I bought a domain name on OpenSea and I’m not talking about a “web3 domain.” The domain name, 2024.finance, uses the ICANN-approved .finance .gTLD. It’s a real live web2 domain. I explained how it was even possible for a web2 domain to be sold on OpenSea in FOR SALE: DNS Domains on OpenSea but ultimately it’s because web2 domains can be converted into NFTs and that’s what took place with 2024.finance through a tech-based registrar named 3DNS.
While some in the traditional domaining community have tried to characterize this technology as a novelty with no real world application, what they fail to note is that it legitimately speeds up the process of buying a domain on the secondary market. I know this because I’ve previously bought domains on secondary through Dan, Sedo, and through a Godaddy broker. Their processes can take days because it requires multiple parties to conduct manual actions to effect a transfer. It’s not an impossible process but it’s not an automated process. There’s a lot of waiting around for someone to do something and not knowing exactly when they’re going to do it.
On X, domain name investor Michael Cyger said “The domain owners would still need to meet the registrant requirements set forth by NameCheap, set forth by ICANN. Still open to UDRP. Still open to lawsuits. It’s just the transactions that would be ‘instantaneous’ and via cryptocurrency.”
His point was that the domains still answer to a centralized layer of authority whereas web3 domains that end in .eth are much more elusive (potentially perfectly so) when it comes to outside authorities being able to assert control. Cyger also commented that the real backend registrar behind 3DNS is NameSilo, which happens to be one of the largest registrars in the world. While this information is helpful in understanding the framework, the ability to transact domains instantly over the blockchain remains an advantage that the legacy system will have to contend with. Besides, 3DNS will hardly be the only registrar to roll out this technology. Upwards of a dozen are working on their own platforms to tokenize web2 domains. And with that being the case, expect a lot more people to say that they bought a traditional domain name on a web3 marketplace like OpenSea in the future.