Register and prosper with Web3 domains
Web3 has been on fire this past year, we’re witnessing an emerging sector of innovation in its infancy. Similar to the rise of Web2 (version of the internet most of us know) in the ’90s and ’00s with the “.com” boom, Web3 is experiencing rapid growth in demand for domains.
Contrary to “.com” domains, domains registered for web3 are much more versatile than just a web address. These can act as your identity across the web3 ecosystem, act as a wallet or payment method, host a decentralized application or website, be used for licensing of derivatives, hold a variety of metadata and possibly other use cases which have yet to be explored.
There are several major domain registrars on the Ethereum network:
Ethereum Name Service (ENS) — Most popular registrar, endorsed by Vitalik Buterin. Lets you register a “.eth” extension domain.
Unstoppable Domains — Second biggest registrar. Allows registration of several popular extensions, such as “.nft”, “.crypto”, “.x”, “.wallet”, “.dao”, and others.
Web3 Name Service (WNS) — New comer registrar. Allows registration of “.web3” extension domains as well as unique NFT collection ownership-based endings like “.bayc” for Bored Ape Yacht Club owners.
ENS domains are registered for a fixed period of time, meaning when expiration date arrives, you may need to either pay to renew the registration or relinquish the ownership. On the other hand, Unstoppable Domains and WNS are a one-time payment registration after which you have lifetime ownership.
When going to register your domain there are a few things to keep in mind which I’ve noticed to trend or hold more value:
Short names, 3–5 letter generic words that have brand-able potential such as lemon, moon, ink, etc. A lot of these will already be registered but you may still find some diamonds available. Could use an Oxford English dictionary to get some inspiration. Don’t forget about foreign words or even latin !
First or last names, because these domains are also used as your identity across web3, its a no brainer first name domains are valuable (“john.eth” etc). If you’re fortunate enough to register a regularly seen lastname, it is possible to then mint derivatives (subdomains) such as licensing first names (“john.johnson.eth” etc). This has passive income potential.
Subdomain-ability, similar to licensing personal names, its possible to capture an entire industry with an alpha domain. A good example of it can be seen with Budweister licensing an address from the beer.eth alpha like “budweister.beer.eth”. These are generally words that can capture a broad spectrum of brands or child addresses.
Bonus // 3-letter combinations could be used for their acronym definition variety. An average acronym possesses a dozen or more possible definitions, and therefore has a high subdomain capability while also maintaining the limited supply value.
Limited supply, 3-letter words and 3-digit names are considered the rarest, as there are only 1,065 3-letter English words and 1,000 possible combinations for a 3-digit code. Similarly there are 17,576 possible 3-letter combinations and 10,000 for a 4-digit code.
Creative Combos, chain together two keywords that best describe your business or use-case. Try mashups of two or three words that are meaningful. Can they be combined in some way — either in pieces, or entirely? Keep it original.
Once you’ve found some available domains to register, you may use GoDaddy Appraisal tool to gauge a monetary figure of what the domain could be worth, which is calculated based on historical sales in the .com extension.
Something to keep in mind, while it may be enticing to try and register domains of trademarked brands for the hope that they would pay a premium to take it off your hands, I can say that the chance of that happening is slim to none. This activity is often regarded as “cybersquatting” and could result in the company issuing a DMCA takedown request.
The forefront marketplace to sell or buy domains right now is OpenSea. While you may get the most eyes on your domains by listing on OpenSea, the associated gas fees are quite high. Consider listing on LooksRare marketplace as they charge an exponentially lower fee to list, and still command solid foot-traffic. WNS also offers listing natively on their own marketplace which does not charge any fees. Ideally, the domain for sale should be listed on at least two places.
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