We needed a new way for users to recover accounts, this is the story of how we created an entirely new way to recover an account designed around the needs and skills of ordinary people.

For crypto to be able to transition into the 'real world' its speed and power at processing transactions will need to be met by equally powerful checks on senders and receivers of funds.

Really good UX ensures processes like checking liveness don't get in the way of the user as they try to do something. We explore how liveness at Self has evolved.

Authentication is meant to establish that a person is who they say they are. In practice, the mechanism checks a credential — and adding more factors does not change what is checked. The research asks how authentication can check the person, not just the credential.

Digital signatures inherited the name from wet ink but the mechanism is actually cryptography. Digital signature tiers are honest accommodations for an identity gap they cannot close. The research asks what a signature is, once the document is no longer the point.

Today's identity verification asks people to photograph their passport, driving licence, and utility bill, and to take a selfie. The organisation running the check keeps that material — the same material that hackers want and regulators police. The research asks how identifiers designed for the internet, and verification done on the user's device, could remove the need for the material to be held at all.

PLACEHOLDER — sector article. This article will argue how Self’s research-architecture applies to user protection in online gaming: age verification, account-sharing, and fraud reduction sit on the same biometric gate. Prose pending Voxen pass.

PLACEHOLDER — sector article. This article will argue that streaming’s revenue leaks (account sharing, piracy) are identity-layer problems, and how Self’s research binds identity to the user rather than the device or credential. Prose pending Voxen pass.

PLACEHOLDER — sector article. This article will argue that gig-economy platforms need ongoing biometric assurance that the verified worker is the one performing each job; Self’s research architecture provides exactly that gate. Prose pending Voxen pass.