Decoding Web3 Domains: Freename's Innovations and the Battle of the .onchain Blockchain TLDs

The podcast dives into the complexities of Web3 domains, highlighting the growing influence of high-profile figures and the necessity for new frameworks of digital identity. Listeners will gain insight into the ongoing discussions about various TLDs, the importance of partnerships, and practical advice on protecting their digital investments.

• Discussion on the latest news in the Web3 domain space
• Exploration of Trump's impact on blockchain domains
• Partnership between Freename and Etherlink explained
• Key differences between Web2 and Web3 domains clarified
• The importance of legal protection for digital assets discussed
• Emphasis on collaboration and growth within the blockchain ecosystem

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Chapters

• 1:48 Tech Talk
• 12:34 OnchainTLD vs Unstoppable Domains
• 25:57 Decoding the Freename Ecosystem
• 36:29 Navigating TLD Ownership and Investment

Transcript

Speaker 2: 1:48

Thank you, hello, hello everybody. Gonna get started here in just a second, just pinning a couple things to the top of the space. Yeah, first of all, super thankful for you guys for being here as you come into the space. If you could do me an awesome big favor like and retweet Got a few more people who want to join the convo. Also, if you want to come up on stage and join the conversation, you're always welcome to do so by requesting a speaker role or you can just ask your question in the comment section. But, yeah, get started in probably just about 10 or 15 more seconds, so sorry for the awkward silence. All righty, awesome sauce. Yeah, this one should be a pretty good one to listen back to and hopefully you know I could do a pretty good job of delivering the point that I wanted to make today with this basis. But, yeah, I do want to welcome you to our Tech Talk podcast. If you haven't been here before.

Speaker 2: 2:58

This is a live discussion that I do here weekly on X, live discussion that I do here weekly on X, where I highlight news, innovation, education, alpha and business development, primarily in the Web3 technology and digital identity space. For those of you who do not know who's behind the platform. I am Marcus aka WIT Airdrop, founder of iHeart Domains and proud to be your number one resource for unbiased Web3 and blockchain domain educational content. For the past two and a half years or so, with over 100 of these tech talk episodes and YouTube videos of each produced and archived, you can actually see that entire archive. If you'd like to see our past episodes directly on our website Really easy to get to iHeartDomainscom You'll not only see a recording of these, but you'll also see a blog overview as well. So kind of easy to take it in, just depending on how much time you have. Also, if you do like to listen to content like this in podcast format, this is where this gets broadcast to, so this is on every major podcast player out there, including Apple, spotify, iheartradio, all that good stuff and you can see all of our previous episodes that are available on podcast at techtalkhost and, yeah, I might even forward techtalkpodcast over there, which is interesting, considering the conversation. But yeah, again, if anybody does want to join the conversation, please feel free to ask any question that you have or speak a role. It's always been an open space where we discuss and share alpha as typical.

Speaker 2: 4:35

I do like to open with some of the news that has been going on for the past week or so For those of you who don't keep your ear to the industry and maybe just tap it in spaces to get your news, starting from what I think is kind of like some of the most bullish and biggest news, like I'm extremely bullish on it and have kind of been shot from the rooftops. But you know well, first and foremost, you know we here in the United States of America we got a new president right. So Donald Trump has succeeded in becoming president again and he has, well, you know, he's kind of establishing himself as a very crypto friendly president. So you know he's had his hands in a few ventures, you know, one of them being the meme coin that he just launched, the other being World Liberty Financial and the meme coin that you just launched, the other being World Liberty Financial. And so, with that being said and making those connections, I consider anything done by World Liberty Financial to basically have a stamp of approval from at least the Trump family, right? So if World Liberty Financial does something, trump did it and, with that being said, one of the things that they recently did kind of coinciding with the launch of their meme coins is they acquired some Web3 domain names. In particular, they acquired, I believe, four eth names, so four ENS names, mostly related to, like, eric and Barron Trump and World Liberty Financial and such. And then they also apparently paid $47,000 for Melania Trump dot soul. And so why is this extremely bullish news? Well, again, being, you know, looking at the space kind of from from the outside right, from wanting the space itself to grow, from realizing that, you know, you make the bubble bigger, then the opportunity for everyone in the bubble becomes bigger.

Speaker 2: 6:28

President, basically just co-signed Web3 domains, right, you know, in addition to the million discussions that we've had out here to distract us from the value of what these things are, you know, one of those discussions that's come up is what's the point of them in the first place? Who's ever going to adopt them? Who would choose this over a dot com? Right, dot com can do everything. A dot ease can, right, and although there is truth to those conversations, right, there's also truth in there being, again, like certain I guess you would say, legacy assets, or there's a value, first and foremost, to having a blockchain native asset, like even bridging a dot com into Web3, you still have a Web2 route that can still be taken from you, right? So some people are always going to going to be able to make the connection. It's not really my identity, unless the route is detached from some source that can take it from me.

