Bridging Web2 to Web3: Pioneering Digital Identity and Domain Innovation at NamesCon 2024

Ever wondered how the domains of today will evolve in the face of blockchain innovation? Join us as we navigate the shifting landscape of Web2 and Web3 domains with special guests like Davide, CEO of Freename, and domain investment professional Todd Ryan. This episode brings you right into the heart of NamesCon, offering a front-row seat to the discussions transforming the way we think about digital identity and online spaces.

From a tech hiccup to an in-depth tech talk, my journey from the clothing industry to domaining unfolds, revealing the importance of industry connections and the impact of blockchain on traditional domain sales. Discover how tokenization and the utility of domains are not just reshaping business practices but are actively forging the path for Web3's integration into our digital lives. Get ready to unravel the complexities and opportunities of TLD ownership, DNS services, and the potential for monetization that lies within the grasp of savvy investors.

As the episode crescendos, we offer a sneak peek into NamesCon 2024, with expert insights poised to enrich both green and veteran domain investors alike. We'll discuss the burgeoning growth of Web3, the intricacies of digital identity, and the need for realistic pricing in a rapidly evolving market. Don't miss out on this robust dialogue that bridges the gap between present investments and future innovations in the world of domains.

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Chapters

• 1:01 Tech Talk
• 6:50 NamesCon 2024 and Web3 Domains
• 20:15 Web2 and Web3 Domains
• 30:13 NamesCon 2024 Preview and Highlights
• 37:27 The Domain Industry in Transition
• 43:29 Discussion on Web3 and Domain Tokenization
• 46:37 Tokenization and Domain Utility in Web3
• 53:53 Evolution of Web3 and Digital Identity

Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:01

Thank you, hello hello, hello hello. Super awkward without the music. It's weird, like for the past year or so, every time I've started the space I have to double-click on the microphone icon to get the music to start.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Every now and then get that triple-click and it cuts the music off. So we will get started in just a moment. Sorry, we don't have the music here to soothe you, but as you guys start coming into space, if you could please do me a favor, like and retweet. Let's share this out, get some more people in and, of course, the invitation is always open. If you want to come up on stage, feel free to request a speaker role and we'll get started in just a moment. Comment. Go ahead and get started very shortly. How are you doing today, davide? I wanted to thank you very much for taking time out of your day. I don't even know if it's daytime or evening time, but thank you very much for coming to the spaces today. How are you?

Speaker 3: 2:26

Good morning, good night. I neither know what hours of the day is. It's 24 hours, right.

Speaker 1: 2:35

It's always a pleasure my life on Netflix is 24.

Speaker 3: 2:39

Yes, no sleep. Yes, we do sleep. It's always a pleasure to participate in your AMAs and always, always, open to participate. Looking forward for Namescon.

Speaker 1: 2:53

Yeah, it definitely is always a pleasure and you know, as I like to remind everybody, you know we're extremely blessed that you, you know, do take the time to come up on stage. No-transcript, and you know this. You know we're coming up on Namescon and, yeah, I wanted to dive in and talk about that a little bit. I'm obviously extremely bullish, you know, counting down the days, we're within the month now, so NamesCon is within 30 days away, so we're getting real close to it, and I wanted to highlight some of the things we're bullish on, and I know that you guys are, you know, participating in NamesCon in a big way. So, yeah, without further ado, I am going to go ahead and get started, I'm going to introduce the space and then we'll start off with a little bit of news and then we'll get into the subject at hand. So yeah, first and foremost, I would like to welcome everyone to iHeart Domains and our Tech Talk space. We discuss news, innovations, education, alpha and business development in the Web3 domain name and digital identity space. We are your number one platform to discover, learn, grow, build and trade Web3 domains and digital identity, with a focus on technology investing and education. As always, our tech talks are recorded so you can view and listen back to all of our content at iHeartDomainscom and listen back to all of our content at iheartdevainscom, where you'll be able to see the spaces embedded and in podcast form or in blog form, so it makes it kind of easy to digest. We also record these spaces in podcast form so they'll be uploaded to every major podcast player, including Apple and Spotify, and very easy to see that catalog at techtalkhost. Again, as everybody is coming into the space, it would be awesome if you could like, retweet, share. If you've got any comments again, feel free to request a speaker role or feel free to leave them right down there in that little bubble. And yeah, a couple of things I wanted to touch on before we get into the main subject is to once again remind everybody that, in addition to NamesCon, I will also be attending Consensus, so that is going to be taking place pretty much the week right before NamesCon. So I'll be up there from May 28th so a little bit later this month up until June 1st May 28th, so a little bit later this month up until June 1st. I was blessed to be able to go another year via MediaPass, so I will be out there, creating and recording content and networking. Also, a big part of what I'll be doing out there is networking and creating some relationships for anyone who wants to build with digital identity and, of course, I'll be building those relationships and those bridges between those people and free names. So if anybody is planning on attending Consensus and wants to meet up and definitely have that conversation, that's what I will be out there doing. So more than welcome to meet up with you, treat you to lunch. We're in my home state, so definitely have a good time and love to see what kind of opportunities out there.

Speaker 1: 6:10

And then, last, lastly, to touch before we get into the opening news, is just to briefly touch on last week. Some of the biggest news in our space right now in the digital identity space is the ENS versus UD patent wars that got brought up again last week. The patent is officially being challenged through USPTO by ENS. They are challenging the validity of the patent. Matt and Nick did come up on a Twitter space that ishfully hosted last week and they had a little dialogue about it. It was a very, very good space, a lot of good information from both of them. Again, the outcome of this will definitely shape a lot of what happens in the space, moving forward. But one of the other big things that came out of that as well is the W3DA is no more. So, yeah, for those of you who have been curious as to the progress of that organization, the progress is man. So there will no longer be a W3DA. And yeah, we are in the middle of this. But stay bullish on NamesCon because, yeah, moving forward is what I like to focus on. So, yeah, again, everybody, as you're coming into the space like your WeTweet, let's get into the main topic. All right? So, as you guys can see at the top, we are counting down to NamesCon 2024.

