Crafting the Next Chapter in Web3 Domain Education with IHeartDomains

Uncover the secrets of Web3 Technology and Digital Identity with WenAirdrop, founder of IHeartDomains, as we explore the thrilling world of blockchain domains. Reflecting on the whirlwind of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, we dissect their impact on the tech and domain industries, highlighting jaw-dropping deals from providers like Freename and PorkBun and Dynadot , while also celebrating our recent VRBS Hangout and Food Drive event in San Antonio. 

In our deep dive into IHeartDomains' journey throughout 2024, we reveal the bold steps taken to break free from the traditional tech bubble. From our presence at a Grammy Awards pre-party to collaborations with leading Web3 entities like Forbes Web3 and SandboxDAO, IHeartDomains is on a mission to introduce digital identity concepts to a broader audience. These initiatives not only broadened our reach but also crafted a blueprint for future growth and engagement as we head into 2025, aiming to educate and excite those unfamiliar with the space.

Our educational outreach is a game-changer, introducing tools like the web3domains.ai chat bot and the Mighty Study module, designed to make learning about Web3 domains accessible and engaging. With partnerships involving Vrbs, Nouns, and others, we host monthly meetups to bring crypto and Web3 concepts to everyday people. Our marketplace expansion on Base showcases our pioneering role, offering a new platform for trading tokenized domains. Join us as we explore how these efforts are setting the stage for a transformative 2025, filled with workshops, tech talks, and a deeper understanding of Web3 technologies.

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Chapters

• 2:18 Friday Tech Talk
• 12:46 2025 Web3 Initiatives Overview
• 22:08 Expanding Web3 Domains Education and Outreach
• 37:33 Web3 Domain Marketplace Expansion and Plans

Transcript

Speaker 2: 2:18

Thank you. Thank you, hello, hello, we're just about to get started, going to give it maybe another minute or so, pinning a couple things at the top of the space and, yeah, looking forward to this Friday Tech Talk. So, yeah, in just a moment we'll get started and jump right in. All right, all right, and yeah, as you come into the space, feel free to request a speaker role if you do have any questions or want to hop into the conversation. But, yeah, as everyone does enter, please like and retweet the space. But yeah, I want to welcome everyone so far to our Tech Talk podcast.

Speaker 2: 3:13

This is a live discussion that I began and record here weekly on X, where we highlight news, innovations, education, alpha and business development, primarily in the web3 technology and digital identity space. I am win air drop, the founder of iheart domains, and I am your host for this tech talk and all other tech talks. Again, we are your number one resource for unbiased web3 and blockchain domain educational content, with over a hundred Talk episodes and YouTube videos produced and archived over the past two years. If you do want to search our entire podcast archive for previous episodes and or read the blog overview that it does accompany each episode, you can see those and visit that at iHeartDomainscom. Everything is pretty well sectioned out and categorized there, and then also prior recordings are available in podcast form on every major podcast player, including Apple Podcasts, spotify, iheartradio, among many others, and that's one of the things I'll talk about a little bit as one of the subject matters in this space. But yeah, as usual, I do want to start with some of the opening news over the past couple weeks. It has been a couple weeks since the last Tech Talk, and that's because things have been kind of pretty busy personally on the iHeart domains and with some new partnerships and things that we've had going on. So I'll touch on those as well. But definitely want to start off by saying happy Thanksgiving and then now happy Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Speaker 2: 4:51

Yesterday here in the US was one of our major holidays. I would say it's in the big three with Easter, thanksgiving and Christmas. I mean Halloween's in there as well. But yeah, it's one of our major holidays. Most people, most families, get together. You know they have a meal that usually involves turkey, which is why some people often call it Happy Turkey Day. But yeah, it is a primarily US celebrated, I guess, holiday, which you know has its own history which you can do your own research on, but in any event, you know, most people in the US were pretty much out of pocket or visiting friends, family, loved ones in order to celebrate this day, and we didn't say so. For any of you who do also celebrate, happy Thanksgiving to you Now, although that, that particular holiday, you know, may not be celebrated much outside the US.

