Lianhe Zaobao: Sun Yat-sen and Web3 Digital Reform
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
Lianhe Zaobao: Sun Yat-sen and Web3 Digital Reform
May the spirit of Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui illuminate the path forward for our Web3 industry colleagues.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsAuthor: suji, Founder and President of Mask Network
While attending a digital technology forum in Singapore at the end of August, I visited the Sun Yat-sen Nanyang Memorial Hall. Deeply moved by the revolutionary pioneers' unwavering belief in republicanism, I write this article in commemoration.
May the spirit of Sun Yat-sen and the Tongmenghui illuminate the path forward for our fellow Web3 practitioners.
Since its founding, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmenghui) led by Sun Yat-sen launched ten uprisings before finally succeeding in the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. The greatest cost of an armed uprising is undoubtedly lives lost, but the economic burden is also immense. According to Jiang Yongjing, a modern history expert from Taiwan, the Tongmenghui spent approximately 1.4 million Hong Kong dollars at the time on revolutionary activities. Faced with enormous funding needs and uncertain outcomes, the revolutionaries had extremely limited financing options. To cover the financial gap for armed uprisings, Sun Yat-sen issued bonds multiple times under the names of associations, companies, and even the future revolutionary government, traveling across the world to raise funds.
There are many parallels between Sun Yat-sen’s revolution and the Web3 digital transformation.
- First, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance founded by Sun Yat-sen can be likened to a DAO (decentralized autonomous organization), which is essential in the Web3 movement. The Alliance functioned like a DAO composed of multiple sub-DAOs, operating under unified principles while allowing local branches to adapt revolutionary messaging to their regional contexts. This ensured alignment in objectives while avoiding rigid, top-down execution.
- Second, Sun Yat-sen realized during his bond campaigns that overseas Chinese communities—especially laborers in Southeast Asia—strongly supported the revolutionary cause. Some even ate only one meal a day to save money for donations.
Targeting the "grassroots" as revolution supporters closely resembles how virtual assets operate today—one token can be divided into as small as 10^-18 units, enabling more enthusiastic users to join this digital revolution at lower costs and with minimal investment.
Web3 can be seen as a large-scale democratic experiment, testing whether token holders can reach consensus amid highly decentralized governance rights. Sun Yat-sen innovatively used the "industrial rights" of the future revolutionary government as collateral to enhance the credibility of his bonds.
Let us not forget, in 1911, “launching industrial enterprises” was still a profoundly pioneering endeavor. Using “industrial rights” as collateral served two purposes: first, it attracted revolutionaries who believed in the idea of “revitalizing the nation through industry”; second, once these industries were established, they would benefit both the country and its people. Similarly, many prominent Web3 projects offer special rights to early supporters to attract and reward passionate users contributing to project development.
At the same time, Sun Yat-sen deeply understood that seeking reform required not only fundraising but also increased propaganda and public discourse. During his years in exile abroad, he founded several revolutionary newspapers to spread his ideas. Although most of these publications ceased operations quickly, they played an indispensable role in awakening overseas Chinese communities to the necessity of reform. Sun believed that “among the masses, there are those who awaken first and those who follow later. The awakened must guide the unawakened forward together.” In other words, guiding public opinion was the duty of a vanguard minority; using newspapers as tools to educate and awaken the people was precisely why he actively promoted the press.
In November 1905, Sun Yat-sen founded *Min Bao* (The People's Journal) in Tokyo, where in the inaugural editorial he first articulated the Three Principles of the People: Nationalism, Democracy, and People's Livelihood. It is easy to see the similarity between publishing revolutionary newspapers and the current Web3 wave, where entrepreneurs issue NFTs (non-fungible tokens) to build community identity and promote project visions.
Just as Sun Yat-sen used newspapers back then, today’s Web3 entrepreneurs use NFT issuance as a catalyst to attract like-minded individuals to hold NFTs, form communities, and propagate future project goals. These NFT holders then become evangelists spreading the word across different communities, shaping narratives and further promoting the project.
Web3 and the Smart Nation Initiative
Singapore has long been striving to become the world’s first Smart Nation. Under the Smart Nation 2025 strategy, government services are shifting from “government for you” to “government with you,” reflecting decentralization of authority and encouraging collaboration among businesses, citizens, and the government to co-create value. With openness and innovation, all sectors of society are invited to participate in building the Smart Nation—a vision closely aligned with Sun Yat-sen’s bond-issuing philosophy of jointly constructing a free, equal, and fraternal ideal society over the long term.
Therefore, when evaluating blockchain initiatives, government agencies should not be blinded by concerns over digital asset risks. Instead, they should—as Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin stated on his personal blog—leverage the unique characteristics of blockchain technology to establish new mechanisms of consensus and trust among people, enterprises, and the government.
Moreover, I believe that if blockchain technology can be applied to expand the digital territory and establish digital citizenship, it would offer significant reference value for Singapore—a highly developed society constrained by limited physical land area. Applying for digital citizenship does not affect one’s nationality nor confer residency rights, but upon approval, applicants gain easier access to register companies and open bank accounts in Singapore. This initiative would be particularly attractive to tech founders, blockchain entrepreneurs, and digital nomads.
Estonia in Europe launched its e-Residency program as early as 2014, but since the program does not rely on blockchain technology, it remains vulnerable to data breaches. A blockchain-based identity system eliminates the need to directly or explicitly share sensitive information. Instead, digital data can be securely shared and verified via cryptography.
Furthermore, zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) technology—a rapidly advancing field within the blockchain industry—can enable sharing and verification of identity information without revealing any underlying data. This points toward a near future where identity authentication can occur using zero-knowledge proofs without exposing personal information.
The digital transformation driven by Web3 is now unstoppable. As a highly digitized society, Singapore holds substantial first-mover advantages in fully embracing blockchain technology. I sincerely hope to contribute my expertise and play a part in this historic journey, witnessing Singapore’s next phase of digital transformation.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
@realMaskNetwork