Speaker 1: 7:36

As I said, consensus is going to be from May 28th to June 1st. Namescon this year is going to be on June 5th through June 8th, and I believe this is going to be on June 5th through June 8th and I believe this is going to be the final time that they are going to be holding this in Austin, texas. So also been blessed for the past three years that it has been in Austin, which has made it easy for me to go to. So this is the last year that I guess I'll have that convenience, but it is the leading and longest running domain name investors conference. Everyone, from the biggest names and brokers in the domain space to the to the highest platforms and marketplaces that sell them, network and celebrate each other's achievements from the year prior, while learning how to improve their game for years to come.

Speaker 1: 8:24

As I said before, this will be the third time I've attended the NamesCon and this time is a little extra special because I will be attending as a media partner. So that's kind of coming full circle and highlighting the value that my platform brings to the space. Same thing I'll be doing out there is, you know, creating content, interviewing you know, really building some direct relationships with a lot of those domainers and helping build that bridge, not only between you know Web 2 and Web 3, but you know the space that exists there. You know kind of the secretive behind-the-door space and you know us on the other side that are, you know, trying to figure out how to enter that space and want to learn and, you know, become part of the bigger picture. So very much looking forward to that.

Speaker 1: 9:07

Had the pleasure of recording some of the sessions during last year's conference and so if we have a lot of Web3 domain sessions on the agenda. I will likely also record those as well and put them on our YouTube so that anyone who isn't able to attend can still get you know all the alpha. So, yeah, wanted to host this space again to dive into the upcoming NamesCon agenda, share some of the things I'm most excited about, and then also and what we're going to lead off with is wanted a dive day to get into. You know, if you guys are going I believe you guys are, if you guys are going I believe you guys are you're actually sponsoring the Namescom. You're a big part of what's going on with Namescom, especially for the growth and really putting Web3 domains in the spotlight. So let's talk about that a little bit, if you want to kind of intro that.

Speaker 3: 9:57

Absolutely absolutely, and thanks for bringing lights to this. And, as you clearly said, and you're very correct, web2 and web 3 are emerging and this is represented by the last three years of three, four years of namescon and domain days and icon participants. We are attaching one to each other, right, and there is a motivation for it. I can tell you that in 2020, 5% of the people using actively internet were using internet to access the apps, defi, the centralized environments, and right now, it's 20 to 25% of people on the internet using internet to access blockchain environments, and so this is just natural that Web 2 needs to meet Web 3. I completely agree with you and, yes, we are a big sponsor. This year we are sponsorizing, we're having a talk. So for all the folks that are here, going there very, very happy to have few drinks, to have few talks, to relax and speak about domains, but mainly, what do we see?

Speaker 3: 11:12

The two, the two, the two words are converging because web two names are now being looking at adding web three utilities. Web3 names are adding utilities, right. So with a Web2 name, you can build a website, a email or flip it, and if you add blockchain utilities, then you can use payments, you can use NFT, you can tokenize, fractionalize, you can use a free smart contract. We all know that, and so in our ethos, we want to be a Shopify for all of the Web3 registrars, as you know, and for the one who doesn't, we give the power for you to run your Web3 TLD, we give you the tool for you to monetize, to build, to include in your community, in your ecosystem, and we are giving this tool to Web3 registrars and Web2 registrars. So for us, we appreciate a lot the Web2 approach of ICANN. That made our internet stable, our DNS stable.

Speaker 3: 12:23

Like twittercom, it's run on a DNS system, right, and we want to bring the same ethos, but decentralized. You can be a TLD owner with us, you can build on it, you can resell on it, you can have our API to build on your environment and this is why names can represent it, always represented in the, in the in the domain world, a conference for progression, a conference for technology, a conference to exchange ideas, and you will find a lot of good domains there. We put very good here. These. Our beloved community is willing to give in the auction some of their best TLDs, so keep a look on that.

Speaker 1: 13:11

Yeah, I'm going to touch on the auction here just a little bit. I wanted to ask kind of a direct question. So one of the big differentiating things that I think anybody who's been paying attention to FreeName has noticed is that you guys are extremely active and extremely present, you know, not only in the Web3 space, but you've really really been present in the Web2 space bags of Web3 domains. A lot of us really anticipated that. You know that bridge between Web2 and Web3 as far as a utility, ie these things working like websites. You know they're really bullish on that happening sometime in the future. So first of all, I commend you for that.

Speaker 1: 13:56

But I kind of wanted you to vocalize or, you know, lay out for everyone. You know why you guys do think it's important to take the extra step to show up physically, in contrast to you know we have some other very large naming systems. I won't name the one in particular I'm talking about, but you know one chief complaint that a lot of people have about them is that they don't have a presence anywhere, like they really don't go to any conferences. They're not building the bridge. I don't know if they don't see it as important, but obviously you guys do so. Yeah, if you can, let us know why it's important to continuously have this physical presence and networking in person with the Web2 community.

Speaker 3: 14:42

Absolutely. We think it's very important to be present. We are here to put our faces, to meet the representative of the two worlds, to meet the representative of the Web3 world and to be part. Participating to the meeting physically is very important. You do friendship and from a coffee between a meeting to the other, it's always a good opportunity to stay in the industry, to make the industry also appreciate who we are and what we're building. So I think it's very, very important and yeah, who's leaving this unattended meeting? I think it's losing chances to just be familiarized with the environment, whether it's Web 2 or Web 3. We've been many times at ICANN, many times at Nordic Domains in Dubai, domains, namescon, and I'm forgetting many others, to be sure, but you know all of them right, and it's very important. It's nice to hear from the community Web 2, web 3, what they want, what we want, if we're building the correct way and the way that registrar, registry, web-free ecosystem are expecting out of us. So, and for me it's also fun to have a few beers with you guys.

Speaker 1: 15:55

Yeah, so, and all of that effort has definitely paid off. I mean again, for anybody who has been paying attention to Freename, we can definitely see that you know the connection is being made. You know more and more free name is becoming a household name. More and more people are starting to learn about the concept of being, like you said, on the other side of the fence. Don't registrar, having the keys you know to generate. You know their own communities and their own revenue source. You know, using this technology, their own communities and their own revenue source. You know, using this technology, one of the results of you know creating those connections with the Web2 space now brings me to what is probably the most exciting part for a lot of us in the free name VIP community. You know whether you're going to Namescon or not, quite a few of us have our assets in the right of the dot auction, and so I'm going to kind of briefly go through what that is for people who don't know what that is, and then I'll turn it over to you to kind of explain how you got that set up.

