Blockchain domains
Blockchain domains: what is it, why is it needed and what is the use of them for companies and ordinary people
This article is not intended to be a guide — where or how to buy blockchain domains; we will look at the usefulness and opportunities that blockchain domains provide to companies and people.
What are blockchain domains for and what they are
Blockchain domains are the replacement of a public address (long number like 0x445… .9) for payment in cryptocurrency with human-readable names (for example, monobank.eth).
This makes it possible to receive transfers in various cryptocurrencies to your blockchain domain from counterparties from all over the world — quickly, with a minimal commission, bypassing banks, without sending the digital wallet address, in which case you can make a mistake, but by providing your domain name (e.g. monobank.eth, parimatch.eth, globalspirits.crypto, hedonismwines.eth, rottencelebrities.eth are examples of companies, or, for individuals — madonna.eth, salomun.eth, etc.).
The blockchain domains market is only a few years old, but more than 215,000 domains have already been registered in the .eth zone, and about 300,000 domains in the .crypto zone.
In May 2017, the foundation.eth and exchange.eth identifiers were purchased for quite impressive sums. The former cost the buyer $ 27,000 in ETH, the latter even more — $ 609,000, which were also paid in ETH. Today their price in US dollars is approximately 3 times higher.
Many companies from the Fortune 500 have secured blockchain domains.
Information about products and promotions, news and much more is offered in the traditional .com domain segment. In the era of decentralized services, many companies are paying more attention to the .eth and .crypto segment, as they have more requests from the younger generation and see the direction for further digitalization.
Examples of selling blockchain domains in the secondary market (prices up to millions of US dollars):
The Domains Name Ecosystem and What They Can Do
Blockchain domains are part of the Web3 ecosystem and are interesting in the interaction of various parts of the ecosystem, which is being formed literally before our eyes.
Let’s consider its practical applications:
1. You can carry out financial transactions without involving third parties, receive payments from customers in different cryptocurrencies, using the blockchain domain as an address, instead of a difficult number to remember. This reduces the likelihood of phishing or mistakes to send money to the wrong recipient.
Recently, we have seen a public demand for the safety of personal data and the younger generation use less of the bank services and prefers decentralized tools.
Blockchain domains are stored in your wallet (in fact, this is an ERC721NFT token), payment for a domain name is carried out in the https://ens.domains/ service (annually for the eth zone) and indefinitely in https://unstoppabledomains.com/ (for zone crypto).
2. You can create censorship-resistant decentralized sites and sites with subdomains, for example
credit.monobank.eth, bet.parimatch.eth, vodka.globalspirits.crypto, brendi.hedonismwines.eth, hero.rottencelebrities.eth, album.madonna.eth, concert.salomun.eth — that is, with different goods, events, news.
At the same time, no one can cancel, block or take your site — neither ICANN, nor the provider … The domain is stored in your wallet and, until you transfer the right / donate to another user — only you own it.
The services https://ens.domains/ and https://unstoppabledomains.com/ have a guide on how to create decentralized sites and templates for this. In short: the IPFS hash is uploaded, everything turns out to be not very difficult (with minimal skills).
This segment is just developing, but is already popular: the example of spacex.eth, where the author once again enjoyed watching a video of Tesla’s spacewalk.
There are several ways to access a decentralized site — the first two examples are for Chrome
a) Add at the end of the site .Link (http://spacex.eth.link/)
b) Using the Web3 extension, for example Metamask, adding at the end of the site / (spacex.eth/)
c) Browsers Opera, Brave are compatible with Web3 and open sites without problems.
A distinctive feature of the .com zone sites from .eth and .crypto is that information in decentralized zones is not stored on specific servers, but is scattered across the nodes and encrypted, so it cannot be changed. If a node is compromised, this does not lead to the loss of all information; information (in this case, the site) is stored on the blockchain forever.
Companies and people can use subdomains to conduct targeted PR campaigns without worrying that the content / site will be blocked by someone.
Now the rule is that whoever previously registered a blockchain domain owns it. Therefore, a secondary market with a constantly growing turnover was created — the https://opensea.io/ marketplace, where, in addition to blockchain domains, collectibles, attributes for games, virtual worlds, digital art … sold in the form of NFT cards.
3. You can issue digital NFT cards (this is the same ERC721 token as a domain name, and, accordingly, is stored in your wallet). These cards can be dedicated to different products, can be the subject of an auction, or can represent a VIP discount in the form of a card. These types of cards are highly developed in the gaming industry, sports — football, basketball — where players are tokenized (example: https://sorare.com/ platform).
Businesses can use digital cards to advertise products, brands, issue targeted discounts, congratulate customers and partners …
Here are some examples of NFT cards, where products and the company’s brand itself are presented:
People, especially celebrities, have the opportunity to add value to their brands with digital cards, releasing them for collectors, fans. It’s also a great PR news feed.
