Market & ICANN
Onchain TLDs sit next to a much older system, and the two now meet. These articles explain the ICANN round of new top-level domains, what a dotBrand is and what it costs to run, how name collisions between the DNS and onchain registries arise, who governs each system, and what sector by sector a matching TLD means for banks, retailers, insurers, universities and others.
From application to delegation: the path of a gTLD
Passing evaluation does not put a string on the internet. Here is the road that follows, stage by stage, and what an onchain TLD of the same string is doing meanwhile.
Onchain names in a corporate domain portfolio
Your register was built for domains that expire and sit in a registrar account. An onchain name has neither, so the entry needs different columns.
What an earlier creation date is worth
An early creation date is a fact about your TLD, not a title to the string. Here is how to give it the weight it deserves in a valuation, and no more.
What USD 227,000 buys in an ICANN application
The headline fee pays for one thing: having an application evaluated. Here is the rest of the budget, line by line, and how an onchain TLD is costed instead.
You applied for a dotBrand: deciding on the onchain twin
The application covers the DNS. The same string onchain is a separate asset with a separate holder. A way to decide what to do about it.
A short history of namespaces outside the DNS
People have been building names outside the DNS for decades. The pattern of those attempts explains what is different now.
ICANN's new gTLD round, explained for brand owners
Sixteen hundred applications and a six-figure fee each. What the round is, and the namespace it leaves untouched.
Name collisions: when a DNS TLD meets an onchain TLD
Two systems, one string, no shared authority. What happens at the point where they meet.
The Freename name collision patent, in plain language
A patent on how colliding names are resolved was granted before the application window opened. What it says, without the claims language.
Who governs onchain names
No one is in charge of everything, which is not the same as no rules. Where the rules actually sit.
Where the value sits: the TLD and the names beneath it
Holding the TLD means holding every name that could ever exist under it. That changes where the value is.
What a dotBrand is, and what it obliges its owner to do
A dotBrand is not a domain you buy. It is a registry you run. What that difference involves.
What running a TLD in the DNS involves, year after year
Applicants plan for the application. The obligations begin the day it succeeds.
Contention sets: when several applicants want the same TLD
The DNS resolves competing claims through a process. Onchain, the first registration simply stands. Two models of priority.
The Trademark Clearinghouse and sunrise, absent onchain
Sunrise gave trademark owners first refusal on their own names. Onchain, whoever came first simply registered.
Registry risk: what a TLD holder depends on
Holding the token is certain. What it does for you depends on others. A holder should know on whom.
Geographic names: what the DNS learned, and onchain
A place name has many claimants and no owner. The DNS built rules for that. Onchain has none.
Interoperability between naming systems: why it is hard
Nobody designed these systems to agree. Interoperability is negotiated one piece of software at a time.