Speaker 1: 16:56

But right of the dot is a company that was started by an individual named Monty Khan, and it is one of, if I think it is, the largest live auction platform for Web2 and com domains. Every year during NamesCon, he typically holds a live auction and this is where, you know, a lot of those big boy names were sold. Last year, holidaycom sold for $1.4 million. I think that was the first time I had ever sat in a room and saw that kind of number for words that were on the internet and that made me extremely bullish. You know, for what I anticipated to come. As a matter of fact, it's weird because, as that auction was happening, that's what I was envisioning is you know what, if one day you know our domain names, our Web3 domain names and TLDs that we think are worth millions of dollars, are able to be on this same auction block and able to be called out with the same enthusiasm and bid on, you know, as these Web2 domains, and I did not know that we were so close to something like that happening. And so, with that being said, the big announcement FreeName has partnered with Right of the Dot and, as I said, a lot of our VIP communities.

Speaker 1: 18:10

We were able to submit our TLDs into the auction. So I personally have .88888, so that's five, eights and gamertag that are going to be in the auction and these are full TLDs. Both of them are I think 8888 has maybe five registrations or so on it before I made it private. Dotgamertag is a completely virgin TLD, so these are completely fresh for people to build on and, yeah, extremely excited because it's going to create, first of all, that dialogue before the auction to even explain to everybody what they're going to be looking at or what's in the auction. So it's going to be fun having those conversations but seeing that translate into possible sales, you know, for everyone in the community that's also going to be an exciting and a victory that we all

Speaker 1: 18:55

share. So, yeah, turning it back to Davide, tell us a little bit about that relationship. How did you even, you know, kind of get that working for us? And you know, in kind of your own words, how important do you think that you know being able to have our assets treated as real assets included in auctions like this? Like how important is that for the growth of our space?

Speaker 3: 19:18

Yes, definitely. And coming back to your point on in-person meeting, right, I think I've met Monty virtually and then we met at an ICANN conference and you know, a meeting in person of half an hour can really change the perception of the people. My perception is perception and the other. So we wanted to give it a try to see how was the feeling of traditional domainers approaching the Web3 auctions. And when we tried, we did the first trial. We listed very few assets and that went well because people bought them, and so we tried on our shoulders if that was successful, and we see that that was successful. And now we are enlarging to our VIP community to participate in this auction directly, which I haven't tried, let's do another time.

Speaker 3: 20:15

Why, why was successful and why Web2 domainers and Web3 domainers are buying TLDs and domains. So, first of all, with a TLD from Freenem, you can monetize, you can make money and we have clients that have TLDs with 10,000s of domains below one single TLD. So you can image If you go in our Twitter profile and you scroll, you will see that we get tagged by many people doing royalties with LTLD. But this is not the only thing. We have a DNS working for Web3, meaning you can have your Web3 and building with WordPress, for example, payments, cross-chain payments. So the Web3 domains and domains meaning SLD and TLD so davidefreename or Davide.8888, they are becoming real and the more we advance with time, the more internet develops, also on the blockchain.

Speaker 3: 21:17

Remember that right now, 2024, one out of four, one out of five internet users are using Internet, also with blockchain scopes. So just imagine five years, right, one out of two. And so it is just natural and we are early, like in 1996, you could have bought a very nice dot com domain DeFi dot com, for example. Right now you can buy the same domain, the same nice, nice domain, because you're early, as it was 1994, 1996 for web 2. But you are early also to have your own web 3 tlds. You don't need to be very signed for it, monetize it and building a community on it. So we strongly believe that as the year passes, the internet evolves, blockchain technology. It's a part of our life, our daily interaction with the internet world, and hence web3 domains will be our digital identity, monetization, platform, usability, all mixed with web2.

Speaker 1: 22:22

One of the things I wanted to know, if you can expand a little further upon as well, is you know, obviously you know most of the services and things that you know, kind of, I suppose, wanting to introduce and build the bridge within the space according to Web 2.0 is mostly Web 3.0 stuff, but you guys really are building a lot of tools that are designed specifically just to help or optimize the experience for pure web two domainers as well. Can you touch on what some of those things are for any of the web two domainers in the room and shout out to Todd I see you in here Also. I see Dr Zach in the audience as well. Can you give us kind of a little overview of some of the products that actually are designed specifically, like I said, for that industry? That aren't necessarily the dot anythings and you get what I'm asking If you can go into Noto a little bit and kind of what that does for that space.

Speaker 3: 23:21

Absolutely yes, and this is correct. Also for me, it's nice I'm a Web 2.0 domainer as well as a Web 3.0 domainer, so I want the tool we all want the tool to manage domains like we manage today. So, aside from all the Web 3.0 utilities, but, for example, a very clear example, a month ago, I think, or a month and a half ago, we released on Microsoft, ios, ios and max store the, our dns that you can download and all of your device reads web 2 and web 3 domains. So I go in my web 3 domain from my safari in my iphone. Do I need to have a special extension or something? No, once I download on my ip iPhone our DNS application, I run all of the two internets, never thinking back to change settings.

Speaker 3: 24:13

I do that to my computer too, and so I can set my record day so I can build a normal website. I don't need a static website on IPFS, but I can build on WordPress, I can build on Typeform. I just get back my record day and paste it in my domain platform in Freename, on my domain that I want and that is being recognized by a normal DNS, and it works. We are giving the tool for you to manage your own pricing on your own TRDs. We are giving the tools to redirect to Web2 URLs, so if you're not a website builder but you just want to redirect on a ready-built website, you can. We are implementing APIs for internet stakeholders to run our infrastructure for them, so to tokenize Web2 domains. And we are releasing much more, but you will know in a bit.

Speaker 2: 25:19

Awesome, awesome.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Awesome, awesome. Yeah, when it comes to the Web2 side of developing, I am kind of what do you call it? A technical, technologically illiterate, even though I do handle the front end development of my own Web site and the content, all that stuff in the back end. It sounds fancy, so I know it's valuable. And again, you know you guys have been definitely showing your presence, you know really waving the Noto flag, and I know a lot of people have been receptive to it. So, looking forward to seeing you guys and your presence at Namescon, will you actually be going? You personally, will I get a chance to meet you in person?

