In this episode, I speak with Xin from Sign Global, a company building sovereign blockchain infrastructure for governments — from national stablecoins and CBDCs to digital identity and real-world asset systems.

Xin explains why crypto struggles to reach real adoption: we build great tech but rarely solve problems for banks, regulators, or everyday users. Sign Global works directly with governments to modernize payments, identity, and asset rails — aiming to cut international settlement from 1–3 days to 2 minutes and unlock massive economic velocity.

We discuss global stablecoin trends, why USD stablecoins won’t dominate long term, how sovereign digital ID actually works, and why countries like Kazakhstan and the UAE are moving fastest.

A rare, practical look at the future of national-scale blockchain systems.

(Nothing here is financial advice.)

Key timestamps

[00:00:00] Cold Open: Xin on why crypto people don’t talk to the real world

[00:01:00] Intro: Sam introduces Xin and Sign Global’s mission for sovereign infrastructure

[00:03:00] Origin Story: Mining, hardware, VC and founding Sign in 2021

[00:05:00] From App to Nations: Pivoting from Web3 contract signing to CBDCs and stablecoins

[00:08:00] Crypto vs Real World: Why good tech without real users doesn’t create value

[00:11:00] Digital ID: Sovereign credentials vs centralized government databases that keep getting hacked

[00:15:00] Progressive States: Kazakhstan, UAE and how ambitious governments think about crypto

[00:19:00] Future of Stablecoins: Why Xin believes stablecoins win but USD stablecoins won’t dominate everyday money

[00:24:00] Tokenizing Nations: Governments as gatekeepers for fiat, oil, land and RWA on-chain

[00:30:00] Business Model: From government infra contracts to global payment rails

[00:33:00] Bandwidth of Money: 1–3 day SWIFT vs 2-minute settlement and the impact on global GDP

[00:34:00] Roadmap & Ask: 25+ countries, global payment network and who Xin wants to work with

Connect

https://sign.global/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/ethsign/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/xin-yan-658545172/

https://x.com/ethsign

https://x.com/realyanxin

Disclaimer

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