January 26, 2025 • 50 mins
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
Freename.io is the leading Domains platform in Web3. Users can mint their own customized Web3 TLDs.
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Want to LEARN more about Web3 Domains and Digital Identity?
My name is Marcus Andrews aka” WenAirDrop”, founder of IHeartDomains LLC, and since 2022 we have been a leading resource for News, Innovations, Education, Alpha and Business Development in the Web3 Domain & Digital Identity space.
If you're interested in Web3 domain insights, development, and news, don't miss our upcoming TECH Talk episodes featuring industry builders. Join our live discussions on Twitter/X spaces and engage with our community on platforms like Warpcast and Link3 for real-time updates and valuable ALPHA. Your journey into the future of digital identity begins with us!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
Thank you, hello, hello everybody.
Gonna get started here in justa second, just pinning a couple
things to the top of the space.
Yeah, first of all, superthankful for you guys for being
here as you come into the space.
If you could do me an awesomebig favor like and retweet Got a
few more people who want tojoin the convo.
(02:08):
Also, if you want to come up onstage and join the conversation
, you're always welcome to do soby requesting a speaker role or
you can just ask your questionin the comment section.
But, yeah, get started inprobably just about 10 or 15
more seconds, so sorry for theawkward silence.
All righty, awesome sauce.
(02:45):
Yeah, this one should be apretty good one to listen back
to and hopefully you know Icould do a pretty good job of
delivering the point that Iwanted to make today with this
basis.
But, yeah, I do want to welcomeyou to our Tech Talk podcast.
If you haven't been here before.
This is a live discussion that Ido here weekly on X, live
discussion that I do here weeklyon X, where I highlight news,
innovation, education, alpha andbusiness development, primarily
(03:08):
in the Web3 technology anddigital identity space.
For those of you who do notknow who's behind the platform.
I am Marcus aka WIT Airdrop,founder of iHeart Domains and
proud to be your number oneresource for unbiased Web3 and
blockchain domain educationalcontent.
For the past two and a halfyears or so, with over 100 of
(03:29):
these tech talk episodes andYouTube videos of each produced
and archived, you can actuallysee that entire archive.
If you'd like to see our pastepisodes directly on our website
Really easy to get toiHeartDomainscom You'll not only
see a recording of these, butyou'll also see a blog overview
as well.
So kind of easy to take it in,just depending on how much time
(03:51):
you have.
Also, if you do like to listento content like this in podcast
format, this is where this getsbroadcast to, so this is on
every major podcast player outthere, including Apple, spotify,
iheartradio, all that goodstuff and you can see all of our
previous episodes that areavailable on podcast at
(04:12):
techtalkhost and, yeah, I mighteven forward techtalkpodcast
over there, which is interesting, considering the conversation.
But yeah, again, if anybodydoes want to join the
conversation, please feel freeto ask any question that you
have or speak a role.
It's always been an open spacewhere we discuss and share alpha
(04:32):
as typical.
I do like to open with some ofthe news that has been going on
for the past week or so Forthose of you who don't keep your
ear to the industry and maybejust tap it in spaces to get
your news, starting from what Ithink is kind of like some of
the most bullish and biggestnews, like I'm extremely bullish
(04:54):
on it and have kind of beenshot from the rooftops.
But you know well, first andforemost, you know we here in
the United States of America wegot a new president right.
So Donald Trump has succeededin becoming president again and
he has, well, you know, he'skind of establishing himself as
a very crypto friendly president.
So you know he's had his handsin a few ventures, you know, one
(05:19):
of them being the meme cointhat he just launched, the other
being World Liberty Financialand the meme coin that you just
launched, the other being WorldLiberty Financial.
And so, with that being saidand making those connections, I
consider anything done by WorldLiberty Financial to basically
have a stamp of approval from atleast the Trump family, right?
So if World Liberty Financialdoes something, trump did it and
, with that being said, one ofthe things that they recently
(05:42):
did kind of coinciding with thelaunch of their meme coins is
they acquired some Web3 domainnames.
In particular, they acquired, Ibelieve, four eth names, so
four ENS names, mostly relatedto, like, eric and Barron Trump
and World Liberty Financial andsuch.
And then they also apparentlypaid $47,000 for Melania Trump
(06:06):
dot soul.
And so why is this extremelybullish 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, youknow, you make the bubble bigger
, then the opportunity foreveryone in the bubble becomes
(06:26):
bigger.
President, basically justco-signed Web3 domains, right,
you know, in addition to themillion discussions that we've
had out here to distract us fromthe value of what these things
are, you know, one of thosediscussions that's come up is
what's the point of them in thefirst place?
Who's ever going to adopt them?
Who would choose this over adot com?
(06:48):
Right, dot com can doeverything.
A dot ease can, right, andalthough there is truth to those
conversations, right, there'salso truth in there being, again
, like certain I guess you wouldsay, legacy assets, or there's
a value, first and foremost, tohaving a blockchain native asset
, like even bridging a dot cominto Web3, you still have a Web2
(07:10):
route that can still be takenfrom you, right?
So some people are always goingto going to be able to make the
connection.
It's not really my identity,unless the route is detached
from some source that can takeit from me.
So there's always going to bevalue in straight up Web3 domain
names and I think that that, toan extent even though that may
have not been the exact reasonwhy they grabbed these names
(07:33):
still the thing that we can,still the narrative we can run
with, right, they bought thesenames for a reason, which means
there is a reason.
Right, and that's the thingthat I'm doubling down on and
I'm super proud of is that, youknow, the president of the
United States saw some value inthese domain names.
They saw a reason they acquiredthem.
They saw 47,000 reasons forMelania Trump, so that I mean
that that's a solid one that Ithink anybody should be proud to
(07:55):
go in town If you're aninvestor 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 startseeing the value in them.
Will they come run and mintyour name?
I don't know, but it should atthe very least start getting
people to start seeing the value, at least in names.
(08:15):
And again they immediately setthe records on their names so
they put them to use, so theyshowed you know kind of the
potential use case for theacquired use case and if
everyone just comes into thespace to follow suit, again like
it's going to be a veryprosperous space and there's
room for everyone to grow andsucceed.
So there we go World LibertyFinancial grab some debate names
(08:35):
Moving on.
Yesterday I hosted an AMA on thefree name page with their
newest partner, which wasEtherlink.
So if you didn't get a chanceto tap into that, and just a
little quick overview ofEtherlink Etherlink is an
Ethereum L2.
(08:55):
So they're an EVML2 that isbuilt on top of the Tezos
blockchain.