Speaker 2: 5:46

One event that directly follows Thanksgiving, I think, usually captures more of the world's attention, and that is probably one of the biggest shopping holidays of the year, which is Black Friday. So Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and then Black Friday. So Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday and then Black Friday. I don't know when, why or how it was invented, but it follows the Friday after Thanksgiving. Sometimes it starts the same night of Thanksgiving. Used to be, you know, pretty exciting thing People lining up outside of stores and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 6:21

I haven't participated in the longest time, so I know people still do that. But if you are out shopping today in person for Black Friday, please be safe. Hope you get everything that you were looking for. But I know that there are a lot of deals currently online, especially in the domain space that are centered around Black Friday, so even our space isn't immune to great Black Friday deals. Last night I mentioned in another space that Freedame is having their Black Friday sale, which enables you or entitles you to 50% off any SLD or TLD that's registered on their platform. Don't think there's a code involved so it should be automatically taken off, but you have a $300 minimum for that. Also, starting to get emails and things from like Pork Bun Pork Bun now has their Black Friday sellout, their NETs. You can register for $3.24, something like that, as well as a couple other extensions.

Speaker 2: 7:18

And then Dynadot actually gave me a few free domains that I was just able to claim because I have the com. So one of them was, I think, a crypto school or crypto law school or learn crypto law. But then they gave me the school for free. So I own learncryptolawcom. Yeah, they gave me the school for free and some others for free that I was just able to claim and they really came with actually no cost at all. So if you have domains in the Dynadot registry, you should probably log in and see if they're offering you the same Sure that these domains that you're going to get for free now come with renewals. So do your own research. Make sure you turn off auto renew If you don't want to pay, whatever the renewal fee is, or, you know, or just grabbing the domains because they're free for now. But, yeah, encourage anybody to check out the Black Friday deals, especially in the domain space. Might be able to get some good hand registers at you know a price that makes them again a lot more attractive to hold, at least for a year. And then also, following that, I think the official holiday for e-commerce and online goods is Cyber Monday, which will be the Monday that is coming up. So Black Friday through Cyber Monday should be plenty of deals out there. But again, happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrated yesterday.

Speaker 2: 8:43

Second piece of news is we just concluded, or went through, the VIRBS Hangout and Food Drive that we held on the 23rd, which was this past Saturday. As we mentioned in the spaces that we do for VIRBS, we moved venues from what was Hops and Hounds in downtown San Antonio, a great venue to an indoor venue which was Polka Mota, which actually happens to be a cannabis dispensary here in San Antonio. Cannabis itself isn't really legal like the way people sell or consume cannabis in California, the Delta 9 or Delta 8 or whatever it's called, but we have what's called TCA basically the exact same thing. So we have dispensaries here as well that allow you to go in and legally purchase that product, and this particular dispensary has a lounge and the lounge area is actually very accommodating. They have a couple things to accompany or that you can use within the lounge, which, if you look at the video that we pinned up at the top, you will see what those things are, which, if you look at the video that we pinned up at the top, you will see what those things are.

Speaker 2: 9:49

And yeah, it was a fun time great, never-ending time. I actually caught up with some people I hadn't seen in a while that weren't previously connected to the Web3 or crypto space, so it's working right. Also raised some canned foods that we were able to take to the San Antonio Food Bank and donate, and hopefully those things got to some families in need. Food Bank is actually a pretty impressive operation, so I know that they got plenty of food and stuff donated over this holiday season and, like I said, proud to have been able to play a small part. But yeah, the next Verbs Hangout is going to probably also be at Pocahontas and this Verbs Hangout will be more of a toy or clothing drive for the holidays. So if you are local to San Antonio, please stay tuned for that link. Or if you want to become involved or help sponsor, feel free to reach out and ask how to do so.

Speaker 2: 10:52

And then, lastly, I'll kind of briefly go over this before I get into the main topic. Freename, who is a Web3 domain registrar, just announced and released three TLDs that they will be managing and onboarding people into the space themselves with. That is the RWA, which is an acronym for real world assets. We have Banana, which was kind of a meme-ish play on the banana with the tape on it. And then we have DeFi, which is their latest release, which on their space is in about an hour. So we'll be talking about that more in depth. But yeah, for RWA and DeFi are premium TLDs in the Web3 space. I think that they'll attract a lot of registrations. And then, yeah, they may set the stage to become, you know, icann TLDs in the future. They both, I think, passed the radio test and would be great additions to that space. So looking forward to seeing how Freename continues to onboard and create plans for that. And, yeah, without further ado, going to get into the main discussion.

