As NFT verticals continue to grow, marketplaces naturally emerge to accommodate them by providing tailored user experiences that surpass what general-purpose marketplaces can offer.
Generative Art NFTs → Sansa, Art Blocks, Archipelago, fxhash
Gaming NFTs → Fractal, GameStop NFT
Metaverse Land NFTs → Parcel
Music NFTs → Sound, Async, OneOf
Blockchain domain name services are abundant, but each comes with its own unique characteristics. Here's what sets them apart:
Payment frequency: Name services, like Ethereum Name Service (ENS), require renewal fees, often times to financially support continued development of the protocol. If renewal fees are not paid on time, the domain name enters a grace period before eventually becoming available for anyone to re-register. Other name services, like Unstoppable Domains, may require a one-time payment to own the blockchain domain NFT forever.
Top-Level Domain (TLD) vs. Second-Level Domain (SLD) registrations: Taking vitalik.eth as an example, .eth is the TLD, whereas vitalik is the SLD. Handshake is a naming protocol that enables users to mint TLDs and sell SLDs on their owned TLDs. On the other hand, ENS users can only mint/register SLDs on .eth.
Decentralized app (Dapp) integrations: Blockchain domain name resolution entails querying the name service's smart contracts to learn what the name maps to. For example, shando.eth → 0xc4DaD120712A92117Cc65D46514BE8B49ED846a1. The more dapps that integrate a name service's resolution mechanism, the more useful a domain from that name service becomes. Feel free to take a look at the list of ENS integrations and Unstoppable Domains integrations.
Domain Name System (DNS) integration: DNS is the protocol that resolves traditional domain names, like .com domains, to their IP addresses. Owners of SLDs, like example.com, can import their DNS names into ENS, enabling them to set ENS records and resolve the domain name to a wallet address.
Payment methods: Each name service supports various payment options. For example, Solana Name Service (SNS) enables users to register names via USDC, ENS requires ETH, and Unstoppable Domains supports credit card, BTC, and more.
Supported marketplaces: You may not be able to find a name service on your desired marketplace. For example, Blur does not support ENS, and OpenSea does not support SNS.
Name character set/length limitations: The set of possible name registrations differs across name services. For example, while 🚀🚀🚀.eth is a valid name in ENS, emojis are unsupported in Unstoppable Domains.
Intended use case: The TLDs supported by a name service are meant for specific use cases. A .arb domain name is meant as an identity within the Arbitrum ecosystem, whereas a .nft domain name from Unstoppable Domains is meant for "artists, creators, collectors, and fans".
Although this list may not encompass all the distinctions among name services, it demonstrates the multifaceted nature of the blockchain domain NFT niche.
However, one way that nearly all blockchain domain collections differ from collections outside of the vertical is their enormous collection sizes, e.g. the ENS collection consists of over 2.7 million NFTs. Because of this, it's helpful to recognize categories, often referred to as "clubs", to better organize the NFTs. A popular example of a club is the 10K Club which comprises the 10,000 4-digit .eth names. Technically speaking, clubs are just a specific configuration of filters, enabling users to identify trends and discover the perfect name.
Furthermore, each NFT in the collection has important metadata that may be hidden in certain views of a general-purpose marketplace. For example, users may want to sort a collection or category by descending expiration, i.e. NFTs with the most registration time left, but that choice may not exist in the marketplace's standard sort options.
While some marketplaces exist to serve specific name services, there still lacks one place to comprehensively search through the universe of blockchain domains. Imagine if you had to visit a different website to register and manage each unique traditional domain extension, one website for .com domains, another for .org domains, a third for .io domains, and so on. It's an unthinkable UX, and yet we're not too far off from that in the blockchain domain space. As blockchains become more inter-connected and name services become more standardized and integrated, the need for one place to consume domains across name services and blockchains will rise.
That's why we're announcing the development of Pseudo, the blockchain domain marketplace. On Pseudo, you can register, trade, showcase, and manage blockchain domains across popular name services, like ENS, Unstoppable Domains, and Lens. Pseudo acknowledges the variety of name service differences, name categories, important NFT metadata, and more to create a tailored marketplace experience for blockchain domains. Visit https://pseudo.market and sign up with your email address to receive future updates on our launch!
Verisign, a leader in domain name registry services and internet infrastructure (and also the operator of the .com registry), recently released their Q4 2022 Domain Name Industry Brief, in which they reported an astonishing total of 350 million traditional domain names were registered by the end of 2022. Meanwhile, this Dune dashboard, while undoubtedly inexhaustive, estimates over 5 million currently registered blockchain domain names across popular name services. With the belief that Web3 blockchain domains will be just as ubiquitous as their Web2 counterparts, we foresee massive growth ahead for the blockchain domain space.
Accompanying this growth are a range of fascinating innovations:
Subdomain registrars
"Meta" name services mapping identifiers to multiple blockchain domains
Cross-chain and omnichain domains
Sophisticated AI-powered search
Interoperability with browsers and web hosting services
Token bound accounts
Our aim is for the platform where you discover, register, and purchase your blockchain domains to be the same place where you can take advantage of these exciting developments.
There's never been a more interesting time for decentralized identities, and we're thrilled to be a part of this journey. Stay tuned for more updates on Pseudo!
Thanks,
Shandy Sulen (Founder)
Shandy Sulen