Haven't really had muchdealings with Tezos, so not
familiar with kind of how it'sset up.
He described it a bit in thatAMA, so I encourage you to
listen back to that, but I wouldassume that it doesn't
currently have EVM or smartcontract capability.
It might be kind of more of, Iguess, maybe a proof of is it
(09:21):
proof of stake chain or proof ofwork chain like Bitcoin or
something like that.
Again, if you know more aboutTezos, you know what its
limitations are and its need foran L2.
Well, etherlink is an L2.
Awesome sauce.
So they're building technologyon top of the Tezos blockchain.
They're inviting builders tobuild over there and kind of
make it useful.
Same reason why Ethereum needsan L2 for faster transactions,
(09:45):
cheaper transactions, all thatgood stuff.
They bring that same type ofvalue Over to Tezos and he
explained that there actuallyare some incentives for anyone
who does want to build on thatblockchain.
So definitely be sure to reachout to them for information on
that.
But kind of, what makes that thepoint?
We, freename, have created apartnership with EtherLink and
(10:08):
we have partnered with them onthe EtherLink TLD.
So now, whether you're withintheir community or outside of
their community, you're able tomake a EtherLink domain name.
They all come with Freename'snative utility and then, as I
asked yesterday during the AMAand the spaces, they will
potentially come with additionalutility directly from Etherlink
(10:28):
.
I asked primarily about theirtech stack, if their tech, you
know, will be built around youknow the Etherlink domain names,
and that's to be seen.
But one of the things that theydid mention that is likely to
happen is, again, one of thesimplest use cases possible for
(10:57):
digital identity and creating acommunity with your own TLD is
that they're going to use thedomain extension as an airdrop
magnet.
So and this is cool too, sothat I've actually been involved
in an ecosystem that's similarto this space ID, which, like
nobody talks about, systemthat's similar to this uh space
id, which, like nobody talksabout but, again, is a beast
with their tech in the space andthey're really like they're
killing it without being inanybody's conversation.
Uh, they, actually they, theycreated a partnership with um,
uh, with the blockchain I can'teven think of their name, uh,
and I'll think of it probably atsome point during this saying
(11:19):
this, but same kind ofrelationship, right, uh, that
that blockchain, take the withtheir TLD.
They promised anybody who bentto that TLD that anybody who
launched through their launchpad, you know, on their blockchain,
basically, would like basicallygive them an allocation of an
airdrop that they would thenairdrop the holders of, not only
people who held the domains,but there were, like some other
(11:42):
different things that you couldhave done in their ecosystem to
qualify you for it, but all youhad to do was hold one of the
domains in order to get,basically, airdrops for every
project that's ever launched onthis blockchain.
I haven't even checked in for abit, but there were some blocks
.
I mean, they came right.
I got a few of them.
They'd make me rich, but itjustified me getting the names.
(12:03):
So this may and again, notfinancial advice again tap into
the community for moreinformation.
But he alluded that this wouldwork the same.
So, again, like they have someincentives for people to go and
begin building on thisblockchain those that do if they
receive, you know,incentivization from those
projects, then they will airdropthem or encourage those
(12:25):
projects to airdrop to Etherlinkholders.
So, yeah, just another reasonfor you to go take a look at it
if you haven't already grabbed afew.
Last reason, and I'll get offthe Etherlink shill they issued
a $10 promo coupon for Eylinknames with this partnership.
(12:46):
Now I have to point out thatthe coupon works a little
different than the discountsthat I think you typically see.
Coupons is actually kind oflike what FreeName originally
launched when we first launched,and a lot of people took
advantage of this, and I'll tellyou why.
So, with the traditionaldiscounts that you usually see,
like the 50% off, 40% off,whatever it is.
(13:09):
Whatever that percentage is,there has to be a positive
balance on the cart, and evensometimes, you know the cart has
to have a minimum amount in itin order to get the discount.
So there's always I mean evenstill killer deal.
You can get domains for ascheap as $2 that are forever
with no renewal, but even still,you've got to have money,
(13:31):
you've got to have an ability toat least check out a dollar or
two, and some people in someareas don't have that right.
With these coupons, though, ifyou can get your cart price to
less than $10, the coupons willwipe them out and you don't have
to connect the wallet oranything to check out.
So it literally works is anopportunity for you to go get
some free domain names on theethelink extension by using that
(13:54):
$10 coupon.
So, yeah, not a financialdevice.
If you hate free stuff, justignore what I said.
But if you like all that coolstuff that I just said, yeah,
for a limited time, thatpartnership's out there and that
coupon's there.
And then, lastly, speaking ofTLDs, we own the dgen, exchain
.88888, that's five eights anddefi wallet TLD amongst many
(14:16):
others in the free nameecosystem.
Those TLDs are currently openand available right now for Mint
and they are accepting the freename wide coupon.
So those discounts I wastalking 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 getinto the main combo.
So, as you can see at the topof the space title of this Web3
(14:37):
Domain Workshop and I'll explaina little bit about what that is
.
But the title of thisparticular workshop is which
OnchainTLDIsReal?
Fn standing for free name or UDstanding for unstoppable
domains.
And again, to introduce theWeb3 Domain Workshop, this tech
talk, the previous, like four orfive, and those in the near
(15:00):
future are part of what is ourWeb3 Domain Workshop
series.
This is in partnership withFreename, as I've explained in
previous workshops.
Purpose of this workshop is twopart.
We have a well.
So, just like every othernaming community, we do have a
VIP community within Freename.
Again, join the Freenamecommunity for more information
about how to become a VIP.
(15:21):
But we do provide additionaltools and services and you know
things for success within thatcommunity and that's kind of
what my job is.
So, as you see in the bio, I ama VIP relations, vip liaison
and one of the things that wehave began implementing into the
group or into the community isthis workshop series.
So every Thursday morning we dothis same topic that you see
(15:44):
now within the free name VIPcommunity via Google Meet, where
VIPs are able to show up.
They're able to interact, askquestions.
We share the screen, we gothrough this in as physical
format as I guess you can andthen follow these up every
Friday here in a public space.
And the reason why we do themboth private and public is,
again, purpose of the workshopwith our VIP community is to
(16:06):
help guide our community andanswer questions for them to be
more successful with themarketing and promotion things
with their TLD and partnershipsand building and
such.
But externally, most of what wetalk about does have an
external benefit to the Web3domain space in general.
As I'm going to mention alittle bit later, a lot of the
(16:27):
tools that Freename has builtand developed are actually, you
know, multi-naming servicecompatible.
So they're meant to becooperative and the benefits
that and the utility thatFreename has created can be used
by all.