Speaker 2: 12:02

The topic, as you see at the top, is preparing for 2025. What are you building? I see DJ Finesse is in the space. I am going to add you up, sir. How are you doing? Before we get into it, want to say what's up? Thank you for coming up on stage, DJ Finesse. You able to hear me.

Speaker 1: 12:27

Yeah, sorry, I had my drone down because I was on the bus and I didn't want to make all that noise.

Speaker 2: 12:33

I just hopped off. What's up, man? Good morning, yeah, good morning, good morning. Glad to have you on. Yeah, just about to get into the main topic, finished up some of the opening news.

Speaker 2: 12:46

This is a different time and a different day completely for when I usually host these tech talks, and I'll kind of explain why, switching to this time here in a little bit. But, yeah, our main free name space, the Whale Talk, should begin in about an hour and 17 minutes and this space, from now on, will start taking place beforehand. So, yeah, and if you want to share anything that you're building or have going on, you know, not only now but going into 2025, feel free to raise a hand and jump in. You definitely want to hear about what you have going on. But, yeah, without further ado, I am going to hop on in.

Speaker 2: 13:22

What I want to do first is kind of recap, you know, a little bit of our journey in 2024, because that obviously sets the stage for what we intend to do or keep doing in 2025. And for anybody who's been connected to our platform, you know 2024 has actually been a pretty good year as far as the growth and development not only of the Web3 domain space but of iHeart domains in general, I felt like a lot happened to further solidify, you know, our position as a SME or subject matter expert in this space, as well as an educator. You know we've obviously doubled down, you know, with our ethos of putting education first and putting content out that helps people learn this space in a non-biased and productive way. I actually hit the ground running from the beginning of this year with several initiatives aimed at building better bridges between our platform itself, real people, and that was a big emphasis of what I wanted to connect with or who I wanted to connect with, you know, this year, as well as general builders in the Web3, you know, technology and identity space. So, yeah, I want to briefly cover some of those things, like I said, before we get into our plans for 2025.

Speaker 2: 14:40

You know, one of the biggest initiatives that we launched, like I said at the beginning of the year, that kind of set the stage for, you know, wanting to get outside of the bubble is actually our pinned tweet. We were able to register. It's a name hack, so register the name Web3 Marketing, with ing being the D&S TLD. That was a brand new D&S T D that was launched at the beginning of the year or late last year, web3 marketing was seemed like a cool little fit and we launched the initiative. You know the beginning of this year with our first celebrity marketing and networking campaign that included Web3 and digital identity.

Speaker 2: 15:26

And that was our appearance at a Grammy Awards pre-party. It was a three day pre-party that took place prior to the Grammy Awards have connections with a lot of those type of events in Hollywood. Due to previous vocation business and fashion. Due to a previous vocation, business and fashion One of the first ideas again, I think last year, when I did this you know kind of outlook and goal spaces for 2024, I really emphasized that I wanted to try to get outside of the bubble, to try to find ways to connect with, you know, influencers that aren't currently in this space, people that aren't currently in this space, and kind of doing that hard work of, like I said, bringing that nerd talk to people that really just don't understand how it can benefit them. And one of the you know, one of the most effective ways that I thought to do so and had proven to be extremely effective, which I'll also talk about towards the end of the space, is a celebrity marketing networking campaign. So our partner, free Name, accompanied us out to Hollywood or it was actually in a Beverly Hills area to a private event. Like I said, that is a pre-party for the Grammy Awards event. Like I said, that is a pre-party for the Grammy Awards. Our friend that runs this event actually runs events for basically every awards campaign. A major celebrity event has been doing it for 20 years extremely connected did a favor for me, a very appreciated favor for me, by allowing you know us to attend and try to see how receptive you know Not only people in general but the biggest celebrities in our space, and that space, which is the music space, would respond to the concept of digital identity. I think prior to now, we assumed that you know every celebrity in the world would want their eth or nft or whatever domain name it is, just simply by knowing it exists. And you know, obviously we were able to see that not only did most of them not even know what it was, but you know it was challenging even to explain to them. You know what value it would provide to them and it was definitely a fun experiment. It was an experience and an experiment at the same time and, you know, after a lot of optimization and conversations with my friend, I think we found a great fit. You know, for future events like this, we'll definitely have a pretty locked in approach that I think will provide of that service but also of our spaces Captain and AMA offerings.

