$SELF & Tenure
Last updated: 2026-07-17
What $SELF is
$SELF is SpiritDAO's participation token. You can't buy it and you can't be sent it — the only way to get $SELF is to show up and participate. It represents verified time given to the community.
$SELF is soulbound: it's bound to you and can never be transferred, gifted, or sold. It leaves your wallet only one way — when you burn it to pay for something. (This is different from $SYSTEM, the transferable dollar-backed token used for donations, bounties, and purchases.)
Earning $SELF
$SELF is credited for verified participation, measured in hours:
- Attending accredited events — check in at an event and its hours are credited (capped at 8 hours per day)
- Completing bounties — approved bounty work earns $SELF
- Voting in governance — each vote earns a small time credit
You don't need to claim anything: credits are queued, reviewed (large amounts get an extra human check), and minted to your wallet in batches. Your balance appears in Identity → Balances as $SELF.
$SELF fades — participation is a practice
$SELF is time-bound: each batch you earn slowly loses spending value over about two years, fading linearly until it reaches zero. Fresh participation is always worth more than old participation.
This is by design. $SELF isn't wealth to hoard — it's a living signal of current involvement. A member who was highly active three years ago and vanished shouldn't outweigh someone showing up every week now.
Practical upshot: spend your $SELF while it's fresh, and keep participating to keep your balance topped up. Your Identity page balance already reflects current spendable value.
Spending $SELF (burn-to-pay)
$SELF can pay for event tickets and eligible marketplace items. Paying burns the tokens permanently — there are no refunds of burned $SELF.
When you pay with $SELF you'll see a confirmation showing:
- Price — the sticker price in $SELF
- You burn — the actual amount that will be burned, which can be more than the sticker price if the $SELF you hold is older (partly faded) — the payment burns enough to cover the price at current value
- A breakdown of which of your $SELF holdings will be burned
Review it, then Confirm. The wording says "burn" because that's exactly what happens — it can't be undone.
One thing spending never does: it never lowers your Tenure. Read on.
Tenure — your permanent standing
Where $SELF fades, Tenure only grows. Tenure is your lifetime standing across the ecosystem, based on total hours of verified participation ever earned — spending $SELF doesn't reduce it, and neither does decay.
Find it at Identity → Tenure. Tap your band card to see all five bands:
| Band | Lifetime hours | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Curious | 0–10 | You've joined and hold Proof of Curiosity — onboarding toward first contributions |
| Resident | 10–50 | You dwell here — present, participating, putting in time |
| Mainstay | 50–250 | A reliable, load-bearing presence |
| Pillar | 250–600 | A structural contributor the ecosystem leans on |
| Elder | 600+ | The deepest roots — years of accumulated participation |
Every member with Proof of Curiosity is at least Curious, from day one.
The short version
- Earn $SELF by participating (events, bounties, votes) — it's minted to you automatically.
- Spend it on tickets and marketplace items while it's fresh — it's burned to pay.
- It fades over ~2 years — ongoing participation, not accumulation, is what counts.
- Tenure is the permanent record — it only ever rises, no matter what you spend.
- You can never transfer, sell, or buy $SELF. It's yours alone, because it is your participation.