So no matter whether you'refrom ENS, unstoppable Handshake,
whatever community you'recoming from might learn
something that works out for youand, like I said, it's a great
(16:48):
general education for both newand experienced investors.
So again, every Friday we'll bedoing this workshop and we'll
be diving into a new subject,topic or anything of interest
that helps clarify certaintopics or certain discussions in
the Web3space.
Also and sorry to keep teasingyou, but another thing that I
(17:09):
feel like is just extremelynecessary to do before we dive
into this is, again, we may havepeople that are tapping into
the space, both either now orvia or during the podcast, who
may be hearing about what thisstuff is for the first time, and
so I always like to begin bydefining the difference between
what a Web 2 and Web 3 domain is, so that we are all on the same
(17:31):
page.
You know, the word domain canbe confusing, and it is a term
that everyone is familiar with,but they associate with one
thing Most of the planet, whenthey hear the word domain name,
is going to think about a com,xyz, io, etc.
That exists in the DNS or ICANNspace.
They are going to expect totype that thing into their web
browser and then they're goingto expect that thing to take
(17:53):
them to the content that existson the other end.
That is how Web2 domains work.
They have been around for 30years or so and they are
currently a multibillion-dollarindustry.
Web3 domains work in ablockchain environment.
This is a new, innovativetechnology.
It works very similar and, ofcourse, their structure looks
exactly the same.
(18:13):
But this is not something thatmost people are going to be
familiar with when you bring itup in just a random conversation
.
But for anyone who is familiarwith blockchain addresses,
blockchain addresses are longand complicated, kind of the
same format as IP addresses.
So humanizing them and creatinga route for people to get to
them by typing in that humanname is what Web3 domains
(18:35):
do.
Like I said, similar to howWeb2 domains work, just in two
completely different ecosystemsand environments.
Web3 domains is not amulti-billion dollar ecosystem
Well, it actually kind of isright, we do have somebody worth
a billion but we expect this tobe, you know, kind of an
evolution of what we calldigital identity.
So difference in the two.
Now let's get into it which isthe real on-chain and okay.
(19:05):
So as our space grows, like Isaid, both Web3 in general and a
digital identity entities inthis space are, it's just
natural they're going tocontinue to expand their quest
for opportunity as thatopportunity becomes available in
thespace.
And there are bound to bescenarios where toes are kind of
quote unquote, stepped on right.
The recent launch of the TLD athand, which is onchain, and
(19:27):
there's like a million more.
We'll talk about that.
But the recent launch of theonchain TLD, this one in
particular, is in partnership, Ibelieve, with Onchain
Foundation and UnstoppableDomains.
It happens to be one of thescenarios, right, and it's the
obvious inspiration behind thisconversation.
So when this got launched, thisjust happened, like last week,
(19:49):
last week, but during thislaunch, you know, I saw a couple
conversations about it, as Iusually do, and it looks like it
got recently discovered by afew in like the UD community,
from people I respect as well,and I saw that they were
discussing, like on Twitter, theTLD, like this TLD in
particular, and I think a coupleof them brought up a few others
(20:11):
.
But I feel like they recentlydiscovered that these TLDs have
either been available or alreadyacquired by other investors and
other naming protocols,particularly in this case,
freename right, which is whywe're having this conversation
Again, as I had to explain onthose tweets that Fedame has
(20:31):
operated under this technicaland business model since its
exception over two and a halfyears ago, so this isn't a new
thing,right?
So, like with this conversation, came a bunch of questions on
both sides of the fence, and Idid the best I could to to
answer those questions inTwitter format.
And then, of course, you know,we talked about these in the web
three domain workshop yesterday.
(20:51):
But but how did this happen,right, you know?
Can this happen?
You know, does one of them haveto go?
Who's regulating this?
And then, of course, which oneis real or fake, just as I did
yesterday, all of thesequestions can really actually be
answered with a simpleunderstanding of how blockchain
(21:15):
technology and how naming on theblockchain both currently does
and will work, and even how eachof these names naming systems
are are are going to be used,right?
Because, I mean, I think I'vegiven 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 utilizedby one community, and so we'll
(21:36):
get into that part.
But another thing, too, likethis again not a new
conversation, as we've alreadyseen in our space with how
wallet played out both publiclyand legally the short answer to
this question and I'm going todig into it is they're both real
, right Depending.
So one of the things I did wantto do, though, in response to
(21:59):
that conversation because youknow, again, I try to do the
best I can to do this viaTwitter, but I do want to begin
by clarifying a few bigmisunderstandings so we can
dispel some of themisinformation that's out there,
and this kind of helps set theplaying field for which one is
real.
So, as I mentioned againearlier, the business model that
(22:19):
currently exists at Freenamehas been their business model
and has been the exact samesince its inception.
And I'm actually a day oneFreenamer, right, I showed up
day one, that's when I mentioneddgen.8888.
I showed up day one, that'swhen I mentioned dgen.8888.
(22:50):
And they've operated this exactsame way.
Before UD pivoted its businessmodel to handing out TLDs, it
last week's Web3 domain workshopwas actually on the process to
apply for ICANN.
You know how likely this is tohappen, so that promise is a
pretty thin one.
But my point is is that waybefore this current business
model that exists that we seeand we're claiming is like the
victor way before this existed?
(23:11):
Freedame has been doing thisVictor, way before this existed,
freedame has been doing this.
They've been connecting withindividual investors.
Tlds, or what we call Web3 TLDsthat are created on its tech
stack have been offered forinvestment and they've been
operating as such.
They've never pivoted, they'venever shifted, they've only
evolvedright.
And that's what struck a nerveto me, because one of the things
that came up in theconversation and I can't
(23:32):
remember who it was that said itor who came to the conclusion.
It doesn't matter, because Iwasn't trying to argue, I was
just trying to clarify.
But what struck a nerve wasduring this conversation as to
which TLD was real.
We are called clones and I'mlike my question was of who
right, question was of who right, and some good questions were
(23:59):
asked and again creates thisneed for clarification because,
like the of who, like maybeHandshake has that claim, or
maybe D-Web or DecentralWeb ifyou guys aren't familiar with
them, maybe they have that claim.
And again, like FreeName hasnever made it a secret that
their purpose was to make thoseprotocols you know, or create a
protocol that would be moreuseful and more commercially
friendly than those protocol,more investable, which in my
(24:21):
opinion, I think it has.
But I'm like, certainly youdon't mean we're clones of
Unstoppable.
So I want to clear some stuffup before we kind of get to the
otherstuff.
One of the first things I guessthat was supporting that
argument was this ICANNaccreditation thing right To be.