Speaker 3: 25:57

I think yes, francesco, leonora and Paige will be there. I do have a plane ticket. If nothing changes, paige will be there. I do have a plane ticket. If nothing changes, I will be there. Did you use the DNS? Now a question from my side to you which functionality do you use the most out of your TLDs or domains?

Speaker 1: 26:21

So in the Web3 digital ID space, depending on the platform, I use my names a couple different ways and I use them every single day. So, obviously, on the community building side, I have the XChain and DeFi wallet TLDs, also the dgen TLD that I have on Freename as well that I've used to build a community and an alpha group over on Warpcast. That NFT functionality once you issue somebody a digital ID, allows you to token gate groups. So, yeah, I have an alpha group that I use my digital ID to token gate and kind of got to get the domain to get in the group. On the other side, on the pure digital identity side meaning I just want to be identified and I want people to know me as me I think I had mentioned earlier in another space I participate in auctions, blockchain-based auctions, virtually every single day.

Speaker 1: 27:16

I'm very nounish. There are probably a dozen or so pretty solid nouns now that I have memberships in um. There's other you know different public goods, uh entities out there that that all do things via a blockchain-based auction and they all resolve uh, for the most part, uh, you know a domain name such as ens, if you do the reserve reverse resolution and I actually use my defi wallet and my exchange that I've imported via dns. I use that as my reverse resolution. So, on the digital identity side, anytime I'm participating in an auction, it's super cool because people know it's you.

Speaker 1: 27:54

Um, you know, uh, you get known by that. It really creates kind of a tag that that floats around with you. And a bigger implication of that um is you really need your name to be stamped on something when you know if it's a document or an authorization, I think that that'll be used for that. Um, you know also as well. You know, like I said, at just the basic level. If you want to know who you're dealing with or somebody's legit you know, seeing their domain name, being able to go back through it to the blockchain to see that that's that person, and you don't really have to jump through a bunch of hoops to do that. It's just a couple of clicks. It's really super convenient. So that's how I use it.

Speaker 3: 28:33

Very interesting and very broad usage Compliments man.

Speaker 1: 28:38

Yeah, and I believe that there's going to be a ton of development in between. Everybody's going to use digital identity and web through domains in their own way. You know, for a lot of people it may just be the username that they don't ever have to change or get rid of on a social media platform. Like I said, some people are going to take it you know all the way and want to develop on it, want to build websites on it, want to publish with it, and it's super cool that we've got a lot of open-minded people and developers and builders in the space that are seeing that vision, that are connecting that dot, and then, especially, you guys have the manpower, the development power and the track record to actually make these things happen.

Speaker 1: 29:24

And I'm glad that you came up here and explained. You know a lot of the diversity of the products and services you offer and even you know how they extend outside of just being Web3. Because the question does get asked a lot, especially in comparison to that one particular domain extension. You know what do these things do and I think it's hard for a lot of people who are stuck in a bubble to see outside the box of what these things not only do even though they're not a dot, you know what I'm talking about but also, in the future, what they can very, very much do. So, yeah, super, super glad for y'all on that one and yeah, really excited to meet you if you do come, because that will definitely be the highlight hey, highlight. I met all the rest of the team, looking forward to seeing Paige again. I see Paige everywhere now, it seems. Also Elliot and Nora. Again, it'll be a good time.

Speaker 1: 30:13

In Texas. You guys are coming to my home state. If you haven't tried the barbecue there yet, we have a world-famous barbecue place right down the street. Usually a pretty long line to get in, but yeah, lunch on me. If you guys do all end up going there, I'm going to come back around again to a couple more questions, but before I do, I want to once again welcome anyone. If you do want to come up on the stage to please request a speaker role, don't be shy. Also, if you're coming in for the first time, please like and retweet.

Speaker 1: 30:46

We are talking about NamesCon 2024. We're blessed to have Davide, the CEO of Freename, who is one of the sponsors of NamesCon. We'll be having a pretty big presence there this year. Lucky to have him here on stage telling us what to be bullish about and some of the things that they'll be doing there.

Speaker 1: 31:04

To wrap back around, to kind of lay out NamesCon for you again, it's the longest running largest domain conference, I believe, here in North America. I know that they have domain dates and divides and stuff like that. I don't know the size of this compared to that, but NamesCon is all I know it's pretty big. You get the whales of the domain industry here, traditionally a Web2 conference, because I mean that's what the Internet has been, and now we're starting to introduce this thing called Web3 domain. So the reason why, you know, most of us ended up here on these spaces with our es, exes and exchains and et cetera. So yeah, it is a four day conference. It's going to be three days of straight-up conference, june 5th through 8th, and then the last day is the fun day.

Speaker 1: 31:53

So on that last day last year we were on Rainy Street. They did bratwurst or something. I don't know what the hot dogs were. There's actually a food. Like I said, I'm from here, so there was a food truck that I went down on Rainy Street and got some good fried chicken. But in any event, very nice day. On the fourth day, which is the leisure day. So you get four days total.

Speaker 1: 32:16

There's typically two rooms I think that's what it was last year Big main room, which is where the auction also takes place and the keynote and opening speech. Then we have the side room which is just right down kind of on the upstairs, the Omni Hotel, which is where a lot of the Web3 panel sessions were happening, and then down in the main area by the lobby and the coffee shop and all that stuff is where we will see all of the vendors. And then this event is also held in conjunction with something called CloudFest. I will admit I still don't know what that is. I think they're the exact same thing. Everybody's just there, but I know CloudFest is something a little bit different. Again, that's more on the Web2. Very, very techie, techy side, to quote Flexster. So that's kind of a little bit out of my league, but it is two events in one. I don't know what kind of extra agenda that they have, but the main agenda for NamesCon is, as such, some of the sessions that I'm really looking forward to. I don't think that they have leaked or put out what any of the Web3 specific sessions will be yet, so as soon as those come out, I'm going to be all over there, all over those and sharing those. But again, you know, any of us who have been exposed to investing in the Web3 domain space have likely taken also an interest in the Web2 investing space. So hearing those sessions and attending those sessions and learning from those whales and OGs, you know, is also an extremely big highlight.

