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I have always considered myself a skeptical investor. Scratch that…! I have always been a skeptic. This is because I find myself constantly weighing up my options in terms of logical premises, and lets be honest, sometimes, you just have to go with your gut! But even so, when I began surveying the basic principles that govern this new model of the internet aka “web3”, I found myself at loggerheads once more battling between the emotional highs of what others are doing, and what makes more sense!
Right now, there’s a plethora of information being posited into every available market and it can become quite overwhelming. So many people in the web3 space often DM me asking me how many NFT’s I own (and we will get to this momentarily), and the majority of those conversations revolve around NFTs, -as in NFT art- yet this minuscule piece isn’t about Punks or BAYC (Yup, Shoot me! I’m behaving like a like an NFT heretic).
Whilst NFT art is definitely the conduit that created a real buzz around the world, most people within the space are completely oblivious to the fact that NFT art is merely one block in an endless chain of possibilities with regards to non-fungible tokens. Coming back to the common question that most NFT art holders lean with, it usually commences by the question, “So? How many NFT’s do you own?” and my response is, “Over 1000”. This is usually met with a request of images as proof, or followed by the question of “Which collection?”
However, what majority of these inquisitors fail to realize is that *every domain from Unstoppable Domains is an NFT* and the use-cases from ‘owning’ them are far too enticing to pass up that opportunity.
Think about it…right now, even though you may be accessing this NFT article from a web2 browser, in time to come, there will be web3 decentralized sites set up that will give the member direct access, and as a corollary, phasing out the web2 sites. And in that inevitable case, it is not NFT art, or metaverse land that will become the most sought after commodity of web3, but NFT domains, without which, web3 will remain a pipe dream, because inasmuch as it will be constantly referred to, without NFT domains, the websites will still be web2-based, and that is a reality that web3 idealists will not support in the long term.
It is therefore, a highly sound deduction that NFT domains will ‘direct’ the keyboards of every web3 enthusiast in time to come just as how .coms, .orgs etc. were the craze when the legacy internet was being set up. Those who have understood this, and have been piling up on the NFT domains will, in all probability -like their predecessors- come out as the overall winners in the space.
However, there are some challenges when making the correct choice, and this is where my personal experience guided me, to what I believe, will be the next top CNS (crypto naming service) for web3., viz. Unstoppable Domains.
When I first got into the space (mind you only in November 2021), I had engaged in an exhaustive deep dive juxtaposing the pros and cons and then revisiting some of the legacy domain policies. I was just swallowing up information like a vacuum cleaner on steroids.. And by the end of this feeding frenzy, my decision was based on the following tipping points that simply nudged me in the correct direction. They were;
a) Ownership
b) Cost
c) Immediate Utility
The web3 space is all about the ‘ownership economy’ and it is indeed the fundamentally attractive point for both investors and the general populace. However, during my research into the web3 naming services, I found myself at a cul-de-sac of confusion as many of these naming services were still modelled on the previous web2 modus operandi regarding custodianship.
For instance, ENS Domains is excelling in secondary sales, which is undoubtedly an attractive point when choosing where to invest, and a reason that causes one to become emotional when deciding, but the question of whether they are absolutely immutable in terms of ‘ownership’ is a matter of great debate because like the legacy root before, domains are held in the custody of the registrar, and as a result, the owner risks loss of the domain by means of expiration date or failure to pay renewal fees. By this measure, ENS Domains did not meet the criteria -according to my understanding of the ‘ownership economy’-, and was a vital reason why I did not opt to invest in large amounts of .eth domains.
Unstoppable Domains on the other hand, presented a more web3-ish option as the domains are stored in the custody of the purchaser to the point that even if UD wanted the domain back, they would require action from the purchaser to transfer it into their custody. The reason why this particular aspect was a tipping point in the direction of Unstoppable Domains was simply because, if I could not take custody of the NFT domain as my digital asset in my own wallet under my rules, then technically I never owned it at all, and if I never owned it at all, then it pretty much felt like a web2 version with some web3 face painting, and that was something that did not sit well with me.