I'm going to say this for thehundredth time for anyone who is
(24:42):
listening from wherever you'relistening from, I don't care if
you own a box or whatever youown 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.
(25:06):
They did this first and Iexplained this as well.
Freename has a whole asspartnership with a company
called ShortDot, which ShortDotowns several actual ICANN TLDs.
They're a real owner of TLDs,including IOU.
They own Bond, they own WS,they own many others, right,
(25:26):
ShortDot and FreeName have anactual joint venture.
This is a legal partnershipcalled WebUnited.
This is a legal partnershipcalled WebUnited.
(25:48):
Under this partnership theyhave developed several pieces of
technology that they areintegrating into the Web2 space,
in addition to tokenizing Web2domains into Web3, which to that
extension.
Currently, right now, that'sthe tech stack that they did
this for and that they're goingto continue to build on that
techstack.
But they did this first, andthe reason why I'm mentioning
this is because when this wasmentioned in that particular
conversation, themisunderstanding was that free
names accreditation came afterUDs, therefore we were copying
(26:11):
them.
I'm like no, no, no, no, no,free name has a completely
different.
So and again, as I explained inthe workshop yesterday,
existing in the same space,having something that's called
the same thing, but having twocompletely different agendas or
markets that you're operating in, it's completely possible.
And free names, again, theywere first, so they can't be
(26:33):
copying you if they were first.
And the question I asked there,which was really just to be
asked but there is anotherentity that got their
accreditation before UD as well.
So if anybody copied, anybody,dig down that rabbit hole, right
.
But the accreditation for freename was originally in support
of this joint venture and again,it's continuing along a
(26:54):
business plan that existed farbefore anybody else started
talking about it or making itmainstream in the space.
So wanted to clarify thatone.
A Number two and, if any, I'mgoing to say some things that
some people might take the wrongway.
I'm going to say some thingsthat some people might take the
(27:15):
wrong way.
This is just me keeping it abuck.
For those of you who have knownme, you've known I've been in
this space for years and youknow I've been in this space as
a member or participant invirtually every platform.
I see the good in everybody.
I try to unite people againwith the general vision of the
space growing as a whole.
The whole bubble growing makesus all prosperous, right, but I
(27:37):
do also got to keep it 100 with.
You know where some things fallshort, okay.
So, with that being said, itwas
also.
I think people confuseFreename's tech stack and their
opportunity with the other onesthat are out there, right?
So one of the misunderstandingswas that when you purchase a
TNAT TLD from free name, youhave this non-working, blank
(27:59):
asset that just sits there thatyou now got to go be a developer
and go figure out how to dosomething with it.
That's the furthest thing fromthe truth.
So and that question sometimesis also merged in with the but
you don't have that much utility, okay.
So I'm going to address both ofthose.
And Freename does have a bunchof utility, kind of.
(28:19):
The purpose of these Web3domain workshops is to explain
it all to you.
And we're at like number sixnow is going to continue to grow
.
There is a really, really bigteam behind Freename who is
pushing every single day intheir own departments to make
this the behemoth that it isgoing to continue to
be.
With that being said, don'tever sleep on something just
(28:41):
because it doesn't have anintegration yet.
But going back to theintegrations that it's already
had and the things that it doesfor its investors, there are
several again, severalintegrations that already
currently work from day one,such as the Freedom Extension,
their DNS.
We also have integrations withMailChain, ethermail, all kinds
(29:06):
of people that do Web3 messaging, huddle for doing Web3 video
conferences, many, many more.
But all of those utilities areavailable to you to empower your
SLDs from day one.
Another thing which we talkedabout in one of the prior Web3
domain spaces is that Freenameinvestors are treated like
(29:27):
partners from day one.
The entire opportunity atFreename is turnkey.
Most of the utility that theyhave and some of the additional
utilities that they've createdto monetize your domains from
day one are nocode.
So some of the things thatFreename does a little bit
(29:48):
different to the other again,ecosystems that we purposely and
have made very clear that weare in this space to help create
an alternative product to whichwould be Handshaker D-Web.
Much love to those communities,but that's the experience over
there.
To build over there, you got toknow how to build.
The experience is different onFreename and I've made this
pretty clear.
(30:08):
Some of the no-code tools whenyou purchase a TLD that are
available for you from day oneis the ability to not only
control pricing but to createpromo codes.
You're also able to create whatis called a reseller page.
This is a one-click page thatyou're able to put out there
that people can gives themresults on your TLD.
(30:31):
It gives suggestions for othernames on your TLD.
It actually uses AI to kind ofpopulate different suggestions.
It's like a sales tool in oneright.
It's a whole registration pagethat's available on day one.
Second one no code, one click,okay.
So definitely want to dispelthe myth that when you join
Freename you're on your own.
(30:51):
In addition to that, my veryexistence in this space is one
of the utilities that exist toFreename partners and investors.
We have two different groups.
We have both our general group.
If you own one domain name offof 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
(31:14):
and got your free domain usingthat $10 code, you could join
that community and you'd get thesame love as somebody that's
got $10,000.
So there's that community thatyou're able to join, to ask
questions at any point, to gethelp, to get suggestions for
anything that you want.
I mean it's a completely openand active community and I even
believe today.
Yeah, paige, if any of you guysaren't familiar with Veteran
(31:35):
Domainer Paige Howe, he is alsoa big member and an advisor to
FreeName has been since thestart.
One of the services that heprovides every Friday inside of
that group is he actually doesappraisals.
So you get appraisals from adude who's been doing domaining
(32:00):
for like 30-something years who,on record, has sold two
separate domain names for morethan a million dollars each.
You get that for free for goingto get in a $10 domain name.
So that part exists right.
But if you've really putsubstantial investment into the
free name ecosystem and youbecome one of those VIPs, then
you get to the VIP group, whichis where you get to meet me,
right.
You get these workshops.
You get also an additionaldiscount that's available to
VIPs all the time.
We have product calls that arewith VIPs.
(32:22):
You have the.
We just opened up what westarted doing called Office
Hours, which gives you aone-on-one with me and any
member of the team that alignswith an issue that you have.
There are again, there'ssupport for our free name
investors and community from thesecond you join it.
You are definitely not alone.
This is a funded team of morethan one person.
(32:44):
So just wanted to put that outthere and clarify that
misunderstanding.
And then, lastly, so going backto the again.
So going back to the again asopportunities are created in the
space, I'm not going to negatethat the existence of some
companies or the creation ofsome companies are going to
(33:06):
purposely step on the toes ofothers.