Speaker 2: 7:20

So there's always going to be value in straight up Web3 domain names and I think that that, to an extent even though that may have not been the exact reason why they grabbed these names still the thing that we can, still the narrative we can run with, right, they bought these names for a reason, which means there is a reason. Right, and that's the thing that I'm doubling down on and I'm super proud of is that, you know, the president of the United States saw some value in these domain names. They saw a reason they acquired them. They saw 47,000 reasons for Melania Trump, so that I mean that that's a solid one that I think anybody should be proud to go in town If you're an investor in the Web2 domain space. But this is just the beginning, right? If they saw value in them, everyone you know, kind of in a chain reaction, should start seeing the value in them. Will they come run and mint your name? I don't know, but it should at the very least start getting people to start seeing the value, at least in names. And again they immediately set the records on their names so they put them to use, so they showed you know kind of the potential use case for the acquired use case and if everyone just comes into the space to follow suit, again like it's going to be a very prosperous space and there's room for everyone to grow and succeed. So there we go World Liberty Financial grab some debate names Moving on.

Speaker 2: 8:39

Yesterday I hosted an AMA on the free name page with their newest partner, which was Etherlink. So if you didn't get a chance to tap into that, and just a little quick overview of Etherlink Etherlink is an Ethereum L2. So they're an EVML2 that is built on top of the Tezos blockchain. Haven't really had much dealings with Tezos, so not familiar with kind of how it's set up. He described it a bit in that AMA, so I encourage you to listen back to that, but I would assume that it doesn't currently have EVM or smart contract capability. It might be kind of more of, I guess, maybe a proof of is it proof of stake chain or proof of work chain like Bitcoin or something like that.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Again, if you know more about Tezos, you know what its limitations are and its need for an L2. Well, etherlink is an L2. Awesome sauce. So they're building technology on top of the Tezos blockchain. They're inviting builders to build over there and kind of make it useful. Same reason why Ethereum needs an L2 for faster transactions, cheaper transactions, all that good stuff. They bring that same type of value Over to Tezos and he explained that there actually are some incentives for anyone who does want to build on that blockchain. So definitely be sure to reach out to them for information on that.

Speaker 2: 9:59

But kind of, what makes that the point? We, freename, have created a partnership with EtherLink and we have partnered with them on the EtherLink TLD. So now, whether you're within their community or outside of their community, you're able to make a EtherLink domain name. They all come with Freename's native utility and then, as I asked yesterday during the AMA and the spaces, they will potentially come with additional utility directly from Etherlink.

Speaker 2: 10:30

I asked primarily about their tech stack, if their tech, you know, will be built around you know the Etherlink domain names, and that's to be seen. But one of the things that they did mention that is likely to happen is, again, one of the simplest use cases possible for digital identity and creating a community with your own TLD is that they're going to use the domain extension as an airdrop magnet. So and this is cool too, so that I've actually been involved in an ecosystem that's similar to this space ID, which, like nobody talks about, system that's similar to this uh space id, which, like nobody talks about but, again, is a beast with their tech in the space and they're really like they're killing it without being in anybody's conversation. Uh, they, actually they, they created a partnership with um, uh, with the blockchain I can't even think of their name, uh, and I'll think of it probably at some point during this saying this, but same kind of relationship, right, uh, that that blockchain, take the with their TLD. They promised anybody who bent to that TLD that anybody who launched through their launchpad, you know, on their blockchain, basically, would like basically give them an allocation of an airdrop that they would then airdrop the holders of, not only people who held the domains, but there were, like some other different things that you could have done in their ecosystem to qualify you for it, but all you had to do was hold one of the domains in order to get, basically, airdrops for every project that's ever launched on this blockchain. I haven't even checked in for a bit, but there were some blocks. I mean, they came right. I got a few of them. They'd make me rich, but it justified me getting the names. So this may and again, not financial advice again tap into the community for more information. But he alluded that this would work the same. So, again, like they have some incentives for people to go and begin building on this blockchain those that do if they receive, you know, incentivization from those projects, then they will airdrop them or encourage those projects to airdrop to Etherlink holders. So, yeah, just another reason for you to go take a look at it if you haven't already grabbed a few.