Now I am certain that the ENS maxis out there will disagree, and they are entitled to their opinions, but until I can be convinced of true ownership, knowing that if I went into a sudden coma, and awoke 10 years later, that my domain would not have been snatched away from me as a corollary of not being in my full custody, then that is a product I am not 100% sure of its claim to be within the ‘ownership economy’ -in my view anyway.
For instance, I currently own ‘whistleblowers.x’ and in terms of the concept of secrecy and discretion in the very nature of whistleblowing, this can only work if it is decentralized and out of the crutches of those who wish to push their political agendas. Now, if I owned ‘whistleblowers.eth’ and established trust from various whistleblowers out there to freely communicate their information or crypto payments discreetly…and if I missed the renewal date due to some unforeseen circumstance, then I could risk their safety as whistleblowers to disastrous effect. Thus, true ownership in this ‘domain’ is the factor that tipped me straight into the warm embrace of UD are they give me autonomy over the domain, and that my dear friends, is how I envisage web3. Don’t you?
Again, I found myself at loggerheads when ENS Domains kept coming up in my searches, and I was quite impressed that ENS does not have any price structure that causes you to spend hundreds of thousands on a domain. This is a bonus on anybody’s radar. What I did not know was that gas fees could be much more than the domain itself at times, and those who were much more experienced had been utilizing specialized tools to determine the best possible times when gas fees were low. I, on the other hand did not have that luxury, and found it a stumbling block that in addition to the initial gas fees, at every renewal process, I would be required to pay for gas. Some may argue that the gas fee issue is mitigated by purchasing the domain for 5 years as an example, but if I want to flip domains for quick cash then this option isn’t ideal at all. Sure, it may suit those who have deep pockets, or those looking to HODL for the long term, but even then, if you hold 300 domains and each one requires renewal, there is a high probability of missing out on some of them -and .com users know all too well about that.
With Unstoppable Domains, there is a once-off fee. You can get a domain for as little at $5 as a random pseudonymous wallet address, of even something like jedigamer123.nft for $5 (still available by the way) and never have to concern yourself with renewal fees, or expiration of the domain…ever! Once it is secured by your crypto wallet, you are the official ‘owner’ of that NFT domain.
The average price of the .nft is approximately $20, the .crypto around $40 and the .x is $100. The algorithm prices the more premium domains at a much higher rate and can range from anything between $20-$250k or more perhaps. When you are selling something completely, then you can understand the price hike for domains that are of higher demand. For instance, no sane person in the space would expect to pay $20 for ‘business.crypto’ as that is a much sought after key word with endless possibilities. Incidentally, it belonged to @DiaryNoori (someone I can call my friend) and it sold on Opensea for $120k this year.
In terms of cost, I prefer to pay for something once-off and know that it is mine to own, having never to concern myself thereafter with any kind of pricing that may jeopardize my domain in the case of any unforeseen circumstances or negligence on my part. This is my preference, and for those who are fine with having to continuously check their domains for expiration dates and to budget for that, then ‘to each their own’, even if the incessantly laborious is what tickles your fancy.
Insofar as utility is concerned, we are still relatively early in the web3 space and whilst this is good, it does not mean that there shouldn’t be immediate utility. There are a lot of naming services out there popping up like mushrooms after the rains, but many of them are just charging for domains that cannot be utilized at the base level for buying or selling crypto, let alone a market place to flip them. ENS and Unstoppable Domains are leading the way currently by providing utility in many ways, even at this early stage. The tipping point for me once again was the fact that Unstoppable Domains currently offers 10 extensions instead of one, so I could choose, -based on the name I was purchasing- whether or not a particular extension suited the ideals of that which was envisaged for the domain. For instance, if I wanted to have a domain with view to building an NFT project later on, I just couldn’t see it with a .eth extension that could be self explanatory to anyone who saw the project. So was I to add ****nft.eth? Or just get a .nft? the latter was always going to make more sense.