If there is any entity andagain, not to stir up anything
with these communities, I've gotmuch love for them.
If you know me, you know whereI'm coming from.
But if there's any entitiesthat should like have an issue
with anything right now as faras the existence of free name,
again it would be handshake anddissent, as we've said before,
(33:27):
and it was we got accused thatwe are here.
So I think some people who justaren't paying attention to
history are thinking that, likewe're creating these tlds, like
after unstoppable announces,like a partnership, and it's
like, nah, brother, they'vealways been there.
And not only have they alwaysbeen there, but at free name's
(33:47):
inception, as I've mentionedbefore, there weren't that many
people here and free name reallywanted to have a cohesive
cooperative space.
I know some other entities likehave pretended that they do,
but FreeName really did right.
So almost all of FreeName'sresolution products, the ones
that I've demonstrated thus farin these workshops, they all
(34:09):
resolve unstoppable ENS domains.
Both their Web3 DNS does theirextension with both the payments
, everything that Freename hasbuilt that resolves Web3 domains
, has blanked out in our ownecosystem Anything that was, you
know, a property of ENS orUnstoppable.
They blocked out, of course,all the ICANN TLDs and they
(34:31):
blocked out a bunch of bigkeywords and brand names, like
they did the same honorablething that anybody would think
that somebody was really tryingto build in the space did.
We didn't know that you guyswere going to make up like 50
more.
And again now it's creatingthis conversation.
But I want to make it clearthat just because something's
happening now doesn't mean thatit was malicious to begin with.
(34:51):
Freename was never created tocompete with Unstoppable or ENS.
It just happens to look thatway now, but maybe not right.
And now we'll, with that beingsaid, getting through those
clarifications.
I'm going to kind of get intothe meat of this and explain why
it's again for lack of a betterterm why it's kind of a nothing
(35:13):
burger.
Right, and again, if anybodywants to join this convo, feel
free to come up and request aspeaker role or ask your
question in the comments, butdefinitely good for everybody
who is here.
So far live and pulled up tothe conversation.
But, yeah, let's get to onchainspecifically, or actually
whatever TLD.
So here's a couple big pointsthat I kind of really want to
(35:37):
land, and this is some thingsthat I demonstrated yesterday.
First big point, and an obviousone Blockchain is unregulated.
Ok, we are in the wild, wildwest.
We are in a space wheretechnology rules, not the law.
Ok, and even if and when I canapprove some of these things as
(35:59):
Web2 domain names, that stillain't going to give any of them
any authority over this space.
I really need you to understandthis.
As I defined earlier, Web2 andWeb3 are two completely
different things, even thoughthey have the same name.
Peanut butter sandwich and abologna sandwich are two
(36:20):
different things, even thoughthey're both a sandwich, and
they have two different markets.
That's completely different,though, but you get my point.
My point is that, if both ofthese exist, right, if the ICANN
version of NET.
Well, look at right now.
You're looking at an example ofit right now.
Dot-ef is an actual, real-lifeTLD that does not belong to ENS.
(36:44):
Dot-ef is a TLD that sits inthe ICANN ecosystem that is
dormant, that was originallyassigned to the country of
Ethiopia and ENS does not ownthat TLD yet completely made an
entire immutable ecosystem thatcan't be shut down.
(37:04):
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 ethain't shit they can do about the
millions that already exist onENS.
It's just a fact.
Nobody owns the blockchain andif the government has no
authority over TLDs or theability to shut down TLDs,
(37:26):
certainly UD and itspartnerships don't okay.
So when you see one and this isme talking directly to my free
name investors when you see anew one getting popped out there
, just acknowledge it and moveon, because it's not the end-all
(37:47):
be-all Again.
No one's stamping this.
There's no government officialthat flies down to UD's office
and says, yeah, that one's youIf you assign this.
No one else can get it Again.
We see how this already playedout with wallet and no shade to
UD.
I even said in the workshopyesterday I've been around like
I come from the UD community.
I was investing in UD before Icame into any of these other
naming services.
I still hold them, I stillmeant some, I still got.
(38:07):
I got techtalkpodcast.
The other day I met UD and Imet Matt and Sandy in person,
respect them both highlyprofessionally and just keep it
at above.
Right, I'm just trying to keeppeople kind of with a level head
so that this doesn't turn intolike vicious competition but
just turns into to go build,right, and look at the space,
(38:30):
the bigger picture of the space,which is the more people we can
start adopting to the narrativeof them needing a name of any
source from anyone, the biggerour bubble gets, which creates
more opportunity for all of us,right.
And with that being said, everyname doesn't have to be
universally appealing or evenused, right.
So again, going back to thislike owning the whole internet
(38:54):
thing, right, somebody mightcome up with and this is going
to be controversial but nft,right now, the nft that exists
on UD, I guess we've accepted itas being kind of like the
universal standard nft, butsomebody can create a better nft
that works for their communityand has utility for their
(39:16):
community specifically, and thatwould work just fine.
It wouldn't at all conflictwith the one that exists,
because the two worlds don'tmatch right, or the two worlds
don't meet.
Every single name that's outthere isn't going to be the name
for all right, just because itsounds like a word everyone's
going to like.
Not everyone's going to likeits tech stack.
Not everyone's going to likeits integrations.
(39:38):
I mean, some people are goingto absolutely be forced into
only using an ENS or a ethbecause of its current
integrations.
That's just the way.
It is.
Kudos for them, locking thatdown.
Some of the things thatFreename is doing, though, as
well.
They're going to create certaintools and certain partnerships
where you're going to be forcedinto that ecosystem if you want
to use it, and that's not a badthing.
That just means that there'sdifferent opportunities for
(40:00):
people to build.
Again, you know some of thepartnerships 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 anotherexample, just to lay this down
on you.
It's like look at Austin orSecret.
(40:20):
You cannot possibly tell methat those two TLDs are owned
forevermore and can never beencroached on by any entity on
the planet besides the AustinAsian American Chamber of
Commerce.
Or Secret protocol Like no oneuses these Like who uses Anime
commerce.
Or dot secret protocol Like noone uses these like who uses dot
(40:41):
anime, like.
Again, these TLDs and thesepartnerships should have been
made right.
So, again, let me.
Let me clarify that.
But in addition to thesepartnerships, you've got to
understand that if the valuedoesn't exist outside of these
partnerships, you can't layclaim to the whole world
blockchain-wide, like come on,bro.
And so that's what I'm trying toclarify is that when you see
(41:03):
these partnerships being made,especially if you're an investor
of this technology in any othernamespace and you're starting
to think that the names you haveare worthless, take that into
consideration.
