Sun Yat-sen and Web3 Digital Reform

May the spirit of Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui illuminate the way forward for colleagues in the Web3 industry.

Written by: suji, founder and CEO of Mask Network

This article was first published Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao", authorized by the author

Review it with you on the occasion of Token 2049.

When I went to Singapore to participate in the Digital Technology Forum at the end of August, I visited the Sun Yat-sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. I was inspired by the revolutionary sages’ persistent belief in the republic, so I wrote this article. To commemorate.

Since the founding of the China Alliance, revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen launched a total of 10 uprisings until the success of the Revolution of 1911 in 1911. The biggest cost of an armed uprising is of course the loss of blood or lives, but the cost to the economy is also huge. According to statistics from Taiwan's modern history expert Chiang Yong-jing, the revolutionary funds consumed by the Tongmenghui were approximately HK$1.4 million at the time. Faced with huge financial needs and an uncertain fate, the revolutionaries' financing channels are extremely limited. In order to meet the funding gap for the armed uprising, Sun Yat-sen issued bonds several times in the name of trade unions, companies and revolutionary governments, and traveled around the world to raise funds for the armed uprising.

There are many similarities between Sun Yat-sen’s revolution and Web3 digital reform.

First of all, the China Alliance founded by Sun Yat-sen can be compared to the DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that is indispensable in the Web3 reform. The China Alliance DAO is composed of multiple sub-DAOs and has a unified charter and philosophy. Each local bureau is responsible for disseminating revolutionary ideas based on local conditions. This can not only ensure the unity of action goals, but also avoid a rigid process.

Secondly, Sun Yat-sen realized during the bond issuance process that the vast overseas Chinese community, especially the overseas Chinese laborers in Nanyang, strongly supported the revolutionary cause . Some even eat one meal per day to save money and donate it to the revolutionary cause.

Taking "grassroots" as the target of the revolution, virtual assets are very similar to this. A token can be split into at most One in 1018, more passionate users can participate in this digital revolution with lower cost and investment.

Web3 can be said to be a large-scale democratic experiment. The content of the experiment is to observe whether token holders can reach a consensus in extremely decentralized governance rights. Sun Yat-sen innovatively used the new government's "industrial rights" as collateral to enhance the creditworthiness of the bonds.

Don't forget,in 1911, "starting an industry" was still a very pioneering thing. Using "industrial rights" as collateral can, firstly, attract more revolutionaries who agree with the theory of "industrial rejuvenation of the country", and secondly, after the completion of the industry, it can play a role in benefiting the country and the people. For example, many well-known Web3 projects will provide special rights to early supporters to attract and reward more enthusiastic users to participate in the construction of the project.

At the same time, Mr. Sun Yat-sen deeply understands that pursuing reform requires not only fundraising, but also increased publicity and public opinion. Therefore, during his exile abroad, he founded multiple newspapers at the same time to promote his ideas. Although most of these newspapers and periodicals were shut down soon, they played an important role in awakening the overseas Chinese community and understanding the need for reform at that time. Sun believes that "there are early awakeners and late awakeners in the crowd. The early awakeners must integrate into the late awakeners and move forward together." In other words, it is the responsibility of a small number of social pioneers to guide public opinion, and use newspapers and periodicals to This public opinion tool is used to educate and awaken the public, which is his purpose of actively running newspapers.

In the "Min Bao" founded in Tokyo in November 1905, Sun Yat-sen first proposed the Three People's Principles of nation, civil rights and people's livelihood in his founding address. It is not difficult to find that during the release of revolutionary newspapers and the wave of Web3 reforms, entrepreneurs issued NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to expand community identity and promote project visions, which are similar.

Internet pictures

Just like when Sun Yat-sen ran a newspaper, now Web3 entrepreneurs use Issuing NFT serves as an introduction to attract a large number of people with common ideals to hold NFT, form a community, and promote the vision of the next project. These NFT owners can be distributed in different communities to preach, create public opinion, and further promote the project.

Web3 and Smart Nation Plan

Singapore has been working tirelessly to build the world's first smart country. In the Smart Country 2025 construction strategy, government services have changed from "government for you" to "government with you", demonstrating the decentralization of authority, encouraging enterprises, people and the government to work together to create value, using open and innovative concepts to attract All sectors of society participate in the construction of a smart country. This is very much in line with Sun Yat-sen’s vision of issuing bonds and the long-term blueprint for building an ideal smart country of freedom, equality, and fraternity.

Therefore, when various government departments evaluate blockchain projects, they should not be blinded by the risks of digital assets, but should be likeEthereum founder Vitalik said in his personal blog that using the characteristics of blockchain technology to establish a new consensus and trust mechanism between people, enterprises and governments.

In addition, the author also believes that if blockchain technology can be used to expand the digital territory and establish digital citizenship, it will have a profound impact on the development of the highly developed society but the actual territory Singapore, with its limited area, is of great reference value. Applying to become a digital citizen does not affect nationality or right of residence, but once the application is successful, it will make it easier for applicants to register a company and apply for a bank account in Singapore. This initiative will appeal to tech industry founders, blockchain entrepreneurs and digital nomads.

Estonia in Europe launched an e-citizenship program as early as 2014, but because this program is not based on blockchain technology , there are still security risks of information leakage. An identity system based on blockchain technology does not require direct or explicit sharing of sensitive information. Instead, electronic data can be shared and authenticated through cryptography.

In addition, the recently developed zero-knowledge proof technology in the blockchain industry can share and authenticate identity information without leaking any information. This also indicates that in the near future, a zero-knowledge proof mechanism can be used to perform identity authentication without exposing personal information.

The digital reform promoted by Web3 has become unstoppable. As a highly digital society, Singapore has a great first-mover advantage in fully embracing blockchain technology. The author sincerely hopes to participate in this historical process, give full play to his talents, and witness another digital transformation in Singapore.