Additionally, Unstoppable Domains prides itself in not just supplying names, but providing use-cases for the domains that will allow the holder’s on-chain identity to travel with them wherever they travel in the world of web3. I will attempt to write a little piece later on regarding the utility of UD’s NFT Domains, but for beginners struggling to make these decisions, I have found the variety at UD to be far more attractive, albeit unlike Handshake, that offers limitless TLDs, Unstoppable Domains has created a culmination of some of the most relevant extensions that are self-explanatory within the space and extensions that will become common lingo!
Conclusion - My choice to go all-in on Unstoppable Domains comes from a place that is predicated on logic because so many aspects about their mission and product just makes sense in retrospect of the web3 vision that we all hope to see some day. Yes, many may assume this material to be biased, but as a holder of ENS domains and Handhsake domains too, my views are based on my experience. I believe that web3 is big enough for everyone to survive and I cannot see a future of web3 that does not include Unstoppable Domains as a leading naming service. With over 2.5 million registrations in the bag and hundreds of partnerships with crypto companies, Unstoppable Domains is going to be a force to be reckoned with, and I am proud to wear the badge of a UDwhale!
Acknowledgement: It would be criminal not to mention some of the great people along the way that guided me in my journey to becoming a whale investor, people who I am eternally thankful to, and who are part of the ever growing UDfam…they are (by twitter handle):
@dontgetdashed
@PopDomains
@CaptainBitcoinx
@Ohh_Mr_Silver
@theweb3god
@tipstapunk
Thanks Guys! You’re Awesome!
Shoutout to @DomainDegen , @JohanPoyhonen , @Aleksos , @aplusdomans1, @vonsassyx , Metasavagex, @ihubloteth @cryptoqeuester @drumkoon
I have always considered myself a skeptical investor. Scratch that…! I have always been a skeptic. This is because I find myself constantly weighing up my options in terms of logical premises, and lets be honest, sometimes, you just have to go with your gut! But even so, when I began surveying the basic principles that govern this new model of the internet aka “web3”, I found myself at loggerheads once more battling between the emotional highs of what others are doing, and what makes more sense!
Right now, there’s a plethora of information being posited into every available market and it can become quite overwhelming. So many people in the web3 space often DM me asking me how many NFT’s I own (and we will get to this momentarily), and the majority of those conversations revolve around NFTs, -as in NFT art- yet this minuscule piece isn’t about Punks or BAYC (Yup, Shoot me! I’m behaving like a like an NFT heretic).
Whilst NFT art is definitely the conduit that created a real buzz around the world, most people within the space are completely oblivious to the fact that NFT art is merely one block in an endless chain of possibilities with regards to non-fungible tokens. Coming back to the common question that most NFT art holders lean with, it usually commences by the question, “So? How many NFT’s do you own?” and my response is, “Over 1000”. This is usually met with a request of images as proof, or followed by the question of “Which collection?”
However, what majority of these inquisitors fail to realize is that *every domain from Unstoppable Domains is an NFT* and the use-cases from ‘owning’ them are far too enticing to pass up that opportunity.
Think about it…right now, even though you may be accessing this NFT article from a web2 browser, in time to come, there will be web3 decentralized sites set up that will give the member direct access, and as a corollary, phasing out the web2 sites. And in that inevitable case, it is not NFT art, or metaverse land that will become the most sought after commodity of web3, but NFT domains, without which, web3 will remain a pipe dream, because inasmuch as it will be constantly referred to, without NFT domains, the websites will still be web2-based, and that is a reality that web3 idealists will not support in the long term.