Build your own partnershipsthat give value to your names,
and they'll never coincide witheach other.
Both of these ecosystems canand they will exist.
This is how I believe thisplace is going to plan out, and
(41:26):
that's why I said earlierunderstanding the tech and how
these things even work answersthis question for you.
There are different blockchainsout there.
How can one TLD that's sittingon one blockchain benefit
someone who's building on acompletely different tech stack
and another blockchain.
If they like the name and theycan build a community around the
name, then they can bothcoexist.
(41:47):
The only thing similar in thosenames is the word.
That's it, nothing else.
So, and then lastly, is ifyou're really that concerned
about it, like if you're justlike nah, marcus, ain't talking
about nothing and again I alwayssay the words like not
financial advice, also not legaladvice, anything that I'm
(42:08):
saying right now, if I'm sayingsomething that you're like yo,
that's stupid, I know the lawlike one of them does have to go
.
Ignore me, ok, do you?
I'm just putting this out.
There is what I think is myopinion of how we can best
navigate and understand thespace as it is currently.
But again going to my lastthing, if you're really that
concerned about it, legallyprotect your investments.
(42:31):
So the difference inopportunity is another thing
that needs to be clarified.
So the difference inopportunity is another thing
that needs to be clarified andI've spelled it out a million
(42:53):
times.
But again, when I go intoecosystems that we really
compare with, I don't understandhow, like UD or ENS, keeps
coming're buying a ether or a UDname.
There's nothing wrong with that.
People make millions andmillions of dollars buying and
flipping assets, getting theirfirst early.
You know the process right.
But the opportunity to exist ina free name is completely
different.
When you're buying an assetthat is basically an asset that
(43:15):
you're collecting and holdingand flipping, the business of
doing that collectively is abusiness, but the asset itself
isn't an individual business.
What you're acquiring fromFreename is an asset that then
can produce assets and that,again, with a one-click reseller
page, enables you to allowpeople to mint their name on
your name.
(43:35):
It is a business in a box andyou should treat it as such.
And if you are so concernedwith some the existence of your
name popping up somewhere elseand potentially pushing you out
of the market, you can legallyprotect it the same way you can
protect any other business.
All right.
Questions comes up in our groupoften like how do we do that?
Well, there's a couple ofdifferent ways, both like
(43:55):
formally and informally.
I'll talk about the informalway first, since that's probably
the easiest thing any of youguys can do.
On the TLD side, if you own aTLD with free name or anywhere
again, no matter if you're onHandshake, decentralweb, if
you're sitting on an asset, yougot a solid idea.
You think your TLD is going tochange the world and you want to
make sure nobody's going to Fwith it.
(44:17):
Tell somebody else, like that'sthe first thing you can do,
right?
Tell anybody else.
There's so many owners outthere of these TLDs that don't
tweet.
You don't tweet, you don'tmarket, you don't promote, you
don't tell anybody that you ownthe TLD.
You've built nothing around it,there's no landing page for it,
(44:37):
there's no declaration thatI've created a business and I
have an intent to create acommunity with this TLD.
So here in the United Statesand I'm going to get to the
formal part but here in theUnited States at least it is a
very difficult and almostimpossible process to do what's
called a trademark on a Web3 TB.
I know because I've tried itright.
(44:58):
But, as I explained yesterday inthe workshop, one of the things
the reason why I tried it and Iknew that it was going to fail
kind of in advance, but one ofthe reasons why I tried it
anyway was to create a papertrail was to set basically a
flag of saying I tried to dothis first, and that's what I
(45:19):
mean Things like promoting it onyour social media, creating
landing pages for it, gettingpeople to mint it, creating a
real business declaring yourflag, like what UD does every
single time.
They launch a TLD when theymake these announcements, when
they tag their partner, whentheir partner retweets and tags
it too, when there's a landingpage where you can go mint it,
(45:40):
that's what they're doing.
It's kind of similar to thegold rush claims here in the
1800s in the US, where youshowed up and you planted your
flag.
That's what you got to do.
You got to tell people you gotit Right.
That I was making is thatcertain actions that you can do,
although you cannot get.
What's a registered trademark.
Certain of these actions willimply what is called an
(46:04):
unregistered trademark, which isstill legally defendable in
court.
So doing these things can helpyou.
Now, if you do, if you're like,hey, nah, I got to have it on
paper, I don't want no papertrail simply tweeting it, blah,
blah, blah, that ain't going towork.
Again, going back to theopportunity at hand and the
difference in opportunity andthose tools that you know some
(46:25):
people say that don't exist atFreename Another part of the
utility that is offered toanyone at Freename is, if you
purchase a TLD, freename haswell has the ability to access
an agent on your behalf and filefor a trademark application in
Switzerland, which is where theyare based.
They will do that for anybodywho owns a TLD in the Freename
ecosystem and their applications, unlike the US, do get passed.
(46:49):
So you will get a trademark inSwitzerland for your Freename
TLD if you use their process.
Well, I don't live inSwitzerland.
Why would I do that?
Well, having a trademark in anycountry actually sets a
precedent for you to be able toapply for it worldwide with WIPO
.
So all of these things lead toa thing again, if you're
(47:10):
extremely concerned aboutlegally protecting your
investments, depending on yourpartner and again, you can't be
a partner if you're the end userand buying as a collector and
just sitting on something Apartner, an entity that has a
whole team that again, businessmodel from day one, from the day
it started, the day it launched, was to operate like this,
right here.
(47:31):
When you've got the rightpartner, they'll help you with
anything that you're concernedwith and again, they can walk
you through not only thetrademark application and get it
done for you in Switzerland,but also, and as we mentioned
and went through on the lastWeb3Demain workshop, for those
of you who are just completelyturned on by the ICANN TLD
application thing, they willalso assist you in that
(47:52):
application as well.
Application as well.
And remember, you're beingassisted by an ICANN accredited
registrar as well that ispartnered with an entity that
already owns like five ICANNTLDs.
So, yeah, with that being said,hopefully that kind of answered
the question, at least from myperspective.
You know which of these TLDs isreal and can they coexist?
(48:16):
And again, that answer is yes,just just.
It's really a solid yes, butright, it's a yes depending
right.
Is there an opportunity inmultiple TLDs in these
namespaces existing, I guesswould 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
(48:39):
partnerships and some of theseTLDs like, well, even like
onchain, right, I mean, I don'tknow who onchain foundation is,
I don't know how big their reachis.
I looked at their website.
It's hella impressive.
It looks solid.
But 2,000 SLDs registered onTLD, bro, that yeah, nah, bro,
(48:59):
that's not going to cut it right.
