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What is Self Connect

Self Connect is an open-source protocol that maps off-chain personal identifiers (such as phone numbers, Twitter handles, email addresses, etc.) to on-chain blockchain addresses. It enables a convenient and interoperable user experience by allowing users to discover and transact with each other using familiar identifiers instead of complex hexadecimal addresses.

Self Connect uses a federated model, meaning that anyone has the power to be an issuer of attestation mappings. Issuers have the freedom to decide how to verify that users actually have ownership of their identifiers. After verification, issuers register the mapping as an attestation to the on-chain smart contract registry.

Use Cases

1. Payments to Phone Numbers

Send cryptocurrency directly to a friend’s phone number without needing to know their wallet address.

Example: A Kaala wallet user can send funds to a Libera wallet user using only their phone number.

2. Social Discovery

Find someone’s blockchain account based on their social media handle or other identifiers.

Example: Discover a user’s wallet address by their Twitter handle to send them tokens or NFTs.

3. Cross-Wallet Interoperability

Enable seamless transactions across different wallet applications by mapping identifiers to addresses.

Example: Users registered in different wallet ecosystems can find and transact with each other using shared identifiers.

4. MiniPay Integration

MiniPay leverages Self Connect to enable phone number-based transactions, making cryptocurrency payments as simple as traditional mobile money transfers.

5. Social Applications

Build social applications where users can connect using familiar identifiers instead of wallet addresses.

6. Contact List Integration

Import phone contacts and automatically discover which contacts have cryptocurrency wallets.

Why Self Connect

Privacy Preservation

Identifiers are obfuscated before being stored on-chain, so users’ sensitive information remains private. How this works, and why no single party can reverse it, is covered in ODIS.

Open and Decentralized

  • Permissionless: Anyone can become an issuer
  • Federated: No central authority controls attestations
  • Open Source: Full transparency and community-driven development
  • Composable: Applications can build on existing attestations

Cost-Effective

Self Connect is economical for issuers:

  • 10 cUSD of ODIS quota = 10,000 user attestations
  • Lookup operations require no gas (only ODIS quota)
  • Registration can be paid by either issuer or user

Flexible Verification

Issuers have complete control over their verification methods:

  • SMS verification for phone numbers
  • OAuth for social accounts
  • Email verification
  • Custom verification logic

Interoperability

Standard identifier prefixes enable cross-application compatibility:

  • Attestations from one issuer can be used by multiple applications
  • Users don’t need to re-verify for each application
  • Ecosystem-wide identifier mapping

Architecture Overview

Self Connect consists of three main components:

  1. FederatedAttestations Smart Contract: the on-chain registry where attestation mappings are stored
  2. ODIS (Oblivious Decentralized Identifier Service): a decentralized service that provides privacy-preserving identifier obfuscation
  3. Issuer Infrastructure: applications or services that verify identifier ownership and register attestations on-chain

Getting Started

To integrate Self Connect:

  1. As an Application: Choose trusted issuers and lookup attestations
  2. As an Issuer: Set up verification infrastructure and register attestations
  3. As a User: Get verified by issuers to map your identifiers to your address

Continue with Key Concepts, or jump straight into the Developer Guide.

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