The cards can be used as an address discount or greeting card, as, for example, the Binance exchange wished traders a Happy New Year 2020.
4. You can use your domain name in decentralized messengers, for example Status (Status — an application for secure messaging, crypto wallet and Web3 browser, integrated into one application for confidential secure communication). In this case, your correspondence will not be passed on to a third party, as is the case with our usual messengers.
5. In the future, a service for sending decentralized mail may become widespread, which neither the provider nor anyone other than the information owner can read / delete, since the message is encrypted and stored in the blockchain.
Can use ETHMail (this is an email hosting service), this is a way to send messages to people we don’t know anything about other than an Ethereum address or domain name like mosameat@unstoppable.email or memphismeats@ethmail.cc
What is blockchain for? Companies need domains
With blockchain domains, you can:
● introduce progressive financial instruments;
● show the innovativeness, progressiveness of the company;
● secure a domain name, reduce the risks of phishing and payment errors;
● create a PR company, popularizing brands and yourself, e.g. with NFT cards;
● use a decentralized ecosystem created in integration with blockchain domains;
● develop your community, especially the part that uses decentralized financial instruments;
● be ahead of competitors;
● the use of blockchain domains is convenient and practical in the digital world, increases trust and reputation.
Why do people need it even more:
● This is an original gift for loved ones who are not strong in technology — for example, the blockchain domain of c2h5oh.eth,.eth or гаманець.eth will simplify interaction with the crypto world and neutralize errors in payments with cryptocurrency, or if you want to hint that you need to drink less.
● A gift for well-to-do people can facilitate the painful search for a gift, arouse positive emotions and interest in the cryptoindustry, for example, celebrities.eth, elpistolero.eth (Luis Alberto Suarez Diaz — Uruguayan professional footballer), or business owners for their birthday or round business dates dodopizza.eth, k2promotions.eth (great boxing champions Vitali and Vladimir Klitschko), borisjohnson.eth, fcshakhtar.crypto.
● Celebrities — potap.eth, monatik.crypto, artbat.eth, solomun.eth, timati.eth — in addition to securing a brand, they could advertise themselves, differentiate payments for different instruments, attract the community fans and collectors who use decentralized tools (and there are more and more of them).
To view the existing offers, you can use the opensea.io marketplace, where blockchain domains, art, and gaming paraphernalia are presented.
If you need to know how exactly create your own NFT tokens — for this there are simple guides on how to do this (we log in using the Metamask browser extension) on the opensea.io platform, rarible.com . Before releasing a token on the main eth net, I recommend trying it out on the testnet. To do this, you can choose a test network (for example, Rinkeby) in Metamask, understand the mechanics of how it works, and only then work with the main Ethereum network, not forgetting to monitor the gas cost, which directly determines how much the NFT token will cost.
A very intuitive service https://ygift.to/#, where, in addition to transferring NFT, you can send a certain amount of crypto and a text message. For the coming holidays, you can send the NFT gift today, and the person will receive it on the day you have selected, for example, on his birthday or on the New Year’s eve.
On the eve of the holidays, it is great to give a blockchain domain with the name or company name, which, firstly, will secure the domain for the owner, secondly, it will simplify the flow of payments in cryptocurrency (and remove the risks of errors and phishing), and thirdly, it will create new opportunities in the field of PR, will allow you to form your community — and will definitely distinguish your organization from others (see the first two parts).
Example of individuals
Example of organizations
The blockchain domain segment currently takes about 6% of the total NFT market. Other segments are:
- digital art
- virtual worlds
- games, card games
- sports
There are sections on the marketplaces https://opensea.io, https://app.rarible.com/
An interesting example of the Rocki service (https://rocki.app/about) is a streaming music platform, where, using a fiat / crypto hybrid scheme, justice is restored in payments from the listener directly to the artist.
In commerce and finance, non-fungible tokens can help track ownership, proof of purchase, and trade and finance-related product attributes. To facilitate highly digitized and global commerce, NFTs can serve as digital documents or receipts and represent property rights. For example, NFT can be used to indicate ownership of a specific batch or to track the inventory of a specific customer.
NFT wallet keys prove that a particular seller is the rightful owner of the shipment. Moreover, key stakeholders in trade and finance can verify the authenticity of a product through a publicly available database.
The main benefit associated with NFT in trade and finance is the elimination of the problem of counterfeit goods.
This can happen in real estate, insurance — i.e. in any segment where the product can be identified as unique.
DEFI and NFT integrations appear, other blockchains enter NFT market — Tezos, Tron, Neo, Polkadot parachains,WAX, BSC. This is very good for the community, since the user does not need to know what is under the hood of the application / service, but it should be simple and convenient to use, with minimal commissions. This means that the new products appear in various blockchains, which means there will further development.
