How Self works for Developers

Build in trust to prevent fraud

Woman in front of colourful dots

What Self gives you

No more bots, just real humans

Every member on the Self network human or organisation, has been verified and checked biometrically. Something they can prove cryptographically with every interaction.

So you know your user is a person, not a bot

Biometric authentication

The Self App acts as a biometrically gated token you can use it to manage user authentication, both on and offline with certainty.

Because Self is based on user-held data, developers no longer need to manage the storage of sensitive credentials or the data policies of SaaS suppliers.

Zero knowledge presentation

An easy to use knowledge fact checker allows developers to ask the questions they really need an answer to, and receive anonymised answers.

That means developers need to worry less about their application needing a secure compliant environment

Build better relationships with your users

Better Data

Get the information the business needs

Build simpler processes and manage less personally identifiable data (PID) by relying on data you can prove to be true. Self fact checks can return metadata about a users' PID allowing you to get the information the business needs without having to store, analyse or see the primary data.

So "scan and OCR process a drivers licence" to know if a user has a driving licence and their age meets your requirements becomes "does User X have a licence and are they between 18 and 70?" The response "YES" holds no PID and can be cryptographically verified and updated in real time.

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Easy Onboarding

Use Self to enable instant, secure user acquisition

Build an on-boarding flow using Self and rely on the pre-verified facts held by the user in their app. You receive all the credentials you require as an answer to a single question. Self gives you a direct communications channel to your user. So you can then delete personally identifiable data without losing access to them. Saving you from having to store and protect it.

Then when Self is used for authentication, the user credentials can be re-confirmed as still being true without the need to share the actual data.

Self connections screen on a phone
Anonymity

Free yourself from GDPR

Self lets you know your user is a real person, and useful things about them, like that they've had their identity verified, they have a drivers licence and a bank account – all facts which you can rely upon, but you don't have to process anything identifiable.

So how can you communicate? Self lets you notify users across the network and lets you see that they have seen your notification. Their account with you can be tied only to a Self account number which is specific to your relationship. As a result you can have a connection with a real, verified user without knowing anything about them. That opens up huge opportunities for data analysis which isn't possible within the regulations when you hold PID about your user.

Self running on a phone and laptop computer
Getting started:

Integrate Self in a few easy steps

Build Self into your application as a secure authentication path and be sure where requests come from and responses go to.

Access the developer hub

Get up and running with Self today. Our robust APIs and comprehensive documentation are designed to help you integrate Self into your workflows quickly and easily.

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Download Self
Everything starts with the Self app. Download it to your phone and join the Self Network to set up your developer account.
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Activate your Developer Account
Once in you'll find comprehensive documentation, useful snippets in Go and Ruby and a suite of APIs to get you up and running quickly.
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Create your First App
Build an app to connect to and authenticate users, verify it and generate keys to connect it into the Self Network.
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Connect to your users
Get your app into the catalogue, and allow your users to connect to you through the Self Network. Simplifying your handling of auth, GDPR and bot management.