what's Self Protocol?
Self Protocol is a decentralized identity platform leveraging zero-knowledge proofs (ZKPs) to enable privacy-preserving verification of human uniqueness. It addresses sybil resistance in Web3 and AI ecosystems by allowing users to prove attributes like humanity or identity without revealing personal data, countering bots, impersonators, and attacks through reusable, instant credentials. The protocol integrates with blockchain networks to power applications such as secure airdrops, fair token distributions, and bot-resistant communities. By combining cryptographic primitives with user-centric design, Self enables seamless onboarding and trust in digital interactions, fostering innovation in DeFi, social platforms, and AI without compromising privacy or requiring traditional KYC processes.
Self Protocol appointed RegenRene as CEO, effective February 4, 2026.
Links
x.com/selfprotocolSponsored the Open Source AI Summit in San Francisco during NEARCON week, co-hosted with NEAR Protocol at The House SF.
Appointed RegenRene as CEO, effective February 4, 2026
The protocol had a booth at Binance Blockchain Week where Eric Nakagawa spoke on a panel about Building the Internet of Value.
A mobile wallet SDK will be ready by next year, allowing wallets to provide onboarding incentives to users without sybil risk while dapps in those wallets can do the same with user privacy preserved.
Velodrome Finance uses Self Protocol for veVELO voter verification to unlock voting APRs on Celo.
Raised $9M in funding from Google Cloud, AAVE, Sandeep Nailwal, Julien Bouteloup, Jill Carlson, and Hart Lambur. Self Points farming program is live via the App Store.
The team will be at Binance Blockchain Week.
Self Protocol announces results from ETH Global Buenos Aires with 30 projects submitted and 3 winners selected.
NFT collection SELF 32 by artist @artemisandarts continues active minting with piece #78 produced yesterday.
Reached 850,000 daily active users and ATH stablecoin volume, presenting at Ethereum World's Fair at Celo's booth.
New partnerships with Aave (human-only lending for USDT/WETH), Lemonaded (age-verified event access), and Mavu (verification integration) expand the ecosystem.
Namespace launches Celo Names with an integration with the protocol.
Zero-knowledge identity startup raises $9M in funding and launches a points program.
Raised $9M with Spearhead, launched a points system, and grew user base to 10.5M+. Partnered with Google Cloud, with Google integrating proof of human verification into its products.
Celonames launches as a human-readable naming service powered by ENS and integrated with Self for proof-of-personhood verification, enabling Celo users to register names for less than a penny with Self verification.
Offers week #9 Velodrome incentives with 64% APR for veVELO holders, 22% additional yields for verified humans. Sponsors Proof of Ship 10 with 1000 cUSD prizes until December 12. Provides incentivized Celo-native Uniswap pools with up to 111% APY, integrates Self Protocol verification via Stabila Foundation.
Crypto analyst @cchungccc publishes the first research note covering the protocol.
User base grows to 7M globally with OpenPassport acquisition completed and Ethereum Foundation endorsement secured.
Updated boosted voter rewards range from 23-24% APR across four Celo pools (USDT-WETH, USDT-cUSD, USDT-USDC, CELO-USDT) for verified users, including a new USDT-USDC pool at ~23%.
SF Builder Residency Program wraps up and the protocol sponsors BlockSummitLA event for representation alongside Celo and MentoLabs.
StabilaFnd announces week #7 of Velodrome incentives offering 264% APR with boosted rewards for verified real humans. SF Builder Residency enters its second week at Celo SF HQ.
Token migration event announced with a 9-hour deadline, offering 15% bonus for migrating old SELF tokens to SLERF meme coin. This represents a potential scam or phishing attempt targeting holders, as SLERF is an unrelated Solana meme coin project.
GoogleCloud and Aave are building on the protocol alongside previously announced VelodromeFi integration.
Self Protocol launches a three-week SF Builder Residency program and sponsors Proof of Ship 9 developer competition with prizes alongside ThirdWeb and TryNoahAI.
Enables boosted voter rewards on Celo network across USDT-CELO at ~130%, USDT-cUSD at ~55%, and USDT-WETH at ~49%, providing proof of humanity verification for the Celo-USDT pool on Uniswap with Merkl.
Live yield farming rates announced: USDT earns 12.68% APY and WETH earns 10.10% APY via Aave integration.
Support for Indian Aadhaar ID system launched alongside ZK Residency program announcement. Ernst & Young deploys Nightfall rollup on Celo for private enterprise payments, Tether's tokenized gold (XAUt) launches on the network, and official Ethereum endorsement received. Network metrics show 100% QoQ quarterly transfer volume growth with $158M in daily stables transfers and 5.3M transactions per day.
New Aadhaar ID support launches with production-ready zk proofs, adding India's biometric identity system to supported ID types.
Participates in Korea Blockchain Week events with Celo and MontoLabs partners and expands team with new social media hire.
Two new integrations announced: VelodromeFi implements Self Protocol for human-verified voting pools with boosted rewards, and LemonadedApp adopts it for identity verification in event ticketing.
Velodrome Finance launches new VerifiedERC20 token standard and implements it to boost rewards specifically for Self Protocol users. The Ice Cream Hardfork successfully upgrades Celo's data availability layer to EigenDA V2.
New partnerships revealed with major protocols including Aave, Velodrome Finance, MiniPay, Opera, and Google Cloud.
Technical deep dive on ZK identity verification and selective disclosure proofs featured on Zero Knowledge FM podcast.
EU ID card integration enables privacy-preserving identity proofs for 90% of EU adults
New pseudonymity-friendly ID system announcement scheduled for EthCC this week
New zero-knowledge circuits under development with active trusted setup ceremony, preparing for EthCC presentation.
Protocol implements zkPassport technology for sybil-resistant airdrops while maintaining user privacy.
Founder faces and denies accusations of $50M OTC crypto fraud involvement.
Joins ETHGlobal Cannes as sponsor with $10,000 prize pool contribution.
cLabs announces major protocol roadmap including Holocene hardfork, EigenDA v2 upgrade, and integrations with SP1 and EspressoSys, while MentoLabs completes oracle upgrade to Chainlink and Redstone.
Strategic integration with Celo blockchain confirmed alongside major DeFi players like Aave and Kraken.
First major protocol integration secured with TalentProtocol while developer hackathon attracts 50 teams with $20K in prizes.
Launches zero-knowledge proof system for blockchain identity verification without data storage, enabling Sybil-resistant applications. Integrates SelfClaw by MBarrbosa, allowing agents to link wallets to verified human identities without sharing private keys.