: round-trip airfare; hotel reservations, etc.
……
You need to run back and forth between the bank, social security bureau, and consulate to collect this long list of materials, which not only incurs high costs but often requires enduring long waits.
Unfortunately, when you want to apply for a visa to other countries, you need to go through the tedious process mentioned above countless times, because the visa systems of different sovereign countries do not interconnect.
Those who have done it all know it well; it’s really troublesome.
We really need a rigorous, efficient, convenient, and low-cost verification solution.
Blockchain technology, with its characteristics of decentralization, immutability, and transparency, demonstrates significant advantages in addressing verification challenges.
We know that due to the existence of different sovereign countries and the division of different power institutions in the real world, as well as the information isolation between them, it has led to issues of low efficiency and high cost in verification.
However, the blockchain does not have these divisions; it is essentially a distributed ledger where all nodes maintain a complete record of transactions. This endows the blockchain with a very important technological characteristic:
Every transaction can be verified at any time and from any location.
So, based on this technical characteristic expansion:
Can we write data to the blockchain in a standardized data format, allowing the data to be verified anytime and anywhere?
At the same time, the data being written can come from a vast amount of real-world data, enabling everything to be put on the chain and verifiable in a simple, efficient, and low-cost manner?
Furthermore, due to the open and transparent nature of blockchain, can data privacy protection be achieved by introducing technologies such as ZK?
This is what the Sign Protocol achieves.
From data standardization to efficient retrieval: How does Sign make everything verifiable on-chain?
What Sign Protocol wants to do is actually very simple:
Harness the core value of blockchain as a distributed database, allowing users to freely prove and retrieve structured and verifiable data on-chain, providing on-chain solutions for any user/scenario that requires verification.
The realization of all this relies on the following key steps:
Write data
Create Proof
Proof of Storage
Efficient Retrieval Proof
The solution of Sign Protocol revolves around these key steps.
There are two very important concepts in the product design of the Sign Protocol:
One is the Schema, which is like a data standard that defines the data types and structures to be presented when creating proofs.
The other is Attestation, which is a proof that conforms to the Schema digital signature structured data. Due to the open and transparent nature of blockchain, in many specific application scenarios we need to realize that data is put on the chain without being disclosed, so the Sign Protocol also introduces ZK technology as an optional privacy feature, providing solutions for data and scenarios that require privacy protection, further broadening the wide applicability of on-chain verification.
There is a mutual dependency between Schema and Attestation:
To create a Schema, you first need to confirm the Attestation you are trying to create, that is, what types of information you plan to store in the Attestation? How large is the data volume?
To create an Attestation, you first need to find or create a compatible Schema, as the Attestation must adhere to the format defined by its Schema to ensure that the Attestation is accurate, parsable, and composable for any validator.
Once the Attestation is created, it will be stored through a smart contract. The Sign Protocol supports both on-chain and off-chain storage methods to better support the storage of large amounts of data. Generally, storing larger datasets off-chain is cheaper, and the Sign Protocol supports Arweave / IPFS storage.
When a proof needs to be queried, the Sign Protocol provides efficient indexing services. Users can access it through REST endpoints and GraphQL endpoints, or directly via the NPM SDK. On-chain data is verified through the blockchain’s consensus mechanism, while off-chain data is verified by comparing its hash value with the hash value stored on-chain.
At the same time, facing the complex and diverse verification scenarios, Sign Protocol also possesses strong composability:
Developers can create smart contracts with custom functionalities through Schema Hooks, allowing them to execute custom logic when an Attestation is created or revoked, further enhancing the flexibility and functionality of the protocol. This is similar to combining different types of Schemas to meet the needs of various complex scenarios, such as efficiently verifying home purchase qualifications by combining different Schemas like bank statements, social security payment proofs, and household registration certificates.
In addition, the Sign Protocol, as a full-chain protocol, is designed to operate independently of any specific blockchain, allowing it to be easily ported to any blockchain environment to provide services for the entire chain. It currently supports Ethereum and EVM blockchains, and will support more blockchains in the future, aiming to further become a validation solution that serves the entire chain and all scenarios.
Through verification, the seamless integration of on-chain and off-chain, the leapfrog development of a blockchain super-sovereign society.
In this cycle dominated by PvP battles, we are immersed in the sensory stimulation brought by fast-paced entries and exits, but at the same time, many people have questions:
What can blockchain really do? Is it just to create a huge on-chain casino?
Going back to the previous argument: blockchain is essentially a distributed database:
Previously, this database had little intersection with real-world scenarios, so it was merely a database for carrying on-chain transaction activities.
