Four years to prove ourselves

The ICA (Internet Commerce Association) recently hosted a free webinar where they discussed the second round of gTLD applications via ICANN. For reference, the year is 2021 at this time of writing. The first and last round of gTLD applications happened in the anagram for this year: 2012; nearly a decade ago. As noted by one of the panel experts (Jeff Neuman, Jothan Frakes, Phil Buckingham, and Christa Taylor were in attendance), the world was MUCH different then. A notable example of such change was the mention of .crypto. Apparently, it was considered but seeing as how the crypto space was still in its infancy, ICANN brushed it off. Depending on who you speak to today, crypto is EVERYWHERE; much to the chagrin of one of my security buddies. "Crypto" as shorthand used to mean "cryptography" but now it's been co-opted by cryptocurrency.

The panelists think there will be even more interest in the next batch of applications, especially if ICANN reduces the cost of admission. Some suggstions they discussed:

knocking off $70,000…of the $185,000 entry price

application fee floor

eventual refunds from failed bids

These are decent changes but ICANN is plagued by bueracracy and the snail-like pace that typically commands. An oft-repeated refrain was, "Yes, they (ICANN) can move faster and implement what the community wants…but WILL they?" According to someone in the chat:

ICANN doesn't have significant numbers of registrars in underserved regions. They keep putting obstacles in the way for registrars in those regions.

And, another notable quote:

ICANN working with community (members) requires a change in philosophy.

ICANN's current way of making decisions is obviously long and drawn out and away from the public eye, until they've decided something.

As I was listening to the discussion, I couldn't help but feel that Handshake handled a lot of the problems the panelists discussed. Namely (hah), rolling applications and not letting other applicants aware of which names you intend to bid on. When Handshake was revealed to the public, a handful of names were released over the course of several weeks. Also, the way you bid on names is via a Vickrey-style auction. In short, Vickrey-style auctions are anonymous and the amounts bid can be a mixture of a true bid and a blind bid. You can find more information here. In short, it aims to make auctions feel more fair.

The conservative estimate for the launch of the secound round of gTLD applications is 2025. Four years from now. 13 years since the last round. To me, this sounds a bit nutty. Insane even.

The panelists suggested that anyone looking to get their own TLD via ICANN should keep their expectations in check and be realistic. It takes a war chest of funds to keep going back and forth with ICANN to approve your application. With that also comes an immense time commitment. They expect any name to take between 4-5 years to develop, but gave .music as an example that took nearly 10 years to finalize.

I see opportunity here.

If you're an HNS maximalist/shill like myself, pro ENS, or a combination of the two, we have four years to kick ass and develop our ecosystems. Crypto took a decade to get big, we can easily do it in half the time. We are in a unique position to not only discover brilliant use cases unheard of on the legacy ‘Net, but to also bring these experiences to the masses and gain that sweet traction.

Four years to show and prove. Let's get it. 🕸