Speaker 2: 18:23

You know, kind of outside of what we were choosing or who we were choosing to do, amas were basically with people we reached out to personally that were focused just primarily, strictly, on the Web3 digital identity space, really wanted to stay on topic at all point, you know, during 2023, with the type of content that we're putting out. But this year, you know, kind of went on a quest to expand that content and also expand the clientele that we represented, and we did so also through, again, the Web3 marketing campaign, which included offering our services as a spaces captain, which means that we now will host spaces for other entities in the space that don't have either the personnel or the bandwidth of the time to host their own space. Or, you know, maybe just like the way I sound, as well as AMAs, we started doing for a lot of entities that provide technology that aligns with Web3Digital identity or, you know, could benefit from or is incorporating it, but may not necessarily be directly connected. Perfect example is we did some spaces with both Decentraland as well as Sandbox and, yeah, quite a few entities actually that are just bigger ecosystems that are outside of the space but still utilize Web3 Identity. So, yeah, launched that this year and that has been a very successful endeavor. Currently, now we have four clients that we have spaces for, so that's why you probably hear my voice, not only on this space, but as well as free name spaces, gbm domain spaces and verb spaces, and you'll see plenty more coming into the year ahead.

Speaker 2: 20:07

Also, one of the other big things that we did in regards to our own space is the tech talk. Again, you know, felt like we were talking to a bubble for most of 2023, which isn't a bad thing, obviously wanted to build our reputation and connections within the Web3 space, but in order for us to grow and really truly, you know, gain the adoption that will then, you know, turn it to sales for people who are, you know, investing not only in, you know, the SLD side, but the TLD side, you got to get people into the space that don't know about it. There's billions of people out there, and so, to get out of the bubble, another thing that we did is we evolved from a spaces only format to a podcast with expanded distribution to reach outside of this bubble. So, whereas Spaces was the primary format both the recording, interaction and destination for Tech Talks. This is now really just the point or the venue that I used to record these and the distribution now is available on every major podcast player. So at the beginning of each of these spaces, in the intro, I always do mention that we are on every major podcast player Apple, spotify, all that good stuff. We are literally on every major podcast player. So this tech talk and every tech talk that's been recorded before is available. You can just go and search tech talk by our heart domains and see each one of those episodes. They actually do get pretty good distribution and listeners. We promote this not only, you know, on those platforms, but also on Facebook and also the full episodes, once they're uploaded to the podcast player, are also downloaded onto YouTube. So if you're following our YouTube channel, you'll see every single one of our TikTok episodes there as well, and you can listen to them in their entirety via the YouTube podcast player them in their entirety via the YouTube podcast player.

Speaker 2: 22:08

So this expanded distribution again has allowed us to sow seeds outside of just the general space of Web3 and crypto DGEMs that already get this. You know again, you know, the biggest way for us, or the way that our market inevitably is going to grow is when people that don't understand our space start to find a value of being in our space, when people who don't already own a Web3 domain start to see the value in owning one, and then they start to share it and then it becomes something that's again adopted and used by regular, real people. That opens up the market for every one of us. So, while we are still early and while a lot of this is still falling on deaf ears, still happy to play our part in being one of the first voices to, like I said, get outside of the bubble and kind of following up with that, you know, laid out a little bit of a roadmap for the people that were able to onboard into this space. So another thing that we launched during 2024, and it's still going pretty strong is we launched some self-guided educational tools for entry-level Web3 domainers.

Speaker 2: 23:19

So one of the biggest things I'm proud of and was kind of hyped about and sharing heavily during the beginning of the year was not only the domain name that we own, which is web3domainsai, but also the bot that we built that's attached to it. So web3domainsai is exactly what it sounds like it is an AI bot that is basically trained in all things Web3 Domains learned about. So anybody who's been kind of following the AI space knows that ChatGPT launched their custom GPT program. I think it was either late last year or beginning of this year. Again, kind of get that period. That period's all one same period for me, but during that period of time I was one of the first people to launch a custom GPT, to start learning that process of how to program them, and obviously you know, one of the first examples of that was our first love, which is Web3 Domains.