Speaker 2: 12:34

Last reason, and I'll get off the Etherlink shill they issued a $10 promo coupon for Eylink names with this partnership. Now I have to point out that the coupon works a little different than the discounts that I think you typically see. Coupons is actually kind of like what FreeName originally launched when we first launched, and a lot of people took advantage of this, and I'll tell you why. So, with the traditional discounts that you usually see, like the 50% off, 40% off, whatever it is. Whatever that percentage is, there has to be a positive balance on the cart, and even sometimes, you know the cart has to have a minimum amount in it in order to get the discount. So there's always I mean even still killer deal. You can get domains for as cheap as $2 that are forever with no renewal, but even still, you've got to have money, you've got to have an ability to at least check out a dollar or two, and some people in some areas don't have that right. With these coupons, though, if you can get your cart price to less than $10, the coupons will wipe them out and you don't have to connect the wallet or anything to check out. So it literally works is an opportunity for you to go get some free domain names on the ethelink extension by using that $10 coupon. So, yeah, not a financial device. If you hate free stuff, just ignore what I said. But if you like all that cool stuff that I just said, yeah, for a limited time, that partnership's out there and that coupon's there.

Speaker 2: 14:06

And then, lastly, speaking of TLDs, we own the dgen, exchain .88888, that's five eights and defi wallet TLD amongst many others in the free name ecosystem. Those TLDs are currently open and available right now for Mint and they are accepting the free name wide coupon. So those discounts I was talking about earlier you can use on our TLDs. And yeah, with that being said, let's get into it. Yeah, the fun part, let's get into the main combo. So, as you can see at the top of the space title of this Web3 Domain Workshop and I'll explain a little bit about what that is. But the title of this particular workshop is which OnchainTLDIsReal? Fn standing for free name or UD standing for unstoppable domains. And again, to introduce the Web3 Domain Workshop, this tech talk, the previous, like four or five, and those in the near future are part of what is our Web3 Domain Workshop

Speaker 2: 15:04

series. This is in partnership with Freename, as I've explained in previous workshops. Purpose of this workshop is two part. We have a well. So, just like every other naming community, we do have a VIP community within Freename. Again, join the Freename community for more information about how to become a VIP. But we do provide additional tools and services and you know things for success within that community and that's kind of what my job is. So, as you see in the bio, I am a VIP relations, vip liaison and one of the things that we have began implementing into the group or into the community is this workshop series. So every Thursday morning we do this same topic that you see now within the free name VIP community via Google Meet, where VIPs are able to show up. They're able to interact, ask questions. We share the screen, we go through this in as physical format as I guess you can and then follow these up every Friday here in a public space. And the reason why we do them both private and public is, again, purpose of the workshop with our VIP community is to help guide our community and answer questions for them to be more successful with the marketing and promotion things with their TLD and partnerships and building and

Speaker 2: 16:16

such. But externally, most of what we talk about does have an external benefit to the Web3 domain space in general. As I'm going to mention a little bit later, a lot of the tools that Freename has built and developed are actually, you know, multi-naming service compatible. So they're meant to be cooperative and the benefits that and the utility that Freename has created can be used by all. So no matter whether you're from ENS, unstoppable Handshake, whatever community you're coming from might learn something that works out for you and, like I said, it's a great general education for both new and experienced investors. So again, every Friday we'll be doing this workshop and we'll be diving into a new subject, topic or anything of interest that helps clarify certain topics or certain discussions in the Web3

Speaker 2: 17:02

space. Also and sorry to keep teasing you, but another thing that I feel like is just extremely necessary to do before we dive into this is, again, we may have people that are tapping into the space, both either now or via or during the podcast, who may be hearing about what this stuff is for the first time, and so I always like to begin by defining the difference between what a Web 2 and Web 3 domain is, so that we are all on the same page. You know, the word domain can be confusing, and it is a term that everyone is familiar with, but they associate with one thing Most of the planet, when they hear the word domain name, is going to think about a com, xyz, io, etc. That exists in the DNS or ICANN space. They are going to expect to type that thing into their web browser and then they're going to expect that thing to take them to the content that exists on the other end. That is how Web2 domains work. They have been around for 30 years or so and they are currently a multibillion-dollar

Speaker 2: 18:02

industry. Web3 domains work in a blockchain environment. This is a new, innovative technology. It works very similar and, of course, their structure looks exactly the same. But this is not something that most people are going to be familiar with when you bring it up in just a random conversation. But for anyone who is familiar with blockchain addresses, blockchain addresses are long and complicated, kind of the same format as IP addresses. So humanizing them and creating a route for people to get to them by typing in that human name is what Web3 domains

Speaker 2: 18:35

do. Like I said, similar to how Web2 domains work, just in two completely different ecosystems and environments. Web3 domains is not a multi-billion dollar ecosystem Well, it actually kind of is right, we do have somebody worth a billion but we expect this to be, you know, kind of an evolution of what we call digital identity. So difference in the two. Now let's get into it which is the real on-chain and okay. So as our space grows, like I said, both Web3 in general and a digital identity entities in this space are, it's just natural they're going to continue to expand their quest for opportunity as that opportunity becomes available in the