And when this database begins to incorporate more data from real-world life scenarios, the blockchain becomes a digital super-sovereign society operating in parallel to the real world.
The Sign Protocol is built on a true understanding of the characteristics of blockchain technology, effectively attracting large-scale data on-chain through proven verification methods. It genuinely creates user demand for blockchain technology while constructing an excellent demonstration of “leveraging the advantages of blockchain technology to bring real change to the real world.” It also introduces more real-world scenarios to support the development of blockchain as a “supra-sovereign society.”
Let us take international travel as an example again, imagine this:
No matter which country’s visa you are applying for, you can prepare all the necessary materials in two minutes, as your work certificates, income proof, bank statements, family relationship data, and other information have all been recorded on the blockchain and can be efficiently retrieved and verified. You only need to retrieve the relevant material data from the blockchain as required and combine them. With ZK technology, you also don’t have to worry about privacy data leakage.
No matter which country you go to, you can use a compliant and globally accepted ID card to securely, efficiently, and conveniently prove “you are you” at any time, in any place, and in any scenario: for example, in scenarios like transferring flights, entering and exiting borders, or checking into hotels, staff can instantly verify the authenticity of the ID card on the blockchain by scanning the QR code on the card, while also quickly completing identity verification by comparing the photo and other biometric information on the ID card with your own.
At the same time, you can also use this ID card in many online scenarios. For example, when going through KYC at an exchange, you no longer need to repeat facial recognition, take photos to upload, and wait for approval. Everything will be completed with digital verification on the blockchain within a few minutes.
This verification is not only rigorous and efficient, but also greatly reduces costs, representing a complete revolutionary upgrade to the traditional verification experience.
Verification is ubiquitous in life, and based on the Sign Protocol on-chain verification solution, Sign Protocol will bring significant changes in all scenarios that require verification:
In today’s world where global economic exchanges are becoming increasingly close, you can sign agreements at any time and in any scenario through the Sign Protocol, and anyone, anywhere, at any time can verify your signature.
When you need to purchase health insurance, your health status can be efficiently verified on-chain through the Sign Protocol, making it easier to deal with health status assessments from different insurance institutions.
When you want to participate in an art auction that requires verification of funds but do not have sufficient cash flow, your on-chain assets can also help you complete the verification through Sign Protocol;
When you participate in voting decisions, you can ensure that the results reflect the demands of the majority of stakeholders by verifying that the ballots come from legitimate voters.
Moreover, based on the logic of “everything can be verified on the chain,” more real-world application scenarios will be covered by the Sign verification system:
By verifying a certain social behavior, such as AI enthusiasts, a social circle of “birds of a feather flock together” is formed.
Quickly build a “pay for performance” community management by validating the interaction contributions of community members;
By verifying consumers’ shopping records, efficiently building a brand membership system, etc.
There are countless examples of this. Wherever there is verification, there is the Sign Protocol.
In fact, the Sign Protocol has achieved remarkable results in multiple scenarios:
The decentralized electronic protocol signing platform EthSign built on the Sign Protocol has served over 300,000 users.
The on-chain token distribution protocol TokenTable built on the Sign Protocol has collaborated with over 200 projects, supporting more than $4 billion in token airdrops and unlocks, covering 40 million users and investors, with revenues exceeding $15 million in 2024.
The identity verification system SignPass, built on the Sign Protocol, has collaborated with the government of Sierra Leone to launch an ID card: SignPass is capable of providing users with on-chain verifiable IDs, and all SignPass credentials will be cryptographically registered on the blockchain via the Sign Protocol. Meanwhile, holders will also receive a physical ID card, which complies with the International Civil Aviation Organization’s machine-readable passport standards and can link to a unique QR code recorded on the blockchain. By scanning the QR code on the ID card, holders can efficiently travel worldwide.
After Sierra Leone, Sign Protocol has also announced a partnership with the UAE government regarding the Web3 Entrepreneur Program. According to its official roadmap, in 2025, Sign Protocol will continue to focus on advancing deep cooperation between SignPass and various sovereign governments, regulatory agencies, and industry alliances.
The year 2025 will be an important year for the deep integration of blockchain with the real world: the implementation of crypto-friendly policies by the U.S. government, active crypto actions by the president, and the entry of traditional institutions one after another all signal that blockchain regulation will become clearer and the exploration of blockchain business areas will become more open.
As more and more real-world scenarios are covered by Sign Protocol’s verification services, an increasing number of citizens are obtaining blockchain identities through SignPass, and large-scale national users are being migrated onto the chain. What innovations will emerge in the super-sovereign society built on blockchain by Sign Protocol?
In the current context of a gradual return to long-term valueism, continue to pay attention and maintain expectations.
