Today at EthGlobal Pragma New Delhi, Self Integration Engineer Kevin Lin unveiled a major update to the zk-powered proof-of-humanity and identity verification roadmap: support for India’s Aadhaar. Effective immediately, users in India can onboard to Self by securely scanning their Aadhaar to verify their humanity and attributes such as age, sex, and nationality, all without disclosing personal information to third parties.
With over 1.4 billion Aadhaar IDs issued, 2.21 billion authentication transactions in August 2025 alone, and approximately 99 percent of India’s adult population already enrolled, this expansion represents Self’s largest potential growth opportunity since launch. India also leads in global crypto adoption, ranking first globally in retail, DeFi, and institutional activity, offering an opportunity for the expansive Web3 community to leverage Self’s ecosystem of DeFi and crypto partners.
Users in India, and throughout the world, can seamlessly prove their unique personhood and characteristics for benefits across Self’s network of partners, including increased yield on Aave, boosted voter rewards with Velodrome, event access via Lemonade and more. Verified Self users will also be able to leverage key features within Google Cloud’s suite of services, including the Web3 AI search platform, testnet faucet, and first-of-its-kind mainnet faucet, following the partnership announced in July. By enabling privacy-preserving verification, Self empowers individuals to prove their unique personhood and characteristics while accessing meaningful opportunities throughout Web2 and Web3.
“We’re proud to broaden Self’s support in the mission of onboarding a billion new users in India,” said Eric Nakagawa, Self CEO and Co-Founder. “Bringing secure, user-friendly proof-of-humanity and identity verification to the majority of India’s population is a major milestone as we build a future that protects individuals’ private information and offers alternatives to combat bots, sybil attacks, identity theft, and the ever-present risk of minors’ access to dangerous content.”
How it works:
- Download the Self app (iOS or Play Store)
- Connect Aadhar with Self using the mAadhaar mobile app
- Verify the digital signature of the document in Zero-Knowledge to register.
- Your data is stored securely within your device.
- With third-party requests, you have full control over what snippets can be shared about you, such as age, nationality, or sex. Nothing can ever be shared without your explicit consent.
- Your data stays secret, protected by deep Zero-Knowledge cryptography.
Aadhaar joins Self’s expanding supported ID options, following this summer’s biometric ID upgrade that unlocked access for 35 countries, and existing support for biometric passport holders in 127 nations.
To learn more about Self and get started today, download the mobile app here: iOS + Android.