Speaker 2: 19:16

space. And there are bound to be scenarios where toes are kind of quote unquote, stepped on right. The recent launch of the TLD at hand, which is onchain, and there's like a million more. We'll talk about that. But the recent launch of the onchain TLD, this one in particular, is in partnership, I believe, with Onchain Foundation and Unstoppable Domains. It happens to be one of the scenarios, right, and it's the obvious inspiration behind this conversation. So when this got launched, this just happened, like last week, last week, but during this launch, you know, I saw a couple conversations about it, as I usually do, and it looks like it got recently discovered by a few in like the UD community, from people I respect as well, and I saw that they were discussing, like on Twitter, the TLD, like this TLD in particular, and I think a couple of them brought up a few others. But I feel like they recently discovered that these TLDs have either been available or already acquired by other investors and other naming protocols, particularly in this case, freename right, which is why we're having this conversation Again, as I had to explain on those tweets that Fedame has operated under this technical and business model since its exception over two and a half years ago, so this isn't a new thing,

Speaker 2: 20:37

right? So, like with this conversation, came a bunch of questions on both sides of the fence, and I did the best I could to to answer those questions in Twitter format. And then, of course, you know, we talked about these in the web three domain workshop yesterday. But but how did this happen, right, you know? Can this happen? You know, does one of them have to go? Who's regulating this? And then, of course, which one is real or fake, just as I did yesterday, all of these questions can really actually be answered with a simple understanding of how blockchain technology and how naming on the blockchain both currently does and will work, and even how each of these names naming systems are are are going to be used, right? Because, I mean, I think I've given and we'll get into that, right, I've given an example of, you know, some of those partnerships of pigeonhole, these TLDs, and they're really only being able to be utilized by one community, and so we'll get into that part. But another thing, too, like this again not a new conversation, as we've already seen in our space with how wallet played out both publicly and legally the short answer to this question and I'm going to dig into it is they're both real, right Depending. So one of the things I did want to do, though, in response to that conversation because you know, again, I try to do the best I can to do this via Twitter, but I do want to begin by clarifying a few big misunderstandings so we can dispel some of the misinformation that's out there, and this kind of helps set the playing field for which one is

Speaker 2: 22:15

real. So, as I mentioned again earlier, the business model that currently exists at Freename has been their business model and has been the exact same since its inception. And I'm actually a day one Freenamer, right, I showed up day one, that's when I mentioned dgen.8888. I showed up day one, that's when I mentioned dgen.8888. And they've operated this exact same way. Before UD pivoted its business model to handing out TLDs, it last week's Web3 domain workshop was actually on the process to apply for ICANN. You know how likely this is to happen, so that promise is a pretty thin one. But my point is is that way before this current business model that exists that we see and we're claiming is like the victor way before this existed? Freedame has been doing this Victor, way before this existed, freedame has been doing this. They've been connecting with individual investors. Tlds, or what we call Web3 TLDs that are created on its tech stack have been offered for investment and they've been operating as such. They've never pivoted, they've never shifted, they've only evolved

Speaker 2: 23:25

right. And that's what struck a nerve to me, because one of the things that came up in the conversation and I can't remember who it was that said it or who came to the conclusion. It doesn't matter, because I wasn't trying to argue, I was just trying to clarify. But what struck a nerve was during this conversation as to which TLD was real. We are called clones and I'm like my question was of who right, question was of who right, and some good questions were asked and again creates this need for clarification because, like the of who, like maybe Handshake has that claim, or maybe D-Web or DecentralWeb if you guys aren't familiar with them, maybe they have that claim. And again, like FreeName has never made it a secret that their purpose was to make those protocols you know, or create a protocol that would be more useful and more commercially friendly than those protocol, more investable, which in my opinion, I think it has. But I'm like, certainly you don't mean we're clones of Unstoppable. So I want to clear some stuff up before we kind of get to the other

Speaker 2: 24:29

stuff. One of the first things I guess that was supporting that argument was this ICANN accreditation thing right To be. I'm going to say this for the hundredth time for anyone who is listening from wherever you're listening from, I don't care if you own a box or whatever you own on unstoppable free name. Before any of you got yours in, freename got its ICANN accreditation first. Number one Can't change that. This was set. They did this first and I explained this as well. Freename has a whole ass partnership with a company called ShortDot, which ShortDot owns several actual ICANN TLDs. They're a real owner of TLDs, including IOU. They own Bond, they own WS, they own many others, right, ShortDot and FreeName have an actual joint venture. This is a legal partnership called WebUnited. This is a legal partnership called WebUnited. Under this partnership they have developed several pieces of technology that they are integrating into the Web2 space, in addition to tokenizing Web2 domains into Web3, which to that extension. Currently, right now, that's the tech stack that they did this for and that they're going to continue to build on that tech