It is therefore, a highly sound deduction that NFT domains will ‘direct’ the keyboards of every web3 enthusiast in time to come just as how .coms, .orgs etc. were the craze when the legacy internet was being set up. Those who have understood this, and have been piling up on the NFT domains will, in all probability -like their predecessors- come out as the overall winners in the space.
However, there are some challenges when making the correct choice, and this is where my personal experience guided me, to what I believe, will be the next top CNS (crypto naming service) for web3., viz. Unstoppable Domains.
When I first got into the space (mind you only in November 2021), I had engaged in an exhaustive deep dive juxtaposing the pros and cons and then revisiting some of the legacy domain policies. I was just swallowing up information like a vacuum cleaner on steroids.. And by the end of this feeding frenzy, my decision was based on the following tipping points that simply nudged me in the correct direction. They were;
a) Ownership
b) Cost
c) Immediate Utility
The web3 space is all about the ‘ownership economy’ and it is indeed the fundamentally attractive point for both investors and the general populace. However, during my research into the web3 naming services, I found myself at a cul-de-sac of confusion as many of these naming services were still modelled on the previous web2 modus operandi regarding custodianship.
For instance, ENS Domains is excelling in secondary sales, which is undoubtedly an attractive point when choosing where to invest, and a reason that causes one to become emotional when deciding, but the question of whether they are absolutely immutable in terms of ‘ownership’ is a matter of great debate because like the legacy root before, domains are held in the custody of the registrar, and as a result, the owner risks loss of the domain by means of expiration date or failure to pay renewal fees. By this measure, ENS Domains did not meet the criteria -according to my understanding of the ‘ownership economy’-, and was a vital reason why I did not opt to invest in large amounts of .eth domains.
Unstoppable Domains on the other hand, presented a more web3-ish option as the domains are stored in the custody of the purchaser to the point that even if UD wanted the domain back, they would require action from the purchaser to transfer it into their custody. The reason why this particular aspect was a tipping point in the direction of Unstoppable Domains was simply because, if I could not take custody of the NFT domain as my digital asset in my own wallet under my rules, then technically I never owned it at all, and if I never owned it at all, then it pretty much felt like a web2 version with some web3 face painting, and that was something that did not sit well with me.
Now I am certain that the ENS maxis out there will disagree, and they are entitled to their opinions, but until I can be convinced of true ownership, knowing that if I went into a sudden coma, and awoke 10 years later, that my domain would not have been snatched away from me as a corollary of not being in my full custody, then that is a product I am not 100% sure of its claim to be within the ‘ownership economy’ -in my view anyway.
For instance, I currently own ‘whistleblowers.x’ and in terms of the concept of secrecy and discretion in the very nature of whistleblowing, this can only work if it is decentralized and out of the crutches of those who wish to push their political agendas. Now, if I owned ‘whistleblowers.eth’ and established trust from various whistleblowers out there to freely communicate their information or crypto payments discreetly…and if I missed the renewal date due to some unforeseen circumstance, then I could risk their safety as whistleblowers to disastrous effect. Thus, true ownership in this ‘domain’ is the factor that tipped me straight into the warm embrace of UD are they give me autonomy over the domain, and that my dear friends, is how I envisage web3. Don’t you?
Again, I found myself at loggerheads when ENS Domains kept coming up in my searches, and I was quite impressed that ENS does not have any price structure that causes you to spend hundreds of thousands on a domain. This is a bonus on anybody’s radar. What I did not know was that gas fees could be much more than the domain itself at times, and those who were much more experienced had been utilizing specialized tools to determine the best possible times when gas fees were low. I, on the other hand did not have that luxury, and found it a stumbling block that in addition to the initial gas fees, at every renewal process, I would be required to pay for gas. Some may argue that the gas fee issue is mitigated by purchasing the domain for 5 years as an example, but if I want to flip domains for quick cash then this option isn’t ideal at all. Sure, it may suit those who have deep pockets, or those looking to HODL for the long term, but even then, if you hold 300 domains and each one requires renewal, there is a high probability of missing out on some of them -and .com users know all too well about that.