Speaker 1: 33:48

We actually and not to put him on the spot, but definitely again want to shout out Todd. He is one of those speakers that I'm very much looking forward to hearing during NamesCon. For those who don't already know, todd owns ABC Productions, has been in the domain game, I think, since the 90s, uh runs, uh spaces not only on here but on clubhouse. He's got a chance to meet him uh formally in person. I'm sure I saw you at probably the last two names con, but I was invisible because I'm an introvert and don't talk to people if they're not already in web 3, but we did get a chance, uh, to definitely connect and talk during umhmael's Demainer Conference. So, yeah, definitely looking forward to seeing you again attending your panel. Also, we have, you know, who has been called the biggest Demainer possibly in the world.

Speaker 1: 34:41

Andrew Rosner is also going to be one of the speakers and going to be doing a session there at NamesCon. And, for those who aren't familiar with who Andrew Rosner is, he is the individual that sold Xcom to Elon Musk. He was also a very early, I believe, consultant, or at least was bullish in creating content for unstoppable domains, and is one of the original people that I would listen to and watch spaces about when I first came into the Web3 domain space. So in a way, I guess you could call him a mentor of mine, even though we don't know each other, but looking forward to meeting him and listening to his panel as well. Again, you know these are gems that are coming from people that know how to sell words on the internet to people that know how to create the value, that know how to build an ecosystem, and that's the exact same thing that we are trying to bring to our space Just as much as we want to educate. There's a lot that we can learn, so also going to get educated. And last but not least, you know, one of the keynotes or one of the speakers I'm looking for to hearing again is Brayden Pollack, who I also had the pleasure of hearing during Ishmael's Demainer Conference and meeting and speaking to as well. Especially as our space, you know, begins to grow and these bridges, you know, continue to be built, a lot of their strategies are going to apply, a lot of them are going to bring their strategies into our space and you know they're going to embrace the strategies that we build over on this side. So very much excited that.

Speaker 1: 36:20

Now to come back to Davide, another thing that you know I kind of heard may be in the works there and I was hoping Flexster would have been able to attend the space. I know he had one right before here. But for those who don't know and if you don't know it's because you haven't paid attention Freename actually works with WebHash. So I know most of those in the ENS community have been using web hash to build decentralized websites. It's become very popular, you know, within the ENS community and, yeah, they also work with free names. So I know that Flexster was going to, you know, create an initiative I know he's going to be out there at Namescon, you know to get a build-a-thon going where we get some creative websites built using your free name. Slds on WebHash so excited about that. Before I keep rambling on, though, thank you for coming up on the stage. I want to allow you to introduce yourself and say hi, what's going on, todd?

Speaker 2: 37:18

Hey, marcus, everything is smooth as silk here. Yeah. So when I saw you at Domainer Expo, marcus, everything is smooth as silk here. Yeah. So when I saw you at Domainer Expo, it's beautiful. Listen, I'm.

Speaker 2: 37:27

I've been doing it a long time but I'm I'm the regular guy in domaining, meaning I don't spend money on domains. I it's the biggest names I've ever spent on marijuana business. I bought from a friend for a grand, and Cali girlcom, which is one of my brands. I originally, back in 2000, I started this company in Hermosa Beach. Cali Girl this is, after all, my weed stuff. Cali Girl.

Speaker 2: 37:49

I was doing clothing, camisoles yeah, it was pretty crazy Camisoles and bathing suits. It was more of because I had ideas for all sorts of stuff and Mattel ended up stealing that idea from me and I had to try to sue them and then lawyers I, I think robbed us both. But yeah, um, they had a cali girl barbie, believe it or not, but if you understand the small areas I was from, and then we had relations, a lot of mattel marketing. People knew I had a cali girl sign in the window. But long story short is I don't spend money on domains. You talked about two guys that drew, drew and braden and I'm going to talk about them. But what I mean is no, I always wanted to get in way. Back in the day I started I got abcproductionscom was my first domain name because I started the company american business capital, my finance company. But I'm like, I came here to make movies. So american business capital is my formal company name. I'm a corporation, I'm a registered investment advisor. Still, if somebody asks you to invest money in something like a startup or I don't care if it's a movie or if it's a whatever it is that's, come to me and I'll tell you give it to me. I'll do your first one free. I'll tell you, no, don't do it, whether it's stuff in this space, this domain space.

Speaker 2: 39:04

But anyway, I am the regular domainer, meaning I always wanted to register names cheap and then sell them for a lot. And the first ones I sold through Monty, through his auctions. I was looking 2007,. I sold pre-qualified home loans. So that's a big thing and I'll get to that. That's a big thing to even have. Monty will try to help sell your names. He's not. He didn't take them on because he likes you too much. Ok, he took them on because he's like I'm trying to show people that he's he's also interested in selling the latest stuff the from NFTs to absolutely Web3 names or blockchain domain names but just to have somebody else saying, yeah, I'm going to help try to sell your stuff.

Speaker 2: 39:51

Now it's going to be over here and, marcus, you hit it right on the head to be right in line with the stuff Sometimes you want it to be. You don't want to confuse people, but you want to confuse them enough to know this is quality, like that other stuff. It's all the same. Yeah, it's all meat. What did you want? The steak? No, this is a. Don't worry about what's in this, just it's a good sandwich. Get out of here. So that's a very big thing to touch on.

Speaker 2: 40:14

To touch on, well, our panel I just told Drew and Chad who's my panel's AI domains in web three, right up everybody's alley here and it's me and Drew and Chad. And if you go to lfgtvcom, no one's supposed to go there. That's for me and those two guys. Okay, but I'm telling you guys you won't go there. That's going to be basically our outline. We're talking about domains as an asset class, but definitely the fractionalization that Drew's doing over at Rally Road and then tokenization been going on for a long time. I kid with Brett, with the chat about it, because we're working on other things about now. It's like now it's the thing and we understand you know, we understand that there's all sorts of you know, anyway, very good conversation about you.