Speaker 2: 24:18

It's also aka the iHeartDomainsbot bot that we created, filled it with basically every important piece of information that I thought was relevant to the space, uploaded a lot of code, anything that's been publicly available from ENS or Handshake or Unstoppable, pretty much. I loaded this bot with a lot of great information. And then not only that, but it also pulls and screens and scrolls anything that any original content that we create and produce. So it's basically a mirror image of our tech talk. Right, if you go to web3domainsai and interact with the bot on your own time, you can literally walk yourself through pretty much the basics of Web3 Domains and deep dive into whatever subject or topic that you want to, and the AI bot is very you know, very knowledgeable and has access to a lot of different materials, self-educational tools that we launched so that people can, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, access a spot with any general questions if they can't get a hold of anyone else that's able to answer them.

Speaker 2: 25:37

Also, we partnered with a platform called Mighty Study and launched the Web3 Domains Learning Module, so that learning module is also self-guided. If you go to Mighty Study, either through our link or you can just go on their general platform, you'll see our study module. Going through, that study module earns you XP, which you can then use to claim different NFTs and things that they have in their platform as prizes. But yeah, this self-guided study course is real, familiar or real similar to what some of you may experience if you use Coinbase or Coinbase Wallet. They had some of those same educational courses that if you go through them, take a test, at the end you end up with a little bit of crypto that was related to that course. In this case, again, you'll end up with some XP, but same kind of format. It's got the information quiz. Then you know, passing the quiz gives you that XP. Then you're able to use that in the XP store.

Speaker 2: 26:42

We're going to expand on that. So we have one module up currently which is the basics of Web3 domains. I'm going to start expanding on that to again start getting into things like TLDs you know the difference between TLDs and SLDs all kinds of different ways that you can utilize utility of Web3 domains, the difference between Web3, web2, all that good stuff. So look forward to that module continuing to expand. But, yeah, very proud to have launched that this year, again in partnership with Mighty Study, you know, again as another effort or as another tool to help onboard newbies into the space. So not only have we again really started tailoring our marketing and outreach efforts to attract real people, but also again laying out the road for these real people to then learn our space with as easy as possible and as beginner friendly as possible was that we partnered with Verbs, nouns, bluntdao and OrionX1 Technologies and Freename to host our monthly Verbs Hangout. Like I said, we just had the last one this Saturday on the 23rd at Pocomota.

Speaker 2: 28:01

These meetups were an initiative that we proposed to, or that I proposed to VerbsDAO. Again, it's another initiative to bring down normal people into the space, you know people that aren't exposed to cryptocurrency often aren't on Twitter, so all of this that we're doing on here doesn't reach normal, real people in a lot of cases. But one of the things that I thought, or that I see often that has a great result in bringing people together, is IRL meetups. You know people like to go to cool places. You know drink, socialize and you know I thought, hey, why not? You know, kind of again, put our own thing in the place that you know can scale and grow and start having an impact and bringing you know people into the space. And, being a member of VerbsDAO, they actually encourage you know these type of proposals to be brought forth. So that's what I did I proposed it, they approved it and so now they are one of the entities that funds this meetup.

Speaker 2: 29:02

We also recently were awarded a grant from nouns via their flowswtf platform, so we're now funded by both nouns and verbs to host these meetups every month. We do these once a month. Last month or last week was our fourth one, so done four so far and during these meetups we onboard newbies into the space with some freebies and other tools that were provided to us by our partners, and one of those partners being Freename. So, in addition to showing people how to use Coinbase Wallet and go through those type of quests to get familiar with the space, I think Coinbase Wallet is probably the most user-friendly, beginner-friendly UIs and wallets that are out there. So if you are trying to board friends into the space, that wallet might be a very useful tool. But in addition to doing that, every attendee is also able to claim a free vrbs. So verbs Web3 domain name to kind of get them started with their first digital asset in the space. Web3 domain name to kind of get them started with their first digital asset in space. And thanks to Freename, who both gifted us the Web3 TLD as well as gifting the Web3 SLDs to each attendee. So thank you to Freename for empowering that. But yeah, basically we want people's first introduction to the space to be non-confrontational, easy to understand and with value, and so what better way to do that than again with this digital asset of Web3 Identity?

