Why Everyone Needs a Web3 Domain: Simplifying Blockchain Interactions

Digital identity is evolving beyond simple usernames and passwords, and Web3 domains are leading this transformation. These blockchain-based names aren't just convenient shortcuts for crypto transactions – they're comprehensive identity solutions that put you in control of your online presence.

The core challenge of blockchain interaction has always been the complexity of wallet addresses. Those intimidating strings of letters and numbers create a significant barrier to adoption and usability. Web3 domains solve this by providing human-readable names that work across multiple blockchains and applications. Instead of copying and pasting that impossible-to-memorize 0x address, you can simply share yourname.dgen or yourname.xchain – making transactions more accessible while simultaneously building your personal brand.

What truly sets these domains apart is their versatility and ownership model. Unlike traditional domains that require yearly renewals and can be taken away through various mechanisms, Web3 domains like those on Freename are purchased once and owned forever as NFTs in your wallet. This immutable ownership provides security that Web2 domains simply can't match. Plus, they function as customizable profile hubs where you can showcase avatars, link social accounts, and display accomplishments – creating a curated digital presence rather than just an address.

The investment landscape for Web3 domains presents opportunities at both the SLD (second-level domain) and TLD (top-level domain) levels. While SLDs follow familiar domain investing principles based on memorability and brand potential, TLDs represent a revolutionary opportunity previously unavailable to individual investors. Owning a TLD like .degen or .xchain means earning 50% royalties whenever someone registers an SLD on your extension – a passive income model that's generating significant returns for early adopters. As Web3 adoption grows beyond the current enthusiast community to mainstream

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Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction and News Updates
• 7:10 Why Everyone Needs a Web3 Domain
• 14:03 Understanding Web3 Domains vs Traditional Domains
• 19:38 Investment Opportunities in SLDs and TLDs
• 27:26 Getting Started with Web3 Domains
• 37:23 Paige Joins: Perspectives on Digital Identity
• 49:25 Dynadot's Entry into Web3 Domains
• 58:01 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Events

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

no-transcript. As usual, going to pin a couple things to the top of the space and then we will get right into our tech talk. You All right? All right, welcome to our Tech Talk podcast. This is a live discussion we record weekly here on X where we highlight news, innovation, education, alpha and business development within the Web3 technology and digital identity space. I am your host, marcus aka WinAirdrop, founder of iHeartDomains and community manager at Freename. We are your number one resource for unbites, web three and blockchain domain educational content, with over 100 tech talk episodes and YouTube videos produced and archived over the past two and a half years. Iheartdomainscom or you can search for prior recordings in podcast format if that's how you prefer to listen on every major podcast player, including Apple Podcasts, spotify and iHeart Radio, and you can find that easily at techtalkhost.

Speaker 1: 4:16

As usual, I'm going to open up with some brief opening news. It's actually kind of a repeat of last week's opening news. It's still, you know, the pretty big and dominating news as far as our space is concerned. And it's just to re-remind everyone that the free name MetaMask Snap integration is now live. That means that with a simple download of a plugin into your existing MetaMask wallet, you can now resolve basically every free name domain that exists in the ecosystem as long as somebody set their records on. It will also resolve ENS domains, which already resolve natively within MetaMask. But just to give you an example of how our resolve works. And it will resolve unstoppable domains. So it eliminates the need to download multiple snaps into your Minibask. It is one snap to rule them all, and then, of course, other naming services will be integrated in shortly so that, yeah, you'll truly not have to integrate really any other snap again.

Speaker 1: 5:19

Beauty of Freename and we've talked about it many times is that most of the things that they built, most of their tools and resources and plugins, are both multi-chain and multi-name service in order to create kind of an interoperable space. And again, for those of you who just want access to everything at once, check out Freename's MetaMask Snap. And, yeah, just to simplify that again, set up a plugin, go to MetaMask. You can send cryptocurrency now to names like yournamedgen or mynameexchange. And speaking of DGEN and exchange, I always like to open the space by re-reminding everybody.

Speaker 1: 6:01

The registry is open for the TLDs on Freename dgen, xchain, .88888, and defiwallet, among many others but these are our premium TLDs that we own with iHeart Domains. Every mint supports us, helps us keep going. Also, you get all the value that Freename is currently providing and is looking to provide in the future. Again, integrations like MetaMask, snap, all these different innovations make our domains worth more and more each day. So just a real reminder that our registries are open. If Freename does have any existing coupons, our domain registry is accepting those coupons. So we have not opted out of those discounts, so that's a good thing as well. So any coupons or specials or any discount codes that you have available that work in the free name ecosystem will work for our domain TLDs, and that means you may potentially be able to get a forever name for as cheap as $5. And again, our domains on any of these extensions have no

Speaker 1: 7:03

renewals. All right, let's hop into the main discussion. This is our Web3 Domain Workshop inspired tech talk. The topic, as you can see, is why does everybody need a Web3 domain name? First and foremost, I do wanna open up with you know why we do these, what the Web3 Domain workshops are. These are sponsored in part by FreedName. We do these workshops each week and have been doing these workshops for the past couple of months Each week in order to deep dive and highlight into different ecosystem again utilities, some of the basics of how Web3 Domains work. Why should you want one, how, why should you need one, how to use one, how to profit from one. All those good things. Again, breaking down both the basics and getting into some of the complexities of the ecosystem so that ultimately our investors, you know, know their investment inside and out and can, you know, be more effective in onboarding other people or building and creating value behind their