Speaker 2: 41:04

You know the merging of web 2 and web 3. I mean, you know, basically I wanted to get to drew. He started domaining I don't know 2010, 2014 or something. He came in. I'm just like a side guy. Some of these guys attack this business and handle it like they're dragon slayers drew one and braden. Braden spent more on domains in the last couple years than all these most of these companies raised completely for their whole business and their and their.

Speaker 2: 41:32

You know plans and about web, you know two needing to bridge to web three. Of course. Web two, we're like we went through the four years of college. Web three I'll give you this. Say it's, say it's graduate school, okay'll give you this, say it's graduate school, okay. Well, still, you're just going to enter graduate school. So, yeah, me too, I tested out of high school too, fuck it. But my point is that it's more of. I would recommend. I always do the Web 3.

Speaker 2: 41:56

Folks learn the history of Web 2. You're going to need to know that anyway, even though you're going to step on it and trounce on it and listen. I'm pretty tough too on you know things have changed. So I tell the old guys things done, changed, okay, so it's. It's a lot different. Of course, it's frustrating.

Speaker 2: 42:11

I do love hearing when people say the guys from web two, it doesn't resolve, shut the fuck up. Are you stupid? It resolved right to my Todd Ryan dot ETH just resolved. Right to my wallet, I just got paid again. Are you stupid? It resolved right to my Todd Ryan dot ETH just resolved right to my wallet. I just got paid again. Are you stupid? You wouldn't even know Most of them don't know to set up a excuse, my language to set up a e-commerce site anyway. So domainers are a weird bunch.

Speaker 2: 42:35

But the the the cool thing about yeah, drew hasn't been around for five years to a conference. Well, it's a pretty big deal. Why? Because he does like marcus said. He does enormous transactions. And the other guys that do the enormous stuff over at hilco, um, that partnered with squad help right now, adam atom, yeah, we're trying to get updates on everything. So what's everybody doing? Trying to do big marketplaces and, uh, of course, if I was in doing any any of the new tech companies, especially the, the Web 2.5 or Web 3 or everybody merchant stuff, yeah, I'd be around too.

Speaker 2: 43:08

I want to know who's the real players in this place. The deal about the brokers and Drew is, if you got big names, he's going to mess with you. There's some guys I think you want to talk with who are the builders. That's a partner of mine, like Chad, somebody who really has shit together on the development and build side. But the point is that is also there and I'm thrilled.

Speaker 2: 43:29

Marcus, I'm about ready to shut up for now is this CloudFest part. I was looking, like you, at the lineup and you know what. That stage, the CloudFest stage, I'm more interested in that. I've heard a lot of the horse hockey, but you know what with regards to traditional domains. But then again, I will say Drew's actually on three panels that very first day and I am going to do something with the lawyers about getting your stuff taken away from you and we are going to talk about, some of you know, a smart contracts case and we're going to talk about, uh, you know things, that web three, name naming systems, the challenges that they're going to face. The same, a lot of the same stuff that we did. But, uh, now I'm looking, you know, looking forward to you know, as they say, going there and taking some names down.

Speaker 1: 44:16

I'm done for now yeah, no, I, I I extremely appreciate it and, and again, very much looking forward to your panel with with Chad and a lot of what you have to offer. Again, and this is again what I'm highlighting and I'm going to record your session you touch a lot on the problems that we haven't seen coming yet, because we're still in the Wild West and discovery phase, and you know the problems that we're going to face once we get adopted discovery phase, and you know the problems that we're going to face once we get adopted. You know, one of the things that I absolutely value in you is that you're probably one of the most open-minded. You know Web2 domain professionals that I've come across and you know, you already know how our space works. You and Chad do, as a matter of fact, like you said, you both have experience with the tokenization of domains. You know we're reinventing the wheel by putting it on the blockchain, but the concept itself isn't new and it's something that you know you guys have already been discussing and have already gone down the path with, and then you as well, you know, with your understanding of digital identity and the concept of TLDs.

Speaker 1: 45:21

You know, I know we've talked a little bit, or actually a lot of it.

Speaker 1: 45:24

You know kind of the naming service we bring up the most is like Handshake, and you know the concepts that they bring to the table.

Speaker 1: 45:32

I wanted to ask you kind of a direct question, if you don't mind, but yeah, kind of with your understanding of Web3, and, like I said, you know kind of the benefit from strictly the financial transaction level. You know that Web3 and blockchain may add to the traditional process of selling Web2 domains. You know how much of a value do you think or how bullish are you on that side of the tech as opposed to just and hopefully you're bullish on the naming side of the digital identity side as well, which you know. I kind of like to separate the two, but from the technology perspective, you know that big key point that I'm thinking is going to be like the real deal maker between you know Web3 and Web2, you know kind of wanted to know your thoughts about that and some of the technology that we've talked about, like even earlier, with tokenizing the domains and putting them on OpenSea or running them through blockchain auctions and that kind of stuff. Hopefully that wasn't just a long one.

Speaker 2: 46:35

No, I know this is the tokenization. No, chad's been putting that, putting those tokenizing and putting them on chain for a long time. You've got systems set up. It's so sophisticated. And if you're a business, it's so sophisticated it's like dashboard for developers. Well, okay, it's not really consumer facing at all. And he's like don't worry about it, don't look underneath the cities that I'm building. It's dirty pipes, don't worry about it. It's not. He's got it all cleaned up. But what you were saying? That's the first question that I have for Drew and Chad. And that is okay.

Speaker 2: 47:10

Tokenization we know it makes selling and transferring easier. That's the whole thing. What are the other benefits to it? And really there's a lot, and even I know that. But I want the experts, the guys that think about it. And Chad is the expert really in that space.

Speaker 2: 47:26

Why do I consider Drew an expert? Because he put money into all those platforms, from ENS to Unstoppable to Handshake, and he's real smart. He knows it. It's like high level. Like me, somebody just tell me and quit acting like I can't understand it. I mean what the fuck it is? And we're going to slow it down and so what's going on here? And that's what I do with all the new companies that are coming around, you know, and I like them, I like all the tech. It's like I'm deeper in.

