The simplest solution to this would be simply buffering the vertices into a VBO like you normally do, then rendering them as GL_POINTS.

This will give you a cloud of dots, that you can rotate the usual way with your vertex shader.

If you want nicely sized circles, you should use a geometry shader to create a camera-facing impostor/billboard from each vertex and process those using a fragment shader.

The simplest solution to this would be simply buffering the vertices into a VBO like you normally do, then rendering them as GL_POINTS instead of GL_TRIANGLES or GL_TRIANGLE_STRIP.

This will give you a cloud of dots, that you can rotate the usual way with your vertex shader.

If you want nicely sized circles, you should use a geometry shader to create a camera-facing impostor/billboard from each vertex and process those using a fragment shader, you could event texture these.

While technically you could do the same with the built-in GL_POINTS approach, it is not supported properly by drivers in my experience, so you have to resort to your own geometry shader.