Speaker 1: 8:04

TLDs. As I mentioned in each one of these tech talks, even though you know, majority of the content that we're going to be speaking about is Freedom ecosystem specific. As I mentioned before, most of what Freedom has built and is currently still building is multi-chain and multi-name service. So a lot of what we are talking about not only benefits the pre-name ecosystem but it also benefits those who are in the Web3 domain space as a whole. So it doesn't matter if you're bullish on ENS, if you're bullish on UD, if you're bullish on SNS, doesn't matter which domain ecosystem you're bullish on. We hope that these Web3 domain workshops can provide value to you and that you can take something away from

Speaker 1: 8:44

them. So, again, we do these live as a utility to our VIP community. Every single Thursday we host that in Google Meet form. So if you are a member already in the free name community and you are a VIP, you already know what I'm talking about. If you haven't shown up yet, please tap in. But we discuss this same subject live, and it's also an open space where our VIPs can bring up anything, but usually we're able to dive into it screen share, et cetera. And then, of course, we do this version of VMI Tech Talk on Friday so that everybody can kind of get some of the alpha that was shared, and we've dived into quite a few things again. That, I think, provides quite a bit of value. So, again, every Thursday in our VIP community, every Friday, we do these here during our tech talks

Speaker 1: 9:33

Also. The second thing that I like to do as a prerequisite, I guess you would say, or as a pre-thing before we get into the subject at hand is I do like to get everybody on the same page. We record these here live on X, but our distribution does go a lot further than here. Again, these episodes do end up on YouTube and they also do end up on every major podcast player, and so a lot of people that are listening to this may be listening to this and hearing what these are for the first time. You're going to hear names and words that are extremely familiar to you, like domain, and for most people, especially most adults, when you hear the word domain name, you're thinking about those dot coms, those dot nets, those dot IOs, the things that you can type to your browser that will take you to a web page where you can then scroll and then do what you got to do. These are similar to those in structure, but in technology, what we are talking about is a Web3 domain, aka digital identity. Just as you know, whatever it is, dot com takes you to whatever content is linked to it In Web3, when you create a wallet or when you create a smart contract or you create anything that's on the blockchain, it will generate a blockchain

Speaker 1: 10:44

address. That blockchain address looks very similar to an IP address, meaning it can't nobody remember that thing right. So, just like you have to type in blahblahblahcom in order to simplify that IP address, to get there here, in order to resolve a route to a blockchain address or to become identified as your blockchain address, you can personalize them with Web3 domain names, which take the same format your name, dot, something, something. In this case, the most popular ecosystems are eth, nft, x, dgen, among many others. But yeah, just to clarify, web2 domains are those things that resolve the websites, email addresses, all that good stuff. Web3 domains what we are talking about here working a blockchain environment and resolve the blockchain addresses and the records that are set on them. So just like to clarify that before we dove into it

Speaker 1: 11:35

now. Yeah, without further ado, I'm going to dive into the workshop why everyone needs a Web three domain name. This is actually going to be like kind of a and again, like a lot of these workshops are back to basics, and I think this is a good refresher to get us all, you know, kind of on that same, that same platform or that same page of why we're here to begin with. And I say that because, like we've gone through several different cycles. You know, many of us have been able to make money from our names, but some of us are sitting on a big bag of names and kind of have lost focus while we're in this space to begin with. And I think, when you understand where the market is going with the different technologies that are being invented that we've discussed in like a lot of detail yesterday through a hundred spaces, but like things like AI coming into play, especially with all the agents out there with different things that are being named on the blockchain. Rwa is being placed on the blockchain. When you start seeing, like kind of how this space is growing, then you understand also at the same time, like why everyone or everything needs a domain name. You'll really understand where you fit in this market and the level of opportunity that truly

Speaker 1: 12:50

exists. So, yeah, today we are going to dive into that topic. I'm going to explore some of the personal and investment opportunities in the space. We're going to talk about both SLDs and TLDs and I'll break down what those are as well. Again, a lot of people are hearing this for the first time, and then I'm also going to highlight how platforms like Freename, amongst others, and, like us, iheart domains, are pioneering this revolution and helping onboard people into the

Speaker 1: 13:20

space. So, again, to kick things off, I once again want to break down what Web3 domains are, how they differ from traditional domains. Again, in the traditional web, we have domains like examplecom, where com is the TLD, which stands for top-level domain. Example would be the SLD, which is your second-level domain. Web3 domains are, however, different in their technology, that they're decentralized and they're stored on blockchain networks, and they offer quite a bit of different benefits as opposed to Web2 domains. I'm not saying that you necessarily should like live in fear that your Web2 domain is going to be taken from you or shut down or is going to stop working, but it has happened to several people. Right, it does happen, and Web3 domains obviously offer immutable ownership. They're NFTs. The records and things cannot be tampered with. If you build something on it, no one can move it Not your keys, not your crypto. Same thing works in the Web3 domain, so it offers substantial amount of security and, of course, like I said, a greater degree of

Speaker 1: 14:26

ownership. Why should you, as an individual, care about owning a Web3 domain? Well, again, and this is what I explained yesterday in its simplest form, right, if you're going to exist in the space, you need an identity, and your identity when you exist in the space is your wallet address. Anytime you need to interact with something, log into something, ask somebody to send something to you, you either have to copy and paste this wallet address which cool if you're, you know, willing to try to remember that and you want to tattoo that on your back or whatever. Make merch with it or whatever. If you're in love with your zero X address, go for it or whatever, and make merch with it or whatever. If you're in love with your 0x address, go for