Speaker 2: 47:55

I'm going to say payment platform technology and payment rails. That is really. There's so many features. It's unbelievable that people are. You know the tools people are going to have in the future. So incorporating domains are just a small section to it. But yet there's tons of things that are happening with using domains for payment.

Speaker 2: 48:16

Of course you know escrows and stuff like that, but that's what I was going to ask the big guys what are the true other benefits? And then we're going to get all the way down to hey, don't loans as collateral on. We know it can happen, I know all shit can happen. Is there demand for that at all? And why hasn't there been in the traditional stuff? And it's because for one, if you've got a big name, say you own Fusecom. Braden owns that one fusecom. He said they considered that for instead of Adam, but he couldn't afford it anyway and they didn't want to fuse. Well, I guess the point is I'm going to loan Braden 10,000 for it and I guess I don't know I'd give him no interest in case he didn't pay back I'd say how hurting are you? He's not. I guess the point is we've always had this.

Speaker 2: 49:07

There's companies out there, domain capitals one, but usually it's just other guys like me, a group of guys, usually the brokers, that know what they're doing. They're going to loan you money on your domain. Right now it's going to be 10% or less of what you think it's worth, and then there's going to be high interest and you're thinking it's just. My point is there's no meeting of the minds. The demand, the true demand, is not there and it's almost like well, why don't companies take out loans right now on their IP? It's worth it to the company. That domain's worth a lot to that company. To somebody else, that's going to be worth it.

Speaker 2: 49:40

It's just a weird thing, but I let everybody just run the car against the wall. We've been doing this forever. It's a pawn shop who wants to loan money on domains. I think right now it's harder to sell them than ever, and they're, you know. That's why the prices under 5,000 are the only ones that are really selling. And you want payment plans and you want it very easy and we are going to make it easier. For, like, okay, you want to pay with crypto and you want immediate transfer. Fantastic, that was never the big pain point here. Even people talking about payment, they're supposed to be talking to domainers. You know, because real companies know we buy the domain, there's no big problem of getting it.

Speaker 2: 50:16

You know, getting names to end users, but I don't know. I mean, I could go on and I look forward to, like I said, I'd like to have my stuff, the stuff that I'm going to be talking with Drew about. Well, by then I want to know. Mjcom has been public now for a little while over. You know the real way. They went the long distance to do this fractionalization. So it's regulated here in the US, you know, by the SEC.

Speaker 2: 50:40

So the point is, how is it going? And I have, you know, I have some questions on that myself. And then also, he drew, brought up in one of his domain, sherpas you guys will love this topic, I know you would marcus, and that is it was about. You know all the bullshit with the infringing names. And then the use of stuff in web 3. You know child abuse stuff, just whatever that could be the most illegal. And Drew was saying he does believe there has to be some mechanism, community oversight itself, because you just can't let it go hog wild on some platforms because it will not get adopted, and I look forward to hearing that type of stuff. I'm trying to think what's happening today, the history, what's going on today? And then I'm going to think you know what's happening today, you know, with the history, what's going on today, and then I'm going to ask you know what? What are these two guys buying?

Speaker 2: 51:29

Because they have portfolios of you know, I don't like to tell other portfolios, but she is just. You know beautiful stuff that they've built over the years. But that's it for now for now.

Speaker 1: 51:45

Yeah, there's definitely going to be a lot of opportunity for learning and dialogue and, again coming back to the progression of where we've gone as Web3 in general and domaining and our presence, making our presence known and creating these bridges Super excited that FreeName is going to be out there. I think this will definitely be an opportunity to have some more straight to the source conversations, not to say that the people who have previously attended NamesCon haven't been great representatives of the platforms that they've been wanting to communicate, but FreeName seems a little different. You're going to get some devs and you're going to get some people that really know the platform, that really know the direction of you, know how this fits into. You know both the Web3 and the Web3 space. Great overview of kind of what you're most bullish about accomplishing here at NamesCon. You know and, yeah, some of that message that you do want to make clear to the Web2 domainers that may have that question of what else can these things do besides, you know, send money to a wallet address.

Speaker 3: 53:02

With pleasure and look. My biggest drawing to name SCON and participating to CloudFest ICANN meetings is understanding where to, as Todd said, the history of domains and generally to make the future we should know the history right and to enlarge utilities aside from the domain payment but, as it was mentioned again from Todd, for example, from CSAM protection or abuse and trademarks. This is very important in Web3 and we're building software around. So I think in Web3, it must be solved technologically and not via alliances. So very happy to talk more in another episode about, or directly on, namescon. So we are there to study history, make history and enlarge domain utility. Don't forget that right now, 2024, one person out of four use the Internet for blockchain reason. 2030 will be one out of three, 2040 will be one out of two, and so on and so forth. So it's natural evolution.

Speaker 1: 54:11

Every single one of those millions and millions and billions of people are going to need digital identity to make this space easier to navigate. And that is actually, you know, kind of the biggest initiative that I'm kind of wanting to push forward. And what I want to get out of being out there is not only to spread the gospel Web3 is a technology that makes the space more convenient to transact on that side but also the separate investable value in digital identity itself, especially the investable value in Web3 TLDs and all the things that you can do with that. If you got to hop off, I definitely understand, but thank you once again, thabideh, for coming up. It is always a pleasure.

Speaker 1: 54:58

You know everybody I'm sure by now knows I am extremely bullish on Freename and very much enjoyed my relationship. You know there's a lot of value in Web3 TLDs. You know you guys just finished a campaign socially the FN Royalties campaign. If you guys type that into Twitter I believe you guys had a hashtag out there you'll be able to see screenshots of. You know what a lot of people are making royalty-wise on their TLDs. So the money is real. You don't just have to flip domains from one person to another.

Speaker 3: 55:31

Thank you very much, marcus, and thank you all Always appreciated being in your space. And yes, it doesn't take you that much to be a very sign yourself in Web3. It doesn't take you that much to be a good idea yourself in Web3. It just take you a few clicks and a wallet. So, guys, try it. Thank you for having me. Goodbye.