That's hardly conquering theworld right.
So more power to thatpartnership.
I certainly hope that it growsand is successful for UD and do
what you got to do.
But if you got onchain andanother ecosystem and you can
build it bigger and build itbetter, and if you think you got
a better shot at ICANN, that'sthere too.
Don't get discouraged.
And that's the point that I'mtrying to make is it depends,
(49:20):
build better, and that's thething, 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.
Within the Freename ecosystem,yeah, here in about 40 minutes
we are going to transition intothe whale talk that we have
every Friday on free name.
So definitely invite anybody inthis space to attend that space
(49:40):
, where we'll have page pull upthere as well to talk about some
of the recent things that havehappened in the web three and
web two domain space.
But, yeah, as always, do.
Thank you guys for attendingthis web three domain workshop.
Again, this will be availableon our website as well as in
podcast form in about a week orso and, yeah, for anybody who
wants to get hands on or has anydirect questions.
Feel free to join the free namecommunity.
(50:02):
We do this every Thursday inthe VIP community.
We do this every Friday righthere on spaces.
Uh, focus on your mission now,your condition and happy,
demanding.
Thank you guys.
See you guys next week.
Thank you, hello, hello everybody.
Gonna get started here in justa second, just pinning a couple
things to the top of the space.
Yeah, first of all, superthankful for you guys for being
here as you come into the space.
If you could do me an awesomebig favor like and retweet Got a
few more people who want tojoin the convo.
(02:08):
Also, if you want to come up onstage and join the conversation
, you're always welcome to do soby requesting a speaker role or
you can just ask your questionin the comment section.
But, yeah, get started inprobably just about 10 or 15
more seconds, so sorry for theawkward silence.
All righty, awesome sauce.
(02:45):
Yeah, this one should be apretty good one to listen back
to and hopefully you know Icould do a pretty good job of
delivering the point that Iwanted to make today with this
basis.
But, yeah, I do want to welcomeyou to our Tech Talk podcast.
If you haven't been here before.
This is a live discussion that Ido here weekly on X, live
discussion that I do here weeklyon X, where I highlight news,
innovation, education, alpha andbusiness development, primarily
(03:08):
in the Web3 technology anddigital identity space.
For those of you who do notknow who's behind the platform.
I am Marcus aka WIT Airdrop,founder of iHeart Domains and
proud to be your number oneresource for unbiased Web3 and
blockchain domain educationalcontent.
For the past two and a halfyears or so, with over 100 of
(03:29):
these tech talk episodes andYouTube videos of each produced
and archived, you can actuallysee that entire archive.
If you'd like to see our pastepisodes directly on our website
Really easy to get toiHeartDomainscom You'll not only
see a recording of these, butyou'll also see a blog overview
as well.
So kind of easy to take it in,just depending on how much time
(03:51):
you have.
Also, if you do like to listento content like this in podcast
format, this is where this getsbroadcast to, so this is on
every major podcast player outthere, including Apple, spotify,
iheartradio, all that goodstuff and you can see all of our
previous episodes that areavailable on podcast at
(04:12):
techtalkhost and, yeah, I mighteven forward techtalkpodcast
over there, which is interesting, considering the conversation.
But yeah, again, if anybodydoes want to join the
conversation, please feel freeto ask any question that you
have or speak a role.
It's always been an open spacewhere we discuss and share alpha
(04:32):
as typical.
I do like to open with some ofthe news that has been going on
for the past week or so Forthose of you who don't keep your
ear to the industry and maybejust tap it in spaces to get
your news, starting from what Ithink is kind of like some of
the most bullish and biggestnews, like I'm extremely bullish
(04:54):
on it and have kind of beenshot from the rooftops.
But you know well, first andforemost, you know we here in
the United States of America wegot a new president right.
So Donald Trump has succeededin becoming president again and
he has, well, you know, he'skind of establishing himself as
a very crypto friendly president.
So you know he's had his handsin a few ventures, you know, one
(05:19):
of them being the meme cointhat he just launched, the other
being World Liberty Financialand the meme coin that you just
launched, the other being WorldLiberty Financial.
And so, with that being saidand making those connections, I
consider anything done by WorldLiberty Financial to basically
have a stamp of approval from atleast the Trump family, right?
So if World Liberty Financialdoes something, trump did it and
, with that being said, one ofthe things that they recently
(05:42):
did kind of coinciding with thelaunch of their meme coins is
they acquired some Web3 domainnames.
In particular, they acquired, Ibelieve, four eth names, so
four ENS names, mostly relatedto, like, eric and Barron Trump
and World Liberty Financial andsuch.
And then they also apparentlypaid $47,000 for Melania Trump
(06:06):
dot soul.
And so why is this extremelybullish 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, youknow, you make the bubble bigger
, then the opportunity foreveryone in the bubble becomes
(06:26):
bigger.
President, basically justco-signed Web3 domains, right,
you know, in addition to themillion discussions that we've
had out here to distract us fromthe value of what these things
are, you know, one of thosediscussions that's come up is
what's the point of them in thefirst place?
Who's ever going to adopt them?
Who would choose this over adot com?
(06:48):
Right, dot com can doeverything.
A dot ease can, right, andalthough there is truth to those
conversations, right, there'salso truth in there being, again
, like certain I guess you wouldsay, legacy assets, or there's
a value, first and foremost, tohaving a blockchain native asset
, like even bridging a dot cominto Web3, you still have a Web2
(07:10):
route that can still be takenfrom you, right?
So some people are always goingto going to be able to make the
connection.
It's not really my identity,unless the route is detached
from some source that can takeit from me.
So there's always going to bevalue in straight up Web3 domain
names and I think that that, toan extent even though that may
have not been the exact reasonwhy they grabbed these names
(07:33):
still the thing that we can,still the narrative we can run
with, right, they bought thesenames for a reason, which means
there is a reason.
Right, and that's the thingthat I'm doubling down on and
I'm super proud of is that, youknow, the president of the
United States saw some value inthese domain names.
They saw a reason they acquiredthem.
They saw 47,000 reasons forMelania Trump, so that I mean
that that's a solid one that Ithink anybody should be proud to
(07:55):
go in town If you're aninvestor 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 startseeing the value in them.
Will they come run and mintyour name?
I don't know, but it should atthe very least start getting
people to start seeing the value, at least in names.
(08:15):
And again they immediately setthe records on their names so
they put them to use, so theyshowed you know kind of the
potential use case for theacquired use case and if
everyone just comes into thespace to follow suit, again like
it's going to be a veryprosperous space and there's
room for everyone to grow andsucceed.