Speaker 2: 25:57

stack. But they did this first, and the reason why I'm mentioning this is because when this was mentioned in that particular conversation, the misunderstanding was that free names accreditation came after UDs, therefore we were copying them. I'm like no, no, no, no, no, free name has a completely different. So and again, as I explained in the workshop yesterday, existing in the same space, having something that's called the same thing, but having two completely different agendas or markets that you're operating in, it's completely possible. And free names, again, they were first, so they can't be copying you if they were first. And the question I asked there, which was really just to be asked but there is another entity that got their accreditation before UD as well. So if anybody copied, anybody, dig down that rabbit hole, right. But the accreditation for free name was originally in support of this joint venture and again, it's continuing along a business plan that existed far before anybody else started talking about it or making it mainstream in the space. So wanted to clarify that

Speaker 2: 27:03

one. A Number two and, if any, I'm going to say some things that some people might take the wrong way. I'm going to say some things that some people might take the wrong way. This is just me keeping it a buck. For those of you who have known me, you've known I've been in this space for years and you know I've been in this space as a member or participant in virtually every platform. I see the good in everybody. I try to unite people again with the general vision of the space growing as a whole. The whole bubble growing makes us all prosperous, right, but I do also got to keep it 100 with. You know where some things fall short, okay. So, with that being said, it was

Speaker 2: 27:45

also. I think people confuse Freename's tech stack and their opportunity with the other ones that are out there, right? So one of the misunderstandings was that when you purchase a TNAT TLD from free name, you have this non-working, blank asset that just sits there that you now got to go be a developer and go figure out how to do something with it. That's the furthest thing from the truth. So and that question sometimes is also merged in with the but you don't have that much utility, okay. So I'm going to address both of those. And Freename does have a bunch of utility, kind of. The purpose of these Web3 domain workshops is to explain it all to you. And we're at like number six now is going to continue to grow. There is a really, really big team behind Freename who is pushing every single day in their own departments to make this the behemoth that it is going to continue to

Speaker 2: 28:38

be. With that being said, don't ever sleep on something just because it doesn't have an integration yet. But going back to the integrations that it's already had and the things that it does for its investors, there are several again, several integrations that already currently work from day one, such as the Freedom Extension, their DNS. We also have integrations with MailChain, ethermail, all kinds of people that do Web3 messaging, huddle for doing Web3 video conferences, many, many more. But all of those utilities are available to you to empower your SLDs from day one. Another thing which we talked about in one of the prior Web3 domain spaces is that Freename investors are treated like partners from day one. The entire opportunity at Freename is turnkey. Most of the utility that they have and some of the additional utilities that they've created to monetize your domains from day one are no

Speaker 2: 29:39

code. So some of the things that Freename does a little bit different to the other again, ecosystems that we purposely and have made very clear that we are in this space to help create an alternative product to which would be Handshaker D-Web. Much love to those communities, but that's the experience over there. To build over there, you got to know how to build. The experience is different on Freename and I've made this pretty clear. Some of the no-code tools when you purchase a TLD that are available for you from day one is the ability to not only control pricing but to create promo codes. You're also able to create what is called a reseller page. This is a one-click page that you're able to put out there that people can gives them results on your TLD. It gives suggestions for other names on your TLD. It actually uses AI to kind of populate different suggestions. It's like a sales tool in one right. It's a whole registration page that's available on day one. Second one no code, one click,

Speaker 2: 30:45

okay. So definitely want to dispel the myth that when you join Freename you're on your own. In addition to that, my very existence in this space is one of the utilities that exist to Freename partners and investors. We have two different groups. We have both our general group. If you own one domain name off of that, you got for free using your $10 code for ethelink, which again is available Not shilling, just saying it's there. But if you did that right now, if you, as a new person, went and got your free domain using that $10 code, you could join that community and you'd get the same love as somebody that's got $10,000.