Speaker 2: 30:34

Another thing that we also incorporate into this meetup again, because these are things that attract real people and enable us to have real conversations is our Proof of Sesh, which is sponsored by BloodDAO. The past three meetups that were at Hops and Hounds. You know, we would kind of hang around for the hour or two drinking coffee, networking and socializing, and then we would find a space afterwards for those who did consume or wanted to partake in the proof of sesh and we would stand around and, you know, have a, you know, general conversation about Web3. And again, it's always usually a pretty fun and productive one. For this particular meetup, the one that we just did, because it was at this dispensary that had this lounge, it made it a lot easier to perform this proof of session. We just decided to make the entire event a proof of session and turn it into somewhat of a cannabis crypto club. So the big part of what's incorporated into this meetup again is the cannabis culture sponsored by Blood Dow, which is another downish Dow. They graciously provide us with gifts that we are able to both give to attendees, as well as some of the philanthropy things that we do with cannabis as well, which is we hand out care packages to homeless people. So shout out to Blood Down for sponsoring that. All of the development and tech behind the platform. If you go to verbeshangoutcom, that infrastructure and tech was developed by our partners at Orion OX1. Jay Psychedelic was also my co-organizer for the event, is also one of the founders of OrionX1, and has been helping out with the web development and several other things to come that we hope also will serve as a pretty solid onboarding tool for newbies in the future. This meetup is funded by Verbs and by Nouns. Very grateful to be a member of their communities and of those DAOs. If anybody listening, both now and in the future is a fan or wants to participate in anything.

Speaker 2: 32:41

Public goods. Nouns is probably the greatest example of a public goods DAO that there is out there. Everybody in this space is familiar with. Nouns is probably the greatest example of a public goods DAO that there is out there. You know everybody in this space is familiar with nouns. They have a solid reputation, large treasury. They've developed and built their IP out and you can see it at IRL and a lot of different places and it's just beginning. Verbs is built on the nouns IP but has kind of a completely different setup and structure. Technologically. Some of the things that actually originated in verbs are now coming back to nouns because our developer for verbs is also in nouns, so in a triad communities. Basically, again, if you're a nounish or verbish or want to get into public goods, you know, definitely check them out. And then also, if you want to help support or participate in, you know, any of the IRL things that we have going on.

Speaker 2: 33:33

Again, as I said at the beginning of the space, we wanted to initiate this year to kind of bring, like I said, newbies all the way through the process into Web3 and bringing them in again, you know, kind of under with their first big asset and with their understanding of how assets can work on the blockchain, by teaching them about Web3, digital identity and giving them their first one for free and giving them their first one for free.

Speaker 2: 34:09

So, yeah, one of the and it kind of seems like a long, like achievement thing. But, like I said, you know, this year really did you know we really did accomplish a lot this year and traveled a, you know, a pretty interesting road that we're now seeing is, you know, had a lot of benefit to it and plan on continuing a lot of this stuff, you know, going into 2025. One of the buzz and keywords that you know and this is another thing that I'm extremely proud of I made a post a couple of weeks back or a month back about. You know what a pioneer is. You know a pioneer and we're all pioneers, so you know pats on the back to everybody right now that's investing in this space. This space is a brand-new space and we don't know if the world is going to catch on to it, but we believe that they will and we're building as if the world is going to catch on to it.

Speaker 2: 35:01

A pioneer is somebody, like I said, that goes to that uncharted territory, that believes what nobody else believes, creates when nobody else creates, and one of those things that we're now starting to see take off or really catch, you know, a bunch of attention and adoption, is the on-chain movement. The on-chain movement. But one of the things that we started to see the value of bringing on-chain and one of the bridges that made it easier to start beginning having conversations with Web2 domainers was bringing Web2 domains on-chain. You know we have spaces constantly. You know spelling out the obvious value of that, but at first I don't know if it was that obvious and you know, at the beginning of this year is really when it started to take off, with players such as NameFi, you know, kind of getting in the space.

Speaker 2: 35:57

First 3DNS bringing box on-chain. You've got GBM who brought domains on-chain now as well. With Dynadot, you've now got Unstoppable who's bringing domains on chain? Freename brought ws on chain, but before all this, a couple of us were out here experimenting even before that, with DNSSEC, with ENS back when it wasn't off-chain or it wasn't free, back when it cost a few hundred dollars to bridge in.

