vSelf Intro
In this post we describe what we are about and what we are going to achieve in the near future.
In MVP, we focus on a simple scenario for reward-driven authentication for events and meetups. We build a mobile app that engages with the user, guiding them through the activities of the events and immediately rewarding users with NFTs:
- Events can set up quests for participants, providing unique NFT collections as rewards.
- Users can check in to the events via the app and collect NFTs to their NEAR wallet by participating in different activities.
- In profile, users can choose which data to disclose and see their collection and achievements.
Vision and Tech Stack
In the long run, we address the problems of lack of control over digital identities and of low quality of available data governance. It incorporates several different aspects:
- Unified authentication is overtaken by IT giants like Google and Facebook, providing no real ownership of the personal data
- Too many unconnected accounts and profiles with a risk of deplatforming
- Users forced to share more data than needed
- Companies can hardly benefit from the collected data and are limited by regulation
vSelf builds a secure communication channel between companies and users, creating a platform that incentivizes data sharing. Our goal is to turn data governance into a seamless, enjoyable experience. In these values, we align well with NEAR overall UX-first approach.
The Product
vSelf includes:
- User-facing mobile app built with Unity (iOs, Android)
- Web application to manage and analyze collected data and set up the rewards and other smart contract settings (Next.js based)
- Cloud infrastructure and backend code: smart contracts + serverless functions (written in Rust and Node.js)
We believe the NEAR platform could be a perfect ground to expand blockchain innovation to benefit a broader audience. vSelf can fill the gap in digital identity management in the ecosystem and implement W3C standards for verifiable credentials and decentralized identifiers.
The immediate plan includes: customer development with our beta testers and UX design; a new release of the app customized for events; audit of our contracts by the community. You can take a look at our latest product demo or subscribe to our Twitter and Telegram channels. We will appreciate your feedback and time, as we plan to reward our early testers/adopters should we succeed.
Roadmap
- February 2022 - Release the prototype during one of the NEAR events. Beta testing and customer development.
- July 2022 - Major release of an MVP app tuned for gamification of events and meetups. Public audit and wallet functionality, community engagement.
- February 2023 - Further UX/UI development with an open roadmap, W3C standards implementation, probably Unity SDK.
The Team
We are a team of blockchain enthusiasts: researchers, coders, and entrepreneurs, who decided to team up to build a new kind of infrastructure and software so we could bring the world of self-sovereign identity a bit closer.
We have a complete set of skills required to build and maintain a proper MVP, here are our core members and their short bio:
- Tatiana Yakushkina CEO, experienced project leader, talented researcher, and university professor
- Inna Kalinina, CTO, scientist, entrepreneur, and game developer
- Ilya Eriklintsev, IT Architect, cypherpunk, systems engineer, open web proponent
- Sergey Kozlov, Full Stack Developer, math enthusiast, and a seasoned software engineer
- Vasily Kharlamov, Full Stack Developer, skilled front-end with passion for UX/UI design
Thanks to Human Guild for support and advice, especially to Vlad and Sasha.