Speaker 1: 15:07

it. But most people obviously see the value in being able to simplify that into something personal that they can not only easily give to people something easy to remember or in some cases it's just straight up their name but also something that they can brand with. So to bring it back down, simplify transactions. Instead of having to copy and paste your 0x address and hope nobody messes it up or screws up a digit, you can use a human, readable name like Marcusdgen, and it makes it again more user-friendly, makes it more open for adoption. How are we going to bring other people into the space if we're making it difficult? And then now, with that same Marcusdgen replacing my wallet address, I can start using it as my username, so that it becomes my digital identity. And it does a couple of things right. First, it becomes now my new username, so it serves that purpose, but B at the same time, I'm literally branding where you can send me money. I mean, I don't know how much easier to make it than that right. Each time you're sharing your digital identity, you're giving away for somebody to donate to you to verify

Speaker 1: 16:18

anything. Again, there are so many things that you can link to these, and one of the things that we spoke about yesterday is like I see a future so far down the line for where blockchain is going and hence digital identity can go with it. That's ridiculous, and a few years ago, we predicted where we would be now. So digital identity definitely has not met anywhere near its peak. We are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to utility every single day. Uh, you know, blockchains are popping up. Applications are blocked popping

Speaker 1: 16:54

up. The concept of digital identity is completely integrated within web3. I've mentioned before as well. You know our, our adoption curve is going to come outside of our bubble. Inside the bubble of Web3 completely gets Web3 domains Like. Almost every builder in this space has some sort of Web3 domain, whether it be from us, ens or UD, right? So my point being is that we are at the very beginning. Digital identity has so many use cases that we haven't even thought of yet, and these will serve as your universal username across all the things that will continue to be built on the

Speaker 1: 17:30

blockchain. And then, of course, you've got, you know, the security of being able to own your name without it being able to be taken from you or seized from you. So, what? A lot of people say that an identity can't truly be your identity unless you really own it right, unless no one can take it from you. And in the case of again, in the case, again with free name and I know there's some other ecosystems that have the same model, but with their, you know, buy once, own forever, no renewals you truly do get to own them forever without you know ever having to worry about them disappearing from your wallet, unless, of course, the security of your wallet is not intact Again, a lot more secure than you know, trusting a centralized registrar not to, either, you know, lose your name or, you know, find a reason, or by law or something. I mean, there's all kinds of reasons why, in the traditional DNS space, names sometimes disappear. You know what? Actually, I'm saying that that doesn't happen that often, but it happened to me, right? That's crazy, and many of you, if you've been around like me and my journey in this space early on, you'll know exactly what I'm talking

Speaker 1: 18:43

about. With itcom, right, I bought web3.itcom and this is a DNS domain and, yeah, it's crazy, it's a third-level domain, but they're an actual, like legit registry. They're on Corpbun, they're on Google or not Google, but GoDaddy, dot dot, dot, I mean and they're backed by some big players, right? So I saw web3.itcom was available. It didn't have a premium on it, which I thought was crazy, so I bought it for 49 bucks and then I tweeted about it and then the next day it was gone and I went through my own experience with that. Again, I reached out to the CEO that didn't work out so well, went public with the issue, then we worked it out and I ended up with cryptocom, which I still hope to have cryptocom Now, if anybody is interested in that. But the point being is that it can happen, right, you can wake up one day and your Web2 domain can be gone from your wallet or gone from your account this is not wallets in this case and yeah, that kind of sucks, right, because even to this day, I still think I kind of would have rather had Web3.com. But yeah, that additional security, you know, no one being able to just reach in your wallet and take it out unless they have access to your keys. It is definitely, you know, part of the value of Web3 that these

Speaker 1: 20:04

offer. All right, so now, beyond personal use, web3 domains obviously present a lucrative investment opportunity and this opportunity exists in both SLDs and TLDs and I'm going to kind of break down where it lies in both. So SLDs, especially in some of these premium namespaces and again, if you're already in this space, you know this well, you know which namespaces I'm talking about. Just like prime real estate, really desirable SLDs have value, especially if they align with brands or they align with popular user. Not username, but popular words or keywords. That's the thing I'm trying to say. Even names like my name, like winairdrop right, these are very popular sayings, a phrase in the crypto space, and it has desirability, it has memeability and these names, if you're able to acquire them cheap enough, will appreciate over time Meaning as people come into the space, as demand for blockchain-based domains grows, as inventory begins to shrink up of premium names, people will start looking at your name over and over

Speaker 1: 21:15

again. Eventually it will create a value, especially as other names that are similar in premium entity or whatever you would call it. You know, start to sell right, you'll start to create a market for them. So, just like anything else, slds is an investable asset class. Again, we've had, you know, things like ENS, summer that have proven, you know just how lucrative these things can

Speaker 1: 21:39

be. Also, you know, also, right now, most namespaces in the Web3 space, most namespaces you enter in your investment, will begin at the SLD level. In the case of, like ENS and UD, etc. You're only able to come into the space as your name or premium keyword dot, whatever TLD that you're on. Again, this is great for branding and even in the free name ecosystem, like, you could buy TLDs. But, at the end of the day, your usable digital identity, the one you can set records on, has to be a something dot, something. And so, depending on that combo, depending on the ecosystem that you're showing loyalty to, these are extremely, like I said earlier, these work extremely well for branding, right, you're not only branding your name, but you're essentially branding exactly how people can either get directly to your content or, you know, send you money, you

