Introduction
The blockchain world must offer a user experience that surpasses centralised platforms in every area. This requires a holistic approach, where functionality and decentralisation benefits go hand-in-hand. User experience needs to be front and centre. Most blockchain projects are isolated islands, not part of a unified and functioning ecosystem. There are certainly many unification and interoperability efforts ongoing, but we’ve yet to see a solution in the form of an operating system that glues it all together. Nor an operating system, outside of the usual suspects, that is beautiful to use. In our view, any player in the space who wishes to scale an alternative vision needs to embrace a holistic and unified approach with outstanding user experience.
Our offerings must be smooth and coherent, with a deep range of sovereignty-enhancing benefits such as enhanced security, privacy, data ownership, trustless financial transactions, ultra-secure and private data storage/file sharing, and more. However, while these features may be important and valuable to some users, they may not be enough incentive for most to consider using a new platform, as an addition or replacement to what they are already using. SELF must also offer other benefits, such as built-in distraction-blocking mechanisms, productivity enhancement tools, and, most importantly, a streamlined and optimised user experience.
The ambition for SELF is to assist the user without demanding too much time, attention, or technical expertise. In our view, technology should enable the user to get as much done in as little time as possible and spend more time on the things they enjoy. We call this elevating signal while reducing noise.
SELF will not be designed to coerce the user into wasting hours scrolling through an endless timeline of dopamine-triggering and “attention span decreasing” content but will instead strive to gently nudge the users away from such habits. This trend has a profoundly negative impact on modern life and is something we feel duty-bound to address.
The Three Phases Of Our Roadmap
Phase 1 (2025)
Following the beta testing of the AI assistant web app still accessible here for test purposes, SELF will launch a Super-App that's linked to the Testnet of SELF Chain. The Super-App will include a messenger, browser, wallet and rewards system. Each user's profile is an individual node on the network which also runs their own private AI. We will also launch the SELF token as the Super-App currency.
Phase 2 (2026)
As the SELF Chain Testnet matures and usage of the Super-App grows, developers will be incentivised to build applications on the SELF SDK. This may include various forms of bounties, hackathons and grants. Organisations will be able to have their own Layer-1 blockchains as part of a constellation of chains running our PoAI consensus, enabling unique AI configuration and token generation.
Phase 3 (2027)
Following substantial traction from the previous phase, this is when we will move to the SELF Chain Mainnet and build-out the Operating System. The timeline for this isn't predictable and we're in no rush to ensure this is done right.