New Year, new internet rules.

In 2026, you should not need a gatekeeper to say who you are. With Self, you verify once, own your proof, and can carry it with you wherever you go online. This week to celebrate holidays, we’re kicking that vision off with our New Year’s Points Booster Program and a sneak peek at what’s coming with Self 3.0 in 2026.

Warming Up for Self 3.0

Self has been around since EthDenver 2025, and we are already here with the next step. You gave us the feedback, and we heard you! Self 3.0 is going to be our big next step: the app that makes user-owned, portable verification feel as normal as logging in with any account—only this time, you are in charge.

Instead of platforms owning your verification (and losing it when they shut down, pivot, or lock you out), Self lets you:

• Verify once

• Own your proof

• Re-use it without asking a platform for permission

The Points Booster is your early access party: verify, explore, share your story, and help define what Self 3.0 should feel like.

Points That Teach You What Identity Can Do

So how does New Year’s Points Booster work? This Points program is designed to be a playful way to explore what user-owned identity can actually do and collect some serious boosts while you’re at it.

From December 24 to January 7, here’s how the Points Booster is wired:

Verify your ID via “Earn Points”

• +80 base points

• New Year’s magic: ×5 multiplier on your verification on top of the base points

• Result: +400 bonus points when you verify in the booster window.

Sign proof requests in Self Apps

• +16 base points

• New Year’s multiplier: ×10 on top of base points

• Result: +160 points per proof you complete.

Post your Identity Story

• +16 extra points (subject to be chosen by the Self Team)

* Special points: Claim your Human NFT (via Spire)

• +8 extra points

And you might already know there has been points for these actions in the app. And you are still welcome to do so:

• Turn push notifications ON

• Turn secret key backup ON

• Referee (someone who gets invited)

• Referrer (that’s you, inviting people)

Every action is a mini-lesson: you don’t just rack up numbers, you discover how proofs, portability, and ownership work in practice. And last but not least,

Your “Identity Story”: Make the Internet Personal Again

This campaign has a heartbeat: your story.

We’re asking early users to share their “Identity Story” on social media: why owning your verification matters, or how you imagine using a portable identity across the internet. Two themes to play with:

Ownership Story

• What changed for you when you realized: “Why does a platform get to say who I am?”

• How it feels to move from “they own my verification” to “I do.”

• When you feel great about you owning your identity.

Use-cases Story

• Proving you’re human across platforms

• Re-using a single verification in different services

• Proving you are you while protecting your identity

• Verifying only what you must verify, nothing else

You post publicly, send it through the campaign form, and if it’s genuine, it earns points and might help inspire the next generation of Self users.

This New Year’s Points Booster Program is our version of lighting the fuse: a short, festive ignition phase where early users can verify, experiment with portable proofs, and speak up about why identity ownership matters while stacking boosted points along the way.

Here’s to 2026: the year your identity finally stops belonging to platforms and starts belonging to you.