Speaker 1: 22:37

know. And so a lot of businesses we do think are going to come into the space because you know that is going to be. That's really the only way to brand in Web3. The only way to brand, to be known on Web3, to get your name stamped on the blockchain, is for it to resolve or reverse resolve to a Web3 domain name. That's just the end of it, right? So any businesses that are eventually going to be in Web3 will have to at some point, either import their com and reverse resolve to that or they're going to have to purchase their domain name on some sort of naming ecosystem and that's going to be on somebody else's TLD or on their own TLD. Right? That's just the bottom line, right? That's the way it's going to be. And if you believe in Web3 and the growth of Web3, then again you're seeing down this path of where this is going. Even though it's not here yet, we know where this is

Speaker 1: 23:29

going. Now, flipping over to the investment potential in the unique opportunity that the free name does offer is with TLDs. So we spoke about the structure of the domain name. Right, we have TLDs, which in the Web2 space would be your coms, your nets, your infos. In the Web3 space, most commonly, you know your eth, your cryptos, your nfts, but they can also be anythings, right? I, for instance, own dgen. I own exchain .888888, which is five eights deFi wallet and more in the free name ecosystem, which is five eights defi wallet and more in the Freename ecosystem. Meaning I own the right of the dot and then I can make money or can self-issue and utilize anything that is built on a keyword or, you know, relates to a community, is that it, with Freename's turnkey system, will allow you to earn royalties whenever someone registers an SLD

Speaker 1: 24:33

on TLD. So, for instance, dgen right, dgen is an open registry. I own the TLD. I have several names that I have self-mended from that TLD that I utilize. But anyone is free to go to either freenameio and type in the name that they're looking for dgen or anybody is free to go to like my website, and I have a direct link where you can go to a reseller page. That again, it's like one click and anybody who has a free name TLD can do. But you can go directly to that page as well and you can type in whatever name you want to dgin, and if it's available, you can buy it Right. No one stop you from doing it. Don't got to ask for permission and it will work out the gate with every free name

Speaker 1: 25:18

integration Also. So also, when someone if you own the TLD and someone comes to your TLD without you knowing, without you driving them there just by luck, or even if you drove them there right, However, they got there. Once someone does complete that action of purchasing an SOD from your TLD, however much they paid for that SOD, you get 50% of that in royalties. It's a massive income stream and we've gone through this before as far as like all the stuff that you can do on the backend for management of your free name TLDs. One of those things is adjustment of pricing, so you do have complete control of pricing of SLDs. You can dial it all the way down to different character counts, emojis, et cetera, so you'll know what your customers are paying or for what any of your SLDs work. But basically, yes, if anyone comes to your TLD registering an SLD, whatever price is shown there, and they pay, you'll receive 50% of that price as a royal sheet

Speaker 1: 26:19

forever, right. And then again, depending on how valuable and how popular and how a keyword of the TLD that you own, you know, there's also going to be market demand for that TLD itself, right, there's also going to be market demand for that TLD itself, right. So there'll be a market not only for the SLDs on your TLDs, for people you know who want to align or build their digital identity with a cool keyword, but as your TLD becomes more popular, it itself as a business now is an investment because you can flip the entire thing right. Somebody else who may want to build a different type of community or has a concept or has a brand that aligns with the TLD that you have in your portfolio, may want to acquire from you so that they could build from it as well. And then kind of the secondary value as well too, is with a TLD you could do so many other things I talk about, like when someone comes to your TLD to net, they get all the utility that FreeName offers. But there's so much more that, like you as a TLD owner and I anticipate a lot of TLD owners you know doing you know many of them are for real going to build real communities that have separate utilities that is very exclusive and specific to their domain holders, and I anticipate more and more of that happening. So you're going to see a lot of different mini ecosystems where you're not only getting free name utility but you're getting, you know, custom utility, like in the case of Chili's right. We have the integration with Chili's, the partnership with Chili's with the chz. They have their own incentives for their own communities, for their own TLB, and so, yeah, you'll see a lot of cross value that way as well, but a lot of investment potential again, both in SLDs and TLDs. And for lack of anything else, you should obviously want your domain, but as an investment opportunity, you should want your domain as well, and this is a big part of

Speaker 1: 28:11

the why. Now, tapping into the, you know some of the things that we again, we've got a lot of people who are listening to the space for the first time. You know you may be listening to this opportunity and you know, may want to be trying to figure out what are the next steps, what are the first steps? As I mentioned before, I do want to tap in, you know, to how FreeName and iHe, iheart domains are trying to help people enter the space and guide you to make good decisions. So, going back to the opportunity at hand, as I just explained, the ability to create TLDs is the obvious reason for why Freename adds a lot of value to the space for ecosystems, for communities, for whatever reason. You know that you may need to have your own naming ecosystem, whether it is to label a bunch of content that you're putting out there for publishing. There's going to again we're just at the beginning for use cases of why people are going to have blockchain names. But a free name offers a unique opportunity for you to register and purchase your own TLD. You simply, if you're looking for a TLD, just have to go to the website type in the TLD that you're looking for and it will tell you what price it is. And once you pay it, you have no renewal fees forever and you have lifetime ownership and lifetime residuals and passive income. That is the opportunity that FreeName provides With