Speaker 2: 36:30

But the way that we see it now, the way that we're experimenting with it now, where these are actual buyable, sellable, tradable, investable assets on the blockchain, I'm proud to say that we are one of the first to actually participate in that in all sides of it, and we use that. So one of the example that I'm speaking of is well, a couple of things Right. I will proudly declare that we are probably one of the first to both tokenized DNS domain, one of the first to sell tokenized DNS domains, and we are absolutely the first marketplace or option outside of OpenSea that was developed for on-chain DNS via the auction that we had co-created with GBM Auctions. So, prior to everything that exists now, like now, you can find on-chain DNS domains from like NameFi and GBM and stuff like that on Vision. Obviously, on OpenSea you can see them. All Other people are building their marketplaces where you can buy coms that are on chain and stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 37:33

But before then, if you bought a 3DNSbox, which was the only thing that existed at the time the only place you were able to buy one was OpenSea. Then you know, namefi came into the space allowing people to tokenize dot coms and dot XYZs, because 3DNS didn't have that capability at the time. And still the only place that you were able to see those was OpenSea. I got the idea because at the time I was already developing, or having White Label created for me, a marketplace for Web3 domains by GBM domains and thought of, token to token, how could we modify this auction marketplace to be able to sell these new tokenized Web3 domain assets. And, as everyone knows, we launched that platform on base to make it cheaper for people to interact with, actually sold four DNS tokenized DMS domains during that first initial auction, therefore becoming the first marketplace or platform outside of OpenSea to have held or hosted and sold any on-chain DNS.

Speaker 2: 38:41

So, again proud to have stamped our flag there, now loving to see how on-chain DNS and its value has definitely exploded and become a thing. People on the Web2 side of the space are certainly getting it, even though there's still a couple barriers of entry and still some comfortability issues with some of the legacy domainers using cryptocurrency. Those things will eventually fix themselves or clear themselves up as the several builders that are building in this space and taking this part seriously continue to again modify their UI and make these things more attractive to people on both sides of the space as it continues to grow, as it becomes a multi-billion, multi-trillion dollar space. Whatever it becomes in the future, we'll be proud to look back and say that we played a part in that, and one of the pioneers of at least introducing in our bio is we have now become the official VIP community liaison for the free name community and basically what that means, and I'll kind of keep this short and the rest of the space short, because we're about to run into the free name well talk spaces. That happens at eight o'clock my time, which is in 50 minutes, so I got to prepare for that, but that position basically created a direct connection. So the purpose of that position and what I aim to do is be a direct bridge between the free name team and the freeame VIP community, aka our whales.

Speaker 2: 40:39

As I said, a lot has happened during 2024, not only you know the various achievements that we laid out. But everyone in this space has been building and a lot of conversations have been being had about, again you know, building more bridges with ICANN, doing more business development, you know, just in the pure Web3 domain space that adds utilities and can onboard people. And our VIP community within Freename, you know, is probably the most equipped community, you know, to bring some of their TLDs to life and, you know, maybe even bring some of them all the way. So this position was created to help foster that business development, help create that bridge between them and the team, to get any help or additional support than any of our VIPs or whales need in order to both understand, market, promote and eventually build businesses and potentially even, you know, apply for, you know, a GTLD application. So, yeah, very happy to have been trusted with that position Already, have spoken to quite a few of our whales personally and directly. We have a bunch more things that are going to be rolling out again, like I said, in order to help continue to foster those relationships and optimize, not only with our VIPs but even anyone that's connected to our community, utilize and use to build out their domain business. So, yeah, if you guys are already familiar or connected with Freename, or if you're a VIP in the community and haven't already reached out and scheduled a call, I welcome you to do so.

Speaker 2: 42:17

Like I said, we're here to foster some business development, all right. And so, closing out, I'm going to go briefly through our plans for 2025. And, for the most part, they're going to be a mirror and an expansion of what we've already initiated in 2024, with a few brief changes that I'm going to go through right now. So, in connection with our new position as a VIP community, liaison with Freename again have a lot of tools and things that we're going to be introducing into the VIP community. One of those things is we're going to start hosting workshops. I've already done a pre-announcement of that.