Speaker 2: 31:21

So there's that community that you're able to join, to ask questions at any point, to get help, to get suggestions for anything that you want. I mean it's a completely open and active community and I even believe today. Yeah, paige, if any of you guys aren't familiar with Veteran Domainer Paige Howe, he is also a big member and an advisor to FreeName has been since the start. One of the services that he provides every Friday inside of that group is he actually does appraisals. So you get appraisals from a dude who's been doing domaining for like 30-something years who, on record, has sold two separate domain names for more than a million dollars each. You get that for free for going to get in a $10 domain name. So that part exists right. But if you've really put substantial investment into the free name ecosystem and you become one of those VIPs, then you get to the VIP group, which is where you get to meet me, right. You get these workshops. You get also an additional discount that's available to VIPs all the time. We have product calls that are with VIPs. You have the. We just opened up what we started doing called Office Hours, which gives you a one-on-one with me and any member of the team that aligns with an issue that you have. There are again, there's support for our free name investors and community from the second you join it. You are definitely not alone. This is a funded team of more than one person. So just wanted to put that out there and clarify that misunderstanding.

Speaker 2: 32:49

And then, lastly, so going back to the again. So going back to the again as opportunities are created in the space, I'm not going to negate that the existence of some companies or the creation of some companies are going to purposely step on the toes of others. If there is any entity and again, not to stir up anything with these communities, I've got much love for them. If you know me, you know where I'm coming from. But if there's any entities that should like have an issue with anything right now as far as the existence of free name, again it would be handshake and dissent, as we've said before, and it was we got accused that we are here. So I think some people who just aren't paying attention to history are thinking that, like we're creating these tlds, like after unstoppable announces, like a partnership, and it's like, nah, brother, they've always been there. And not only have they always been there, but at free name's inception, as I've mentioned before, there weren't that many people here and free name really wanted to have a cohesive cooperative space. I know some other entities like have pretended that they do, but FreeName really did right.

Speaker 2: 34:02

So almost all of FreeName's resolution products, the ones that I've demonstrated thus far in these workshops, they all resolve unstoppable ENS domains. Both their Web3 DNS does their extension with both the payments, everything that Freename has built that resolves Web3 domains, has blanked out in our own ecosystem Anything that was, you know, a property of ENS or Unstoppable. They blocked out, of course, all the ICANN TLDs and they blocked out a bunch of big keywords and brand names, like they did the same honorable thing that anybody would think that somebody was really trying to build in the space did. We didn't know that you guys were going to make up like 50 more. And again now it's creating this conversation. But I want to make it clear that just because something's happening now doesn't mean that it was malicious to begin with. Freename was never created to compete with Unstoppable or ENS. It just happens to look that way now, but maybe not right.

Speaker 2: 35:02

And now we'll, with that being said, getting through those clarifications. I'm going to kind of get into the meat of this and explain why it's again for lack of a better term why it's kind of a nothing burger. Right, and again, if anybody wants to join this convo, feel free to come up and request a speaker role or ask your question in the comments, but definitely good for everybody who is here. So far live and pulled up to the conversation. But, yeah, let's get to onchain specifically, or actually whatever TLD.

Speaker 2: 35:33

So here's a couple big points that I kind of really want to land, and this is some things that I demonstrated yesterday. First big point, and an obvious one Blockchain is unregulated. Ok, we are in the wild, wild west. We are in a space where technology rules, not the law. Ok, and even if and when I can approve some of these things as Web2 domain names, that still ain't going to give any of them any authority over this space. I really need you to understand this. As I defined earlier, Web2 and Web3 are two completely different things, even though they have the same name. Peanut butter sandwich and a bologna sandwich are two different things, even though they're both a sandwich, and they have two different markets. That's completely different, though, but you get my point.

Speaker 2: 36:29

My point is that, if both of these exist, right, if the ICANN version of NET. Well, look at right now. You're looking at an example of it right now. Dot-ef is an actual, real-life TLD that does not belong to ENS. Dot-ef is a TLD that sits in the ICANN ecosystem that is dormant, that was originally assigned to the country of Ethiopia and ENS does not own that TLD yet completely made an entire immutable ecosystem that can't be shut down. That is mirrored to it. You get my point. Both can exist, both do exist, and if one day Ethiopia decides to start issuing names on eth ain't shit they can do about the millions that already exist on ENS. It's just a fact.

Speaker 2: 37:18

Nobody owns the blockchain and if the government has no authority over TLDs or the ability to shut down TLDs, certainly UD and its partnerships don't okay. So when you see one and this is me talking directly to my free name investors when you see a new one getting popped out there, just acknowledge it and move on, because it's not the end-all be-all Again. No one's stamping this. There's no government official that flies down to UD's office and says, yeah, that one's you If you assign this. No one else can get it Again. We see how this already played out with wallet and no shade to UD.

Speaker 2: 37:57

I even said in the workshop yesterday I've been around like I come from the UD community. I was investing in UD before I came into any of these other naming services. I still hold them, I still meant some, I still got. I got techtalkpodcast. The other day I met UD and I met Matt and Sandy in person, respect them both highly professionally and just keep it at above.