Speaker 1: 55:54

Thank you as well, and I'm actually about to wrap up this page. For those of you who attend our tech talks, I generally like to keep them about an hour so that they are digestible. Again, they will be available in podcast format on both Apple, spotify and virtually every other podcast player and Google all that good stuff. Want to wrap it up kind of, though, by allowing Todd to have the last word, if you'd like, and then I'm going to touch on my, my last initiative for being out there, and then we'll close the space. But I want to pass it back to you, todd, if you have any last words or anything you want to say. And again, thank you for coming up on the space as well. It's always a pleasure to hear from you. Again, you say you're the normal guy at Demain, but you're still inspiration and mentor and a lot of people have a lot to learn from you, so I'm very grateful for you dropping those gems.

Speaker 2: 56:53

Thanks of people have a lot to learn from you. So, uh, you know very grateful for you dropping those gems. Thanks, marcus. That it's the lucky guys. That's why I consider, um, uh, chad and drew are two different guys and I'm I've just no, you know, uh, I love they're, like, you know, the strong guys if I go to domaining in this space and then building and developing. So they got all the bases covered One dev, one build and then has names from 20 years ago. You know I'm joking around with him because I'm using I don't even want to say him, I mean because I'm using. But PayNow, that's my, that's Chad and I co-founded PayNow. It's a new fintech company that you know. It's just wonderful, but I mean.

Speaker 2: 57:25

The point is, if it wasn't for even domain names, you know I would be less passionate about that particular. You know anything I'm working on from a movie Goodfinger. I registered that in 2002. We're going to make it this year, goodfingercom. But that's an important thing. But I was thinking about with those guys about just oh, when someone has names that they purchased in the 90s and I have a few production designer. I have a few, but most of mine were 2000 to 2010. But that's still good. But mine are both a four letter that you know. Some of them of them are good, some of them sucked. I had thousands at one point but the point was so. At least we got them at redshvi, even though I got a lot of these guys got real good stuff, you know, in the, because they just a little bit sooner. So when you're those guys and now, for example, nashvillecom is the costello brothers, they own it. He's a neighbor of mine, michael is. He's awesome, he's an awesome guy. Those guys, the history of those brothers in the domain business are legends. He owns Nashvillecom, always owned it. You can imagine he's owned it forever since the mid-90s. The whole TV show came out. Remember, it was number one, remember, then she got and everybody got old.

Speaker 2: 58:50

The point is you, you, you're thinking things just keep going up, up, up, up. And now you know I I'm thinking, you know I'm tough on some of my friends that have these portfolios that they've owned for a long time. I'm almost done here, marcus, I know you want to quit. You think I wanted a million and now I want 2 million, now I want 4. Now I want 10. Now I want 15. Well, it's like they keep raising it and a lot of the stuff wasn't selling. Has there been a peak?

Speaker 2: 59:21

Sometimes I tell my friends with the single words you have a lot of data the last 20 years of who's wanted it. You might need to come down and you know you only got still 800 bucks in the thing, or you know 400 bucks in it. You might only get 400,000 for it, not 4 million. Well, they don't. You're not invited anymore, but anyway. So there's some guys who I'm never feeling sorry for. They have portfolios of great stuff that they've just had to pay, renew it and they could. They're going to be fine.

Speaker 2: 59:49

It's the ones I like, and Drew has sort of mastered that. Not on the broker side, but on the buying and selling side. Is they're out there buying things for $15,000, $20,000, $200,000, he and Braden saw that and then still planning on selling it. They're not building on these things. So those, that's the you know, that's what are you buying. Why are you focused on that? Because you know some other guys are like we're just sitting on a yacht that we've had for 30 years and that's how it goes down. Anyway, I can't wait to the next space you do, because we'll do this before namescon. I know there's going to be a nice buildup until there, but I look forward to seeing Dave there. I know he took off, but you know, of course they recognize. That's why I love this.

Speaker 1: 1:00:29

You hear people's voices, that's why I talk loud when I'm there and they think, oh, that's that guy, but good, seeing you, I'll talk to you later, both of you guys in the room, and you know it's going to be a nice little shot for people as well and I look forward to that. You know a lot of people are going to learn. This is a very mature space and you guys bring that wisdom for how to really do business in it. And you know we're kind of the new kids that are bringing the tech of how we think that people can do it better, and so, you know, glad to see the conversion is that convergence of that at names con. And, yeah, you're, you're right, I'm going to do a. I do intend to do a couple of spaces leading up to names con. So you know, for those of you who are unable to attend, but do my best to bring the experience home to you, especially, like I said, you know, one of the biggest agendas that I have out there is to record content, to definitely record some key panel, including yours, todd, and then anything Web3 domain related. Obviously I'm going to record. So very much looking forward to that. Thank you again for coming up on stage. Thank you, everybody else, for attending our Tech Talk. Once again, I want to remind you if you did come in late or if you want to listen back to it, you can do so here on Twitter or you can do so on our website at iheartdomainscom, or you will see an archive and catalog of all of our previous spaces.

Speaker 1: 1:01:59

Next week we are actually going to be doing an AMA with DecentralWeb, so we're going to bring that Web3TLD trifecta kind of all the way around and I'm very excited to bring their team on to bring Michael back on. I had a great conversation with him. They're building a lot of things over there Again our space, the tech, the speed at which we're building the use cases that we're building for, the speed at which we're building the use cases that we're building for. I think that's very good for people to take into context. Not every Web3 domain provider is building for the same audience or for the same reason. That's why these products don't always look or work the same and it's unfair to judge some of these products by the utility or how some of the other ones currently work, because you don't know how these people are developing and if they've got investors backing them, if they've got a community funding them, if they've got people registering their names, it's obviously for a reason. So I'm glad that I've been a tool, a resource to help spread that reason or give people the opportunity to let our community know what those reasons are.

Speaker 1: 1:03:08

So very much looking forward to that AMA next week from the central web and getting that conversation started again and again. If you guys are already familiar with Freename, if you're looking to get into the Web3 domain and the PLD space, the registration space, they are an extremely easy to use turnkey solution. They build with you. You know Davide, you know always blessed that he takes the time to come out and communicate with us and spread the gospel. So looking forward to meeting him in person as well. And yeah, without further ado, I'll let everybody get back to the rest of their week. Stay bullish and yeah, we'll talk to you next week. Please Well, up to the AMA. Thank you for attending another tech talk. Talk to you later.