Speaker 1: 29:36

iHeart Domains. We do these weekly tech talks for both people who are professionals and fully engaged in the ecosystem to beginners who again are looking for a place to start. We do these to dive again into why, how and the basics of what you can do with these Web3 domain names. So you are truly not alone in your journey If you're looking for you know, not only a way to invest in this new world called Web3, but again, if you're a builder and you're truly just wanting to exist or simplify your interactions or personalize your experience with Web3, whatever you're here for, you know we try to provide content, advice and guidance to lead you along that. So, um, you know steps to get started again. I encourage you to follow either free name, uh or both. Free name, and I heart domains. If you don't already know as well uh, again, I am a community manager for the vip community of. Already know as well, again, I am a community manager for the vip community of uh, free name. So we are one in the same essentially. But following us or following free name directly will get you in tune with both

Speaker 1: 30:42

our ecosystem. Anybody in our ecosystem is super friendly. We'll show you how to mint the tld or myth and sld. We'll help you get started again. As simple as going to the website, typing in the name that you're looking for whether it's a TLD, and for a TLD, obviously you'll see just a result with the right of the dot. If you're typing in your name dot someone else's TLD, then you'll see that as well. Once you purchase or mint your domain name, it's ready to use, right, it's ready to use out the gate with all the free names, different integrations and, as we spoke about last week, these domains are multi-chain, so you are able to mint them to one of any of eight chains, including Polygon Binance, which is BNB chain. Solana Chili's is also a blockchain that you choose, and we've got many, many more coming. So, yeah, as we look ahead, right for those of you that already have a portfolio of domains, or if you're stacking up a portfolio of domains right now and you're looking at what's in the future, right Again, web3 is at

Speaker 1: 31:51

its infancy. Web3 domains is at even more of its infancy. We're dealing with a fraction of people now that understand the value of this right and as more people start coming into space whether it's through news, whether it's through meme coins, whether it's through actual applications, whether it's through just apps that make it easy for them to do something silly or stupid, whether it's through a game or gambling I mean, I met somebody who was like a grandma and she uses crypto, but it's just to play poker, right, no matter what reason it is, as these reasons become more mainstream, more popular, more integrated into mainstream society, we will get more adoption. More and more of these people are going to face the exact same problem. It's that they are going to need to share, remember and deal with and interact with this blockchain address. That's just not personal and and I want to I definitely want to clarify something as well, too, because it's not just you're replacing your blockchain address, right like the, the utility of web3 domains. It spans way beyond that, even at its infancy, as

Speaker 1: 32:57

it is. Now, you get an entire interface to manage your identity, which is something that you don't get when you create a blockchain. When you spin up a wallet and you create your 0x address, that's all it is. People are still able to type it into or copy it into an Explorer and they can see the assets that are inside of it, but they're not really dealing with a friendly UI and they're certainly not dealing with a UI that you controlled or that you curated right. They're not dealing with any records you put there. They're not dealing with anything that shows you as a person or your accomplishments or achievements. You just see balance and somebody can hit a dropdown button and see your NFTs and see your tokens and that's it, and see like when you transferred something or stole money from somebody, like that's it right, that's again, that's your identity, right. When you enter the space, unless you connect a Web3 domain to it, that's your identity Most Web3 domain

Speaker 1: 33:52

naming platforms. Again, the second, that you purchase a domain and you resolve it to this wallet. You not only get that function, but then you get their UI and their interface to actually create a profile, and that by itself it adds extreme value because now that's something you can share in public when you're meeting somebody on the go, and now when they go to see your information, they're not just seeing a bunch of transactions and hitting the dropdown box and seeing some NFTs and blah, blah, blah. They're able to now see what you've curated and put there. In this case, you're able to attach avatars. If you want to put your favorite PFP as your identity Because, again, pfps are identity, A lot of them are. If you want a board ape and you put that as your PFP, people know what that is that come with a little weight. Same thing with especially with the crypto pump and quite a few others. Right, we have little micro communities that have culture and all that good stuff. You get my point. That's a part of an identity that people will see that you can add to your records If you want to assign a website or anything like that to your domain, if you want people when they come into your wallet and they're being all nosy when they see your profile, they see any records that you want

Speaker 1: 35:04

to set. Put a domain there so they can, or web2 domain so they can go see some content and actually buy something you know. Put links to songs, put links to your catalog, to your comp, anything right? The point is is that as more adoption comes into the space, as we have more raw users who are just sitting here with an unusable, unshareable website address or not website address but a 0x address, they're naturally going to be attracted to the concept of humanizing that with a name. And, with that being said, we are again a very small fraction of the people that are going to be in this space. When there's millions and billions of people and that's just people, right I think the demand for premium names is going to go sky high. And then when all these people come into the space and then they start needing to name and keep track of things that they're creating and doing in the space, naturally, I mean some people think that they're going to spin off like people will just spin off

Speaker 1: 35:58

with thirds. I don't see the point there. I think naturally people are going to see value in the TLD space, to be able to create and label things and create kind of their own. You know trackable, verifiable, interconnected Web3, you know ecosystem of things that they're putting out there. Again, if you're creating things, you're putting things out there, it's got to be named and it needs to trace back to you if you want it to count right. So that is where there's extreme value in

Speaker 1: 36:27

the space. Again, I think we are just right at the bottom of the cliff of it and we're about to scale up the mountain and that's why now again is a time to gain, even for those who are new, hearing this for the first time, even for some of those who may feel like the opportunity, you know, to acquire some of these premium domains may be priced out. It is worth. Even for those premium domains, it is definitely worth looking into. But again, the ecosystem and the amount of people who are hip to it and privy to it right now you're still in a bubble, right, and there's still a lot of premium inventory out there to be minted, to be held in your wallet, and so, again, the time is now before the masses get to here and before it gets super obvious. I'm going to stop rambling here for a second.