Speaker 2: 38:18

Right, I'm just trying to keep people kind of with a level head so that this doesn't turn into like vicious competition but just turns into to go build, right, and look at the space, the bigger picture of the space, which is the more people we can start adopting to the narrative of them needing a name of any source from anyone, the bigger our bubble gets, which creates more opportunity for all of us, right. And with that being said, every name doesn't have to be universally appealing or even used, right. So again, going back to this like owning the whole internet thing, right, somebody might come up with and this is going to be controversial but nft, right now, the nft that exists on UD, I guess we've accepted it as being kind of like the universal standard nft, but somebody can create a better nft that works for their community and has utility for their community specifically, and that would work just fine. It wouldn't at all conflict with the one that exists, because the two worlds don't match right, or the two worlds don't meet. Every single name that's out there isn't going to be the name for all right, just because it sounds like a word everyone's going to like. Not everyone's going to like its tech stack. Not everyone's going to like its integrations. I mean, some people are going to absolutely be forced into only using an ENS or a eth because of its current integrations. That's just the way. It is. Kudos for them, locking that down. Some of the things that Freename is doing, though, as well. They're going to create certain tools and certain partnerships where you're going to be forced into that ecosystem if you want to use it, and that's not a bad thing. That just means that there's different opportunities for people to build.

Speaker 2: 40:02

Again, you know some of the partnerships that right now are laying solid claim to these TLDs. They're not. It's not real right and like, and again not to bash on anything, but again another example, just to lay this down on you. It's like look at Austin or Secret. You cannot possibly tell me that those two TLDs are owned forevermore and can never be encroached on by any entity on the planet besides the Austin Asian American Chamber of Commerce. Or Secret protocol Like no one uses these Like who uses Anime commerce. Or dot secret protocol Like no one uses these like who uses dot anime, like.

Speaker 2: 40:42

Again, these TLDs and these partnerships should have been made right. So, again, let me. Let me clarify that. But in addition to these partnerships, you've got to understand that if the value doesn't exist outside of these partnerships, you can't lay claim to the whole world blockchain-wide, like come on, bro.

Speaker 2: 41:00

And so that's what I'm trying to clarify is that when you see these partnerships being made, especially if you're an investor of this technology in any other namespace and you're starting to think that the names you have are worthless, take that into consideration. Build your own partnerships that give value to your names, and they'll never coincide with each other. Both of these ecosystems can and they will exist. This is how I believe this place is going to plan out, and that's why I said earlier understanding the tech and how these things even work answers this question for you. There are different blockchains out there. How can one TLD that's sitting on one blockchain benefit someone who's building on a completely different tech stack and another blockchain. If they like the name and they can build a community around the name, then they can both coexist. The only thing similar in those names is the word. That's it, nothing else.

Speaker 2: 41:53

So, and then lastly, is if you're really that concerned about it, like if you're just like nah, marcus, ain't talking about nothing and again I always say the words like not financial advice, also not legal advice, anything that I'm saying right now, if I'm saying something that you're like yo, that's stupid, I know the law like one of them does have to go. Ignore me, ok, do you? I'm just putting this out. There is what I think is my opinion of how we can best navigate and understand the space as it is currently. But again going to my last thing, if you're really that concerned about it, legally protect your investments. So the difference in opportunity is another thing that needs to be clarified. So the difference in opportunity is another thing that needs to be clarified and I've spelled it out a million times. But again, when I go into ecosystems that we really compare with, I don't understand how, like UD or ENS, keeps coming're buying a ether or a UD name.

Speaker 2: 42:58

There's nothing wrong with that. People make millions and millions of dollars buying and flipping assets, getting their first early. You know the process right. But the opportunity to exist in a free name is completely different. When you're buying an asset that is basically an asset that you're collecting and holding and flipping, the business of doing that collectively is a business, but the asset itself isn't an individual business. What you're acquiring from Freename is an asset that then can produce assets and that, again, with a one-click reseller page, enables you to allow people to mint their name on your name. It is a business in a box and you should treat it as such. And if you are so concerned with some the existence of your name popping up somewhere else and potentially pushing you out of the market, you can legally protect it the same way you can protect any other business. All right.

Speaker 2: 43:50

Questions comes up in our group often like how do we do that? Well, there's a couple of different ways, both like formally and informally. I'll talk about the informal way first, since that's probably the easiest thing any of you guys can do. On the TLD side, if you own a TLD with free name or anywhere again, no matter if you're on Handshake, decentralweb, if you're sitting on an asset, you got a solid idea. You think your TLD is going to change the world and you want to make sure nobody's going to F with it. Tell somebody else, like that's the first thing you can do, right? Tell anybody else. There's so many owners out there of these TLDs that don't tweet. You don't tweet, you don't market, you don't promote, you don't tell anybody that you own the TLD. You've built nothing around it, there's no landing page for it, there's no declaration that I've created a business and I have an intent to create a community with this TLD. So here in the United States and I'm going to get to the formal part but here in the United States at least it is a very difficult and almost impossible process to do what's called a trademark on a Web3 TB. I know because I've tried it right.