Speaker 2: 42:53

I'm going to do a formal announcement soon, but workshops basically digging through every utility, not only the utilities but again, business development and other ways to generate or monetize your TLD. So those will be private workshops that are available exclusive to the VIP community. Those will be workshops that will allow the community to participate, ask questions, like a workshop is right, it themed by those workshops, so the information. So, and those workshops again will be things like you know how to build a website on your Web3 domain, how to use your free name domain to send and receive cryptocurrency, how to basically again how to use these things that already have a substantial amount of utility so that you can communicate that value to others and make your business more successful. Well, in addition again like I said, to those private workshops, will be also re-introducing those workshops publicly through our tech talks.

Speaker 2: 44:02

So our next tech talks for the next few months will again be a link to the subject matter of those workshops, so that everyone, even outside of the Freename community, can also kind of get a guide of how to utilize or build on their web through domains, because a lot of the same utilities that Freename has, a lot of the same resources that are out there to build on their domains, are actually usable in other ecosystems, and Freename's resolvers and even the tools that they've built, resolve domains from other ecosystems, and Freenames resolvers and even the tools that they've built, resolve domains from other ecosystems. So some of these include how to use the Freename DNS extension. So if you are a member of another naming community, the Freename DNS extension actually helps you or will resolve your domains on traditional. If it's installed on the computer resolve it locally within any browser that you use. So a lot of things that we're going to talk about are usable by not only the free name community but from every naming system. So I encourage you guys to stay tuned to the next you know, like I said for the foreseeable future, for the next tech talk says they will be purely educational and dedicated to these different workshops.

Speaker 2: 45:16

And then, lastly, we do have another announcement and partnership coming soon that is going to enable and result in the full development of some of the Web2 domains that we've bought and hold. That we feel will add a lot of value to our space and our platform, including DeFibuild. Have been in discussions with a few partners for how to really build that out, to add value to the space, and those things will be coming to fruition. Also others like 0xlookupcom and more, so look forward to seeing some of these concepts develop out. These concepts will include not only, you know, blockchain technology and the traditional website building, but it will also incorporate Web3, digital identity and domain names Again, you know, kind of full circle proof concept. And then, yeah, and then Web3 marketing is also in full swing.

Speaker 2: 46:10

Identity and domain names again, you know, kind of full circle. Proof of concept, um, and then, yeah, and then, uh, web3 marketing is also in full swing. Uh, we are adding, uh, more partners for our spaces. We are about to launch, um, kind of a full calendar invite of the different celebrity marketing events that will be available during this year. Um, so, and and I'll explain more about that kind of in its own space to really break down what kind of value that that adds and you know kind of approaches and things and things to expect and you know how I believe that it will expand our space and, like I said, potentially, you know, get some more influencers on board that are organically driving people into the blockchain. But, yeah, with that being said, again, in about 40, 45 minutes or so, we're going to be doing whale talk with free names. So about to get prepared for that.

Speaker 2: 47:03

A lot of things again that I'm very grateful for that we were able to accomplish in 2024. Definitely, look forward to what we are going to continue to build and start building a new in 2025. We are at the very beginning of this still, you know, even though you know Web3 domains and this technology and these ecosystems are a few years in. We're just now starting to make that traction and this development is, you know, beginning to be very substantial. Like I said, I look forward to the workshops because a lot of the utility that Freename has built really it works, first and foremost If you type in winairdrop and, aloha, if you have it there, it'll actually take you to iHeart domains. But it's at the beginning of, again, what we once thought was impossible and if this is how it can already work in you know this early of a stage, I can only imagine. You know the type of power utility they'll have as everyone continues to develop and more of these to keep being here, bringing education, creating, you know, those narratives and building those bridges while our space continues to develop and encourage everyone else to do the same.

Speaker 2: 48:18

Again, focus on your mission and not your condition. I want to wish everybody again a happy Friday, happy Black Friday. If you're out there shopping and if you want to pick up some brand new digital assets. And if you want to pick up some brand new digital assets again, there's a lot of platforms out there right now, from Black Friday specials on domains, including Freename. If you aren't already a part of the ecosystem, now might be a good time to go shopping. But yeah, look forward to talking to you guys next Friday. Our next tech talk will be one of the Web3 domain workshops, so go get our learn on. See you guys next Friday. Happy domaining. Thank you for attending this Tech Talk.