Speaker 2: 37:18

I've got a special guest on stage, Paige. What's going on, sir? How are you doing? Good morning.

Speaker 1: 37:27

Well, it's a good morning. I'm buying some domains, so I'm feeling pretty good. Yes sir, yes sir, glad to have you here, as always. I don't know if you caught the majority of the space, but we're talking about why should you even own a Web3 domain name? Why, in your opinion, do you think we should own one?

Speaker 2: 37:43

You shouldn't Leave them all to me. Let's see why should you own? You have to make up your own mind. Did I share the analogy of the horses sniffing the feed bag? How's that for a morning image for you?

Speaker 1: 37:59

Yeah, sure, there you go.

Speaker 2: 38:03

So then I read this metaphor. I actually Googled how to explain something new to somebody. You know what I mean. And there's this concept of horses. Think about horses. You got a bunch of horses and say you walked out there with the feed bag, you've got food for the horses. It's good, it's good food. You know what I mean? They've never seen a feed bag before, right? So each one of the horses has to come up and I'm not calling the audience horses here but has to come up and sniff the feed bag and determine if it's a good or bad thing, should it be scared of it? And it's not like one horse can sniff it and turn to the other ones and say, hey, it's all cool. Everybody, every horse, has to sniff it themselves. You know what I mean before they'll start eating of the food.

Speaker 2: 38:55

So I think about this when I think about telling stories about new technologies. Everyone's got to get to that moment where they kind of see it clearly for themselves with how it fits within what they're trying to do. And here's where Web3 fits with what I'm trying to do. Web3 fits with what I'm trying to do. I want to be aware of new technologies. I am not saying Web3 domains are Bitcoin, but you could have done a lot worse than at least buying $10 worth of Bitcoin 11 years ago. You know what I mean and I want to be aware of these new technologies, and the only way to really understand something and be aware of it is put some money into it. And so I want to know what it feels like to own a Web3 domain. So that's why I signed up with Freename, open a free account, find a name in one of the TLDs You'll hear people talk about today, find a name in one of the tlds you'll hear people talk about today, or rename has dot metaverse and dot moon, you know, spend as little as two dollars and fifty cents, or five dollars or ten dollars, and then say what can I do with this?

Speaker 2: 40:07

And and I would just compare it to zero, I would, I would not compare it to a web2 domain, oh, but, but it doesn't resolve. But what if other people get one? Compare it to Xero. Does this have aspects that may be used in the future? And I think, wynn, you just talked about it it's a different way of connecting with apps, or as we call them, dapps, than a username and login, which doesn't work anymore because you have to log in and then you have to have two-factor, and then you have to get a text, and then you have to get your phone and you got to put in a code.

Speaker 2: 40:49

And I just think this simple concept of you having a wallet and the wallet having assets in it and dApps being able to interact with your wallet to determine only the things that you allow them to know, and when you're in this digital world, you're not yourself, the more I think about it, it's probably the most important thing I can share with everybody. Facebook and Google and Twitter want you. They want to market you, your real identity. They want to know who PageHow is. They want to know if PageHow is on their website so they can profile PageHow and sell me to other advertisers, so they can profile PageHow and sell me to other advertisers.

Speaker 2: 41:44

I don't mind in the digital world that I give some websites and some apps selective information about me based upon a single digital identity that I create, that I control and that I decide what they can do with. That's the world of digital identities. When you're online, you're digital. You're not yourself. You can't jump into the internet, you can't jump into digital.

Speaker 2: 42:08

So why do I buy Web3 domain names? To understand digital, to understand digital non-internet, which is nodes and servers, and I think Minecraft was probably the biggest gateway into this world of digital non-internet. You know what I mean. I see the Minecraft movies coming out. And then, secondly, you give me the power to own my TLD, where I'm not buying other people's domain names and hoping that they're going to make money for me or that I'm just a consumer giving them my money for something that has value or, as we all agree, may not have a lot of apparent value right now. Now you tell me that I'm the seller and I can paint a picture of the future, of what these Web3 domains can be worth, and I can sell them and get half the revenue. That's a party I want to be in. That's what no one's ever given the individual investor is the ability to own a TLD. So long answer to a short question when I think about it every day, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Speaker 1: 43:18

Now I'm loving it and always appreciate your, your input. Um, I have a question, um, and I just pinned something to the top of the space and I don't know if you've had a chance to see it, but you'd be the perfect person to ask your input. Um, dynadot recently sent out a blast and um blast and, like I said, I pinned the link to the blog and we covered this a little bit yesterday during the Web3 domain workshop. But they've obviously they've introduced the bana TLD. I haven't done much research on the TLD itself. I just got alerted to what BANA is. I guess it's a coin also in the Web3 space, but I haven't researched it much as the TLD as far as like whether it's DNS and already resolved, blah, blah, blah, but they're entering it into the Web3 space.

