I started looking into Sign with a simple assumption: verify once, use everywhere.

On paper, it makes perfect sense. Attestations follow a shared schema, systems can read the same data, and with ZK, you can prove identity without exposing the underlying information. For markets like Sierra Leone, that is not just efficiency, it is financial access from day one.

I saw something similar during a small internal test. We tried moving verified user data across two systems. Technically it worked. But the moment one system became the “default”, everything started anchoring around it.

That is where the model becomes more interesting.

Sign is built as an open protocol. In theory, identity is portable. You are not locked in. You can move across systems without starting from zero.

But that assumption changes at scale.

When a government adopts Sign for national infrastructure, banks, apps, and public services all align to the same attestation standard. At that point, the question is no longer whether it is portable.

It becomes: portable to go where?

You can still leave technically. But to make another system accept your credentials, you would have to rebuild trust across the entire network. That is not a code problem. That is a coordination problem.

Dependency does not appear when you choose a protocol. It appears when enough participants build on top of it together.

One side is an open standard.

The other is national-scale adoption.

They do not contradict at the start. But at scale, “open” no longer guarantees exit.

It simply means the system was open before everyone agreed on one version.

That is the part I keep thinking about.

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