With Unstoppable Domains, there is a once-off fee. You can get a domain for as little at $5 as a random pseudonymous wallet address, of even something like jedigamer123.nft for $5 (still available by the way) and never have to concern yourself with renewal fees, or expiration of the domain…ever! Once it is secured by your crypto wallet, you are the official ‘owner’ of that NFT domain.
The average price of the .nft is approximately $20, the .crypto around $40 and the .x is $100. The algorithm prices the more premium domains at a much higher rate and can range from anything between $20-$250k or more perhaps. When you are selling something completely, then you can understand the price hike for domains that are of higher demand. For instance, no sane person in the space would expect to pay $20 for ‘business.crypto’ as that is a much sought after key word with endless possibilities. Incidentally, it belonged to @DiaryNoori (someone I can call my friend) and it sold on Opensea for $120k this year.
In terms of cost, I prefer to pay for something once-off and know that it is mine to own, having never to concern myself thereafter with any kind of pricing that may jeopardize my domain in the case of any unforeseen circumstances or negligence on my part. This is my preference, and for those who are fine with having to continuously check their domains for expiration dates and to budget for that, then ‘to each their own’, even if the incessantly laborious is what tickles your fancy.
Insofar as utility is concerned, we are still relatively early in the web3 space and whilst this is good, it does not mean that there shouldn’t be immediate utility. There are a lot of naming services out there popping up like mushrooms after the rains, but many of them are just charging for domains that cannot be utilized at the base level for buying or selling crypto, let alone a market place to flip them. ENS and Unstoppable Domains are leading the way currently by providing utility in many ways, even at this early stage. The tipping point for me once again was the fact that Unstoppable Domains currently offers 10 extensions instead of one, so I could choose, -based on the name I was purchasing- whether or not a particular extension suited the ideals of that which was envisaged for the domain. For instance, if I wanted to have a domain with view to building an NFT project later on, I just couldn’t see it with a .eth extension that could be self explanatory to anyone who saw the project. So was I to add ****nft.eth? Or just get a .nft? the latter was always going to make more sense.
Additionally, Unstoppable Domains prides itself in not just supplying names, but providing use-cases for the domains that will allow the holder’s on-chain identity to travel with them wherever they travel in the world of web3. I will attempt to write a little piece later on regarding the utility of UD’s NFT Domains, but for beginners struggling to make these decisions, I have found the variety at UD to be far more attractive, albeit unlike Handshake, that offers limitless TLDs, Unstoppable Domains has created a culmination of some of the most relevant extensions that are self-explanatory within the space and extensions that will become common lingo!
Conclusion - My choice to go all-in on Unstoppable Domains comes from a place that is predicated on logic because so many aspects about their mission and product just makes sense in retrospect of the web3 vision that we all hope to see some day. Yes, many may assume this material to be biased, but as a holder of ENS domains and Handhsake domains too, my views are based on my experience. I believe that web3 is big enough for everyone to survive and I cannot see a future of web3 that does not include Unstoppable Domains as a leading naming service. With over 2.5 million registrations in the bag and hundreds of partnerships with crypto companies, Unstoppable Domains is going to be a force to be reckoned with, and I am proud to wear the badge of a UDwhale!
Acknowledgement: It would be criminal not to mention some of the great people along the way that guided me in my journey to becoming a whale investor, people who I am eternally thankful to, and who are part of the ever growing UDfam…they are (by twitter handle):
@dontgetdashed
@PopDomains
@CaptainBitcoinx
@Ohh_Mr_Silver
@theweb3god
@tipstapunk
Thanks Guys! You’re Awesome!
Shoutout to @DomainDegen , @JohanPoyhonen , @Aleksos , @aplusdomans1, @vonsassyx , Metasavagex, @ihubloteth @cryptoqeuester @drumkoon
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