Speaker 1: 44:07

And it was super cool because, like they wrote this entire like very comprehensive blog basically shilling the value of Web3 domains and like the opportunity that exists in the space. And they came from kind of a very Web2 perspective, like almost as a guide for people who are already investing in Web2 domains for how and why and in what way they should enter this space. And I saw it as curious because, you know, as I said yesterday, you know they I mean they don't see us as a threat to their space. Our domains don't work the same right. So, um, you know that in and of itself, like them, entering the space shows to me right, just looking forward that they see value in what web3 itself potentially has to offer and what these names can do specifically in our space.

Speaker 1: 44:55

Ie what I'm shouting from the rooftops every single day anyway, that these things have more value as digital identity than anything else. But the long way of asking my question is have you had a chance to read the above blog and what are your thoughts about it? Am I being too bullish or am I right on track? Is you know a lot of the Web2 players starting to see the value you know, or another potential income source from entering our space and selling digital IDs? That was a question to you, paige.

Speaker 2: 45:34

Sorry about that. I probably spent 10 to 15 hours talking to the Dynadot team about Web3 domains. Like most companies in our business, they act like they're listening and then they go start their own product. I love the blog. I thought it was seemingly high level. It painted a picture of all the prospects of Web3. And then, you're right, because of, somehow, dynadot's affiliation with vana, it said go buy a domain name that costs you $2,000 a year. Listen, it said go buy a domain name that costs you $2,000 a year. Listen, I don't know if Web3 domains have value, but I'm going to play around with $2 domains and $5 domains and $20 domains and maybe $1,000 TLDs and $5,000 TLDs. I'm not buying a single domain name for $2,000. You tell me it comes with $10,000 of coin. Maybe I'll get interested. But the Vanna TLD is one of a series, in my opinion, of what's called brand TLDs.

Speaker 2: 46:46

This was originally offered to Japanese customers of a company called Vanna. It's being repurposed, it looks like, by a longtime. You know experienced company called D3. And their theory is you know, if this stuff is so awesome, charge a huge price for it. I guess. But it was very cryptic as to who owned it, who wrote the post. It just looked schlocky to me. You know what I mean. I don't know. They lost me at $2,000 a year, I guess. But I liked everything they said about Web3 domains.

Speaker 1: 47:28

Yeah, that part. The obvious is that whoever is advising them or guiding them into the space is definitely not aligned with the way the space works.

Speaker 2: 47:38

But there's no doubt, gwyn, that if you want to have an ICANN TLD, people still think it's worth a million dollars. Otherwise, why would they invest $400,000? $250,000 for a fee, consultants, $25,000 a year that's what it costs. That's what you have to pay ICANN to have an ICANN TLD. And if you're a multimillion dollar company and you want to launch something, you're like, yeah, let's go for the biggest, let's go for it. You go get other people's money, you raise $5 million and you launch a TLD with Web 3 and Web 2 aspects I understand that business model and you shoot for the moon and you spend $50,000 or $100,000 a month marketing it, a month marketing it.

Speaker 2: 48:40

Right, I don't have that money. I don't. What can I do? I can marketsummer and I can marketv. Yeah, I hope they're worth $5 or $10 million someday.

Speaker 2: 48:45

But I'm going to have to start at the bottom and I just think that's where most good technologies start is. I've got to convince. You can't have a thousand users till you have a hundred. You can't have a hundred till you have one. You know what I mean. And that's different than having so much money that you can, you know, buy blogs or do whatever it takes. You know what I mean and and build a bigger company. There'll always be bigger companies competing against us, but this is the only spot I can play in. You know what I mean. So I think you'll probably see 10 more of these vanas.

Speaker 2: 49:26

But with WebUnited Freenames, partnership with ShortDot, you can take any domain name that you have already in Web2, pagehowcom. I can transfer pagehowcom to Domain Cost Club for 20 bucks a year, I think. Add Web3 aspects to it, or I can do it right now with my WS or my ICU or my CU, and I can start to experiment on what it means to be a Web3 domain. So I just think there's a lot of other ways to do everything they said in the blog besides vana, and this is the problem. I'm going to keep going here, but this is the problem our industry has had forever is we want to selectively give information to a small group of people to sell our product, and I've always been the opposite.

Speaker 2: 50:13

If you've heard me on this show for the past year and a half, I try to give you an overarching picture of what I think the whole space is about. For you to decide what you want to do and that's the only way I know when is to do that is not just to say this is my product, it's best Buy it. This is my product, it's best Buy it. This is my product, it's best Buy it. You know what I mean. But if all we do is inform people only to the extent that they'll buy a single product, then we're not helping anybody. Anyway, that's my take.

Speaker 1: 50:49

No, man, thank you for that, and I completely agree with that last take as well, and even speaking about that. And so, yes, obviously the nature of imposing this was an agenda. However, there's still value in what they produced and here's what I'm hoping from this right, what I'm hoping from this right. So, again, we've progressed from these are stupid to you know, building a bridge where we've been able to tokenize them, to now, you know, whole TLDs coming into the space and creating these partnerships.

Speaker 1: 51:24

And shout out to D3, like D3 is out there grinding Again. You know a lot of competitors can cover ground for you. Right, they're out here really pushing the narrative for brands to to bring I can tlds into our space and this is what I'm hoping this will do. Right with this whole layout. Right with basically them, them putting out the, the, you know the investment plan for web through domains. Most people, as you explained, are on the same level as us, right, like, obviously, corporations, registries. You know they already have the TLDs, the millions to register, or, you know, get more TLDs to auction. But the average person that's looking at an individual investment opportunity ain't going that route. Like you don't own a Web3 TLD, you're not bridging one into Web3.