Speaker 2: 44:58

But, as I explained yesterday in the workshop, one of the things the reason why I tried it and I knew that it was going to fail kind of in advance, but one of the reasons why I tried it anyway was to create a paper trail was to set basically a flag of saying I tried to do this first, and that's what I mean Things like promoting it on your social media, creating landing pages for it, getting people to mint it, creating a real business declaring your flag, like what UD does every single time. They launch a TLD when they make these announcements, when they tag their partner, when their partner retweets and tags it too, when there's a landing page where you can go mint it, that's what they're doing. It's kind of similar to the gold rush claims here in the 1800s in the US, where you showed up and you planted your flag. That's what you got to do. You got to tell people you got it Right. That I was making is that certain actions that you can do, although you cannot get. What's a registered trademark. Certain of these actions will imply what is called an unregistered trademark, which is still legally defendable in court. So doing these things can help you. Now, if you do, if you're like, hey, nah, I got to have it on paper, I don't want no paper trail simply tweeting it, blah, blah, blah, that ain't going to work. Again, going back to the opportunity at hand and the difference in opportunity and those tools that you know some people say that don't exist at Freename Another part of the utility that is offered to anyone at Freename is, if you purchase a TLD, freename has well has the ability to access an agent on your behalf and file for a trademark application in Switzerland, which is where they are based.

Speaker 2: 46:42

They will do that for anybody who owns a TLD in the Freename ecosystem and their applications, unlike the US, do get passed. So you will get a trademark in Switzerland for your Freename TLD if you use their process. Well, I don't live in Switzerland. Why would I do that? Well, having a trademark in any country actually sets a precedent for you to be able to apply for it worldwide with WIPO. So all of these things lead to a thing again, if you're extremely concerned about legally protecting your investments, depending on your partner and again, you can't be a partner if you're the end user and buying as a collector and just sitting on something A partner, an entity that has a whole team that again, business model from day one, from the day it started, the day it launched, was to operate like this, right here.

Speaker 2: 47:31

When you've got the right partner, they'll help you with anything that you're concerned with and again, they can walk you through not only the trademark application and get it done for you in Switzerland, but also, and as we mentioned and went through on the last Web3Demain workshop, for those of you who are just completely turned on by the ICANN TLD application thing, they will also assist you in that application as well. Application as well. And remember, you're being assisted by an ICANN accredited registrar as well that is partnered with an entity that already owns like five ICANN TLDs. So, yeah, with that being said, hopefully that kind of answered the question, at least from my perspective. You know which of these TLDs is real and can they coexist? And again, that answer is yes, just just. It's really a solid yes, but right, it's a yes depending right.

Speaker 2: 48:24

Is there an opportunity in multiple TLDs in these namespaces existing, I guess would be the better question. And that one is depending right, depending on how you build it, depending on these partnerships. You know, again, you know, looking back on some of these partnerships and some of these TLDs like, well, even like onchain, right, I mean, I don't know who onchain foundation is, I don't know how big their reach is. I looked at their website. It's hella impressive. It looks solid. But 2,000 SLDs registered on TLD, bro, that yeah, nah, bro, that's not going to cut it right. That's hardly conquering the world right. So more power to that partnership. I certainly hope that it grows and is successful for UD and do what you got to do. But if you got onchain and another ecosystem and you can build it bigger and build it better, and if you think you got a better shot at ICANN, that's there too. Don't get discouraged. And that's the point that I'm trying to make is it depends, build better, and that's the thing, if anything else to focus on, focus on building. If you got a dream, build it, and that opportunity in the tech stack is there for you.

Speaker 2: 49:27

Within the Freename ecosystem, yeah, here in about 40 minutes we are going to transition into the whale talk that we have every Friday on free name. So definitely invite anybody in this space to attend that space, where we'll have page pull up there as well to talk about some of the recent things that have happened in the web three and web two domain space. But, yeah, as always, do. Thank you guys for attending this web three domain workshop. Again, this will be available on our website as well as in podcast form in about a week or so and, yeah, for anybody who wants to get hands on or has any direct questions. Feel free to join the free name community. We do this every Thursday in the VIP community. We do this every Friday right here on spaces. Uh, focus on your mission now, your condition and happy, demanding. Thank you guys. See you guys next week.