Let’s talk Domains.

In Web2 a domain name is the string of text (ending in a *.something) *you type into a web browser to open a web page.

In Web3, it is also a string of text (ending in a *.something) *that represents a crypto wallet.

**But these **domains in Web2 and Web3 are not the same!

Web2 vs Web3 domains

In the 1980s, the first domain name was registered, AND **fun fact** the first ‘cryptocurrency’ was created!

No! it wasn’t Bitcoin, it was something called eCash. But that’s besides the point.

On March 15, 1985, Symbolics.com was registered as the first-ever domain name! Now, people could access Symbolic’s website by just typing in “Symbolics.com” on their web browser.

*Well as this was the 80s, the limited number of people on the internet had to type in the IP address of the website they wanted to open, e.g. *35.231.210.182.

And fundamentally, this is still the case.

All websites have an IP address (which you can think of as their physical address on the internet). To open a web page on your browser, your browser needs to get to the server of that IP address and get the information located there. But IP addresses are a bunch of numbers (e.g. 209.85.227.104), not easy to remember or use.

A much better way would be to just type in some text into your browser instead of these numbers. That’s exactly what domains are, something you use every day!

A domain name (e.g google.com, opensea.io, Bitcoin.org) is just a string of text which maps to a specific IP address. So, when you type a domain name in a browser, your browser finds the IP address corresponding to that domain and fetches the data from the server located at that IP address and opens the web page up for you.

How does the browser know which domains map to which IP addresses?

That is managed by something called the **Domain Name System (DNS), which you have probably heard about **a lot. It is basically the phonebook or the contact list of the internet!

But in very simple terms — when you type in a domain address in your browser, the DNS enables your browser (along with your operating system and multiple different servers) to translate the text you typed into an IP address, and find the location of that IP address. And then your browser can open the webpage located at that address.

Without DNS the internet as we know it would fall apart!!

There is a lot of complexity behind it and if you want to learn about it in detail you will come across terms like DNS Lookup, Resolving Name Servers, Root Name Servers, TLD, Domain Registry, Domain registrars, ICANN etc.

As a quick summary — all web2 domain names are registered with a **Domain Registrar, *which is an entity that manages the reservation of domain names and the assignment of IP addresses for those domain names, by using a Domain Registry. To be a domain registrar you have to be accredited by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), *which is the top dog when it comes to domain names in web2. ICANN is a non-profit organization responsible for the maintenance of domain names and related databases in web2.

Source: https://www.cloudflare.com/

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Now.. you must be thinking, why are we explaining Web2 domains to you, when we’re all about Web3 here?

It’s because the **Sui Name Service ****aims to connect Web2 domains to Web3. Like this, **we can easily onboard users to Web3.

So it’s important to know how web2 domains work first.

A crypto wallet address, as we all know, is a long string of random characters (e.g. 1A1zP1eP5QGefi2DMPTfTL5SLmv7DivfNa, guess whose wallet this is? Good luck.)

We’ve all felt that stress when transferring tokens from one wallet to another, hoping that the wallet address is correct even though we copy-pasted it. Or that mini heart attack when the tokens don’t arrive in the destination wallet for a while — making you think:

“shiiit! did I make a mistake in pasting the address”

That sucks. Web3 domains stop that.

A domain name in web3 is a way to reduce payment stress by making the address of a wallet readable and easy to remember. Just as in Web2, the domain name is associated with an IP address, in web3 a domain name is associated with a crypto wallet address.

But who manages the Web3 domain names, is there a DNS equivalent? Are domain names universal just like in web2?

Well, that’s where web2 and web3 differ, the web3 domain names are managed by the name service projects that issue them, like the Ethereum Name Service (ENS). All .eth domain names are managed by ENS. This is the same with name services in all other blockchains. Every *Name Service, *in any blockchain, can issue and maintain its own .something domain names. The same blockchain can have multiple naming services and you can register the same name in each of those name services, for different wallet addresses!

Fundamentally, a *Name Service *is just a big database pointing names to wallet addresses. In Web3, there is no universal entity like the ICANN or a system like the DNS that maintains all the domain names.

Each service is independent.

We are the Name Service on the Sui blockchain. Soon, anyone will be able to register their own “.sui” domain on our site.

But we don’t want to just be a standard naming service that only allows you to name your wallet so that someone can send you tokens easily. Yes, we will enable that but that is just the beginning!

We want to provide an Identity service, not just a naming service.

We aim to do what no other Name Service has done before, and use our Web3 infrastructure to register Web2 domain names.

Don’t you dream about a day when you can have your own identity on web3, your own .sui username, and when someone types in that name on a browser, they land on your profile page, see all the NFTs and assets **you own. **A day where you can easily log into games with **your own web3 Gamertag, **and message each other!

Well, we are going to make that dream a reality!

With the SNS, you can easily:

• Register your own .sui Domain

• Send and accept payments Safely & Easily

• Use your Sui domain as your name and profile across all Sui Games

• Use your Sui domain as a web2 domain on Google (goal)

• Vote on the direction of the project in our DAO

If that sounds exciting, join our community today and help us build the future of Crypto Gaming and Identity. Whitelist application for name reservations is also available on our website!

We’re building Community through Identity… and we’re so very excited.

See you in next week’s Sui Letter!

Our LinksWebsite: https://sns.domains
Whitepaper: https://sns-domains.gitbook.io/whitepaper
Twitter: https://twitter.com/snsStork
Founder Twitter: https://twitter.com/mistertoucan
Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHglanqLyRstelp_EpjihYg