NFT Domain Name: Personal name on the blockchain as a user ID

04.05.2023

With the development of Web 3.0. technologies the concept of decentralization is scalable. And here it is worth highlighting a segment in the NFT market – NFT Domain Names, which decentralize the domain name registration system. By comparison, traditional domain names, also known as Web 2.0 domains, are managed by a single company (eg Google, Meta) with many additional layers of control in between. In doing so, they offer web services in exchange for personal data.

And NFT Domain Names are decentralized. Both ownership and control of the domain name passes to whoever buys the NFT.

What is NFT Domain Name?

NFT Domain Name (more often the community calls it simply domain) is an NFT type that assigns some name to the address, for example “name.eth”, “name.bnb”. It has the same standard as conventional, familiar NFTs – ERC-721, ERC-1151, etc.

Some services offer any name with a flat rate (such as ENS), others offer a price for a NFT domain name based on the number of letters and numbers that are determined by algorithms. These services include Unstoppable Domains, where the minimum cost is $5.

NFT Domain Names can be created on almost all blockchains where it is available. For example, it is impossible to create a domain name on the Bitcoin blockchain, since this is not provided for by the technology of this blockchain.

The idea and applicability of NFT Domain Name

The main reason for the appearance of domains on blockchains was the difficulty of remembering the address in the Ethereum, Polygon, BSC network. For example, on the Near blockchain, a user can create their own address, which also resembles a domain, but it is created initially, without reference to NFT.

The idea lies in the uniqueness of the address, creativity and easy memorization. The user can come up with his own name and mint it in the form of NFT, and then make it the main one by linking it to the address, paying a small commission. After linking the name on the blockchain, the user can send tokens directly to the NFT Domain Name, and not to the address. Thus, domains on the blockchain have simplified the use, and name spoofing by malware will be revealed to the user immediately.

In addition, there are many uses:

Reputation,
Decentralized website,
Brand,
DeFi login,
Credit Scoring,
Gaming and metaverse login,
Data ownership,
E-mail,
Social media,
Digital business card.

History of NFT Domain Name

The history of the emergence of NFT Domain Names on the blockchain is quite simple: there are domains on the Internet that have existed almost since its inception. These are, as a rule, “name.com”, “name.org”, there are also state domains with the letter abbreviation of the country at the end. Such domains are called DNS – traditional Web 2.0. With the development of the new stage of the Internet Web 3.0, it became necessary to assign an NFT Domain Name to an address for easy identification.

The first NFT domain names on the blockchain were ENS (Ethereum Name Service) and Unstoppable Domains, which appeared in 2019. ENS runs on the Ethereum network, while Unstoppable Domains runs on the BSC and Polygon networks.

How much does an NFT Domain Name cost?

The price range of NFT domain names in the secondary market is very wide. Some domains can cost as little as 1 cent, and some can cost tens of thousands of dollars, regardless of the blockchain on which they are located. Buying domain names from the service itself, for example, from ENS, will cost a fixed $5 for one year of use. And Unstoppable Domains offers the same price based on the number of characters.

The most expensive and rare NFT domain names are short ones. For example, a “map.crypto” domain name from Unstoppable Domains costs $25,000, while a “map23.crypto” domain name will cost $200.

In secondary markets, the price of NFT domain names may increase. For example, 000.eth from ENS was sold on the secondary market for 500 ETH, while it was created for just $5 a year before the sale.

It’s all about easy identification and a prominent name. First of all, they are easy to remember, they will be recognizable, and they reflect the status of the user. After all, names such as “map.crypto” are unique with the “crypto” domain.

Where can you create an NFT Domain Name?

At the moment, there are three main NFT domain name registration services:

ENS,
Unstoppable Domains,
Space ID.

ENS (Ethereum Name Service)

ENS is one of the first and most popular NFT domain name registration services on the blockchain. The only native suffix for names is .eth. ENS can only be minted on the Ethereum network.

On this base, you can integrate various DNS names: .com, .org, .io, .app, .xyz, .art. ENS has a wide ecosystem and is compatible with:

Various services such as CoinBase, True Wallet, Rainbow, Metamask, Opera, MyCrypto, AlphaWallet, Brade, Dether, Frame and so on.
Lots of apps: Uniswap, Etherscan, OpenSea, 1inch, DappRadar, Decentraland, Gitcoin, Immutables, KnownOrigin and so on.

To date:

The service has the largest trading volume in the secondary markets – more than 75k ETH (more than 145 million dollars at the moment).
Over 2.77M domain names.
Over 530 integrations.
Over 679k unique owners.
Some of the most expensive domains: 000.eth sold for 500 ETH, paradigm.eth sold for 420 ETH.

Unstoppable Domains

Unstoppable Domains is also one of the pioneers of NFT domain names on the blockchain. Together with Trust Wallet, Unstoppable Domains gave away domain names for free. At the moment, the name can be bought both on the site itself and on the secondary market.

Unstoppable Domains has a large pool of well-known partners: PolygonScan, TrustWallet, MoonPay, Ramp, Blockchain.com, 1inch, OperaBrowser,

This service provides several domain names on the Ethereum, BSC and Polygon networks:

.crypto,
.nft,
.x,
.wallet,
.polygon,
.dao,
.888,
.zil,
.blockchain,
.bitcoin.

To date:

More than 3.3 million registered domain names,
More than 310 supported coins and tokens,
More than 780 integrations,
More than 900 partners,
The most expensive domain name from this service was sold for 1.7 ETH on the secondary market – onekangaroo.crypto.

Space ID

Space ID is a newly launched NFT domain name registration service on the blockchain. With it, you can mint any name for $5 in BNB for one year of using the domain name. Space ID is also the primary name service provider for several web3 top-level domains.

The service provides domains:

.bnb on the BSC network,
.arb in the Arbitrum network,
.eth on the Ethereum network.

To date:

BSC network has over 2.5 million .bnb names, over 240k sales, over 51k ETH sales, over 636k unique holders,
Over 667k .arb names registered on the Arbitrum network, over 50k sales, over 5k BNB sales, over 463k unique holders.
There are over 260k .eth names registered on the Ethereum network, over 12k sales, over 1k ETH sales, over 228k unique holders.
The most expensive 123.bnb domain on the BSC network was sold for 121 BNB (about $38k at current exchange rates).

What are the prospects for using NFT Domain Names?

The prospects for NFT Domain Names are quite huge:

With their help, you can identify the addresses of centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, NFT projects,
The technology may allow the identification of smart contract addresses, which will prevent fraud against users of decentralized exchanges, marketplaces, etc.
The technology can also be used by venture funds, because such a domain is easier to register legally.
It is a way for different brands to have a prominent presence in the Web 3.0 space. For example, the Nike brand got its own nike.eth domain from ENS. And Chanel has registered its domain – chanel.eth.

Opinion of NFTmetria

NFT Domain Name is an already accomplished development step through Web 3.0 technology, which actually allows you to designate a user in the blockchain space. An NFT domain name cannot be stolen, it can be used to make secure transfers and avoid malware by address spoofing. In addition, at the current stage of development of the segment, there is a massive buying up of short, attractive and branded domain names for the purpose of further resale. This indicates the prospects of the sphere as a whole.

The uniqueness of the entity itself is gaining momentum and deservedly puts NFT Domain Names in the most sought-after types of NFTs. And the technology itself will develop much further, therefore, the very specifics of Web 3.0 will be integrated into the wider population around the world.