Speaker 2: 52:11

Right. But, wynn, like you say, they're painting a picture in the stars. What they're basically saying is it could be worth it for a corporation if they want to accept money. Because, remember, wallets aren't just for sending money with you as a sender, they're for receiving money. So say, you're a company and you're going to do an NFT project and you're going to take in a million dollars, yeah, a wallet could be worth $2,000 a year just to have a wallet address to do it. You know what I mean. So it's painting a picture of the ceiling, of what these things could be worth.

Speaker 2: 52:46

And then the way I look at the current pricing of most programs is they factor in the uncertainty and then they find a market price, an equilibrium. You know what I mean. And the fact that Freename is sold and I'll just talk about Freename here, that's, who's sponsoring the show that they've sold 15,000 TLDs means they've found an equilibrium between what people are willing to pay. Now, given all the uncertainty, you're almost guaranteed that the TLD you buy on Freename right now is not priced at what you're buying it for. What I mean by that is I think I paid $3,500 for Dot Summer. I think it's either worth $5 million or there's a world where it's worth zero, but at least I don't have renewals. You know what I mean. So I know what my maximum loss is right, but, yes, anyone listening to this call you could be vana.

Speaker 2: 53:47

Now you say, well, they have Web 2, and right now they have Web 2, and we have Web 3. Okay, but you know what, if you build your community in Web2, and right now they have Web2 and we have Web3. Okay, but you know what, if you build your community in Web3, something will happen down the road where you'll have Web2. This is not financial advice. Don't say PageHouse said that all Web3s will be Web2. You know what I mean. But let me tell you, the first step is to build demand.

Speaker 2: 54:10

This concept I'm going to go off on a rant here this concept that just because you make something available on the internet that everyone can see and resolve makes it worth something, is ridiculous. Because just in the past three years, since I've been seeing Web3 projects come available, there's a lot of them that have come out and they were worth speculating on in case they worked. But as soon as that renewal hits, goodbye. You know what I mean, because they, they, they've just said we're out there, so we should be worth money right when? I mean, we've seen them, we've had them on podcasts before, and just the fact that you're there doesn't mean you know you're worth something I don't know.

Speaker 2: 55:01

Let me get to this one, because I do want everyone that's in the Q&A chat on Telegram so you don't have to be a VIP to be in the Q&A chat. I'm going to be sharing in there my journey with summer and v, and if you go in there, you'll see how I built a single webpage on web two on Dynadot, with a free one page website that I linked to my free name reseller or I could have linked to my free name affiliate, or I could have linked to my free name affiliate, and I'm doing something right. I'm doing something and I just encourage everyone to do the same, all right.

Speaker 1: 55:40

No, that's perfect and you're landing right on the point that I wanted to make, because that's what I'm saying. If Dynadot sells this right Because again, this is all purely from a Web3 perspective that they're that they put this investment opportunity out here, so they sold Web3. If Dynadot sells this and again the level most of us can't enter with a Web2 TLD and bridge it into Web3. If the only way for people to enter is through, you know, the avenue of free name, and if they're seeing on the other side, success stories like yours, like mine, with dejan and beefiowa, like usa, like that, that TLD is gone, like that's gone parabolic. There are quite a few TLDs in the Freename ecosystem that have more than paid for themselves and many more are coming when they start seeing that Avenue. That's my hope, right Is that this drives people down that road to start acquiring their assets or even starting to look at, you know, acquiring from secondary some of the premium TLDs in the freemium ecosystem. So that is why I as a whole was very bullish in, you know, again you know, good luck to them entering the space with dot Vanna, but extremely bullish with this blog that they put out there, again, you know, even though it was serving their self-interest, still put a lot of solid information in and you know, people who are looking for an opportunity aren't going to be looking at just. You know my name, dot Vanna Right. This spelled out that the real opportunity here is being dot Vanna. Name dot vanna right. This spelled out that the real opportunity here is being dot vanna and hopefully this will drive more people in that ecosystem to start looking at that opportunity because it's real right. There are real examples of how we've made money and how it's continuing to grow and and how web3 domains themselves are continuing to to build relevance and continuing to be a tool that will have value as Web3 continues to expand.

Speaker 1: 57:34

I'm actually going to get ready to wrap up. This was a great space. Thank you, paige, for coming on. In 30 minutes we are going to be hopping on the Web3 Domain Well Talk with Freename, as we do every Friday, so I do invite everyone to circle back and to attend that.

Speaker 1: 57:49

Again, I want to remind everybody that our integration with MetaMask via MetaMask Snap is now live. So, yeah, all of our domains in the Freename ecosystem, if you've got your record set on them with one simple plugin, you can now use with MetaMask. So, again, every single day, somebody's out there building to make these domains whether it's in their ecosystem or someone else's ecosystem more usable and more valuable in this space. But we're right at the bottom of the mountain. So the opportunity is there's no better opportunity than today, the day that you heard about it. Again, why should you want to own a domain name? In addition to using it and for it being you know, your all-in digital identity then again will have you know prices, value. There's an extreme opportunity here, for both passive and just straight up. You know the ability to generate some good flippable income with TLDs and both SLDs, depending on the ecosystem.

Speaker 1: 58:44

Thank you, everybody for tuning in to our Tech Talk with your domain workshop. Again, do this every Friday. It's sponsored by Freename. This is a mirror of our Thursday workshop for our VIP community. And, yeah, happy, demanding and focus on your mission, not your condition. See you guys in 30 minutes on Freename's channel.