So there we go World LibertyFinancial grab some debate names
(08:35):
Moving on.
Yesterday I hosted an AMA on thefree name page with their
newest partner, which wasEtherlink.
So if you didn't get a chanceto tap into that, and just a
little quick overview ofEtherlink Etherlink is an
Ethereum L2.
(08:55):
So they're an EVML2 that isbuilt on top of the Tezos
blockchain.
Haven't really had muchdealings with Tezos, so not
familiar with kind of how it'sset up.
He described it a bit in thatAMA, so I encourage you to
listen back to that, but I wouldassume that it doesn't
currently have EVM or smartcontract capability.
It might be kind of more of, Iguess, maybe a proof of is it
(09:21):
proof of stake chain or proof ofwork chain like Bitcoin or
something like that.
Again, if you know more aboutTezos, you know what its
limitations are and its need foran L2.
Well, etherlink is an L2.
Awesome sauce.
So they're building technologyon top of the Tezos blockchain.
They're inviting builders tobuild over there and kind of
make it useful.
Same reason why Ethereum needsan L2 for faster transactions,
(09:45):
cheaper transactions, all thatgood stuff.
They bring that same type ofvalue Over to Tezos and he
explained that there actuallyare some incentives for anyone
who does want to build on thatblockchain.
So definitely be sure to reachout to them for information on
that.
But kind of, what makes that thepoint?
We, freename, have created apartnership with EtherLink and
(10:08):
we have partnered with them onthe EtherLink TLD.
So now, whether you're withintheir community or outside of
their community, you're able tomake a EtherLink domain name.
They all come with Freename'snative utility and then, as I
asked yesterday during the AMAand the spaces, they will
potentially come with additionalutility directly from Etherlink
(10:28):
.
I asked primarily about theirtech stack, if their tech, you
know, will be built around youknow the Etherlink domain names,
and that's to be seen.
But one of the things that theydid mention that is likely to
happen is, again, one of thesimplest use cases possible for
(10:57):
digital identity and creating acommunity with your own TLD is
that they're going to use thedomain extension as an airdrop
magnet.
So and this is cool too, sothat I've actually been involved
in an ecosystem that's similarto this space ID, which, like
nobody talks about, systemthat's similar to this uh space
id, which, like nobody talksabout but, again, is a beast
with their tech in the space andthey're really like they're
killing it without being inanybody's conversation.
Uh, they, actually they, theycreated a partnership with um,
uh, with the blockchain I can'teven think of their name, uh,
and I'll think of it probably atsome point during this saying
(11:19):
this, but same kind ofrelationship, right, uh, that
that blockchain, take the withtheir TLD.
They promised anybody who bentto that TLD that anybody who
launched through their launchpad, you know, on their blockchain,
basically, would like basicallygive them an allocation of an
airdrop that they would thenairdrop the holders of, not only
people who held the domains,but there were, like some other
(11:42):
different things that you couldhave done in their ecosystem to
qualify you for it, but all youhad to do was hold one of the
domains in order to get,basically, airdrops for every
project that's ever launched onthis blockchain.
I haven't even checked in for abit, but there were some blocks
.
I mean, they came right.
I got a few of them.
They'd make me rich, but itjustified me getting the names.
(12:03):
So this may and again, notfinancial advice again tap into
the community for moreinformation.
But he alluded that this wouldwork the same.
So, again, like they have someincentives for people to go and
begin building on thisblockchain those that do if they
receive, you know,incentivization from those
projects, then they will airdropthem or encourage those
(12:25):
projects to airdrop to Etherlinkholders.
So, yeah, just another reasonfor you to go take a look at it
if you haven't already grabbed afew.
Last reason, and I'll get offthe Etherlink shill they issued
a $10 promo coupon for Eylinknames with this partnership.
(12:46):
Now I have to point out thatthe coupon works a little
different than the discountsthat I think you typically see.
Coupons is actually kind oflike what FreeName originally
launched when we first launched,and a lot of people took
advantage of this, and I'll tellyou why.
So, with the traditionaldiscounts that you usually see,
like the 50% off, 40% off,whatever it is.
(13:09):
Whatever that percentage is,there has to be a positive
balance on the cart, and evensometimes, you know the cart has
to have a minimum amount in itin order to get the discount.
So there's always I mean evenstill killer deal.
You can get domains for ascheap as $2 that are forever
with no renewal, but even still,you've got to have money,
(13:31):
you've got to have an ability toat least check out a dollar or
two, and some people in someareas don't have that right.
With these coupons, though, ifyou can get your cart price to
less than $10, the coupons willwipe them out and you don't have
to connect the wallet oranything to check out.
So it literally works is anopportunity for you to go get
some free domain names on theethelink extension by using that
(13:54):
$10 coupon.
So, yeah, not a financialdevice.
If you hate free stuff, justignore what I said.
But if you like all that coolstuff that I just said, yeah,
for a limited time, thatpartnership's out there and that
coupon's there.
And then, lastly, speaking ofTLDs, we own the dgen, exchain
.88888, that's five eights anddefi wallet TLD amongst many
(14:16):
others in the free nameecosystem.
Those TLDs are currently openand available right now for Mint
and they are accepting the freename wide coupon.
So those discounts I wastalking 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 getinto the main combo.
So, as you can see at the topof the space title of this Web3
(14:37):
Domain Workshop and I'll explaina little bit about what that is
.
But the title of thisparticular workshop is which
OnchainTLDIsReal?
Fn standing for free name or UDstanding for unstoppable
domains.
And again, to introduce theWeb3 Domain Workshop, this tech
talk, the previous, like four orfive, and those in the near
(15:00):
future are part of what is ourWeb3 Domain Workshop
series.
This is in partnership withFreename, as I've explained in
previous workshops.
Purpose of this workshop is twopart.
We have a well.
So, just like every othernaming community, we do have a
VIP community within Freename.
Again, join the Freenamecommunity for more information
about how to become a VIP.
(15:21):
But we do provide additionaltools and services and you know
things for success within thatcommunity and that's kind of
what my job is.
So, as you see in the bio, I ama VIP relations, vip liaison
and one of the things that wehave began implementing into the
group or into the community isthis workshop series.
So every Thursday morning we dothis same topic that you see
(15:44):
now within the free name VIPcommunity via Google Meet, where
VIPs are able to show up.
They're able to interact, askquestions.
We share the screen, we gothrough this in as physical
format as I guess you can andthen follow these up every
Friday here in a public space.
And the reason why we do themboth private and public is,
again, purpose of the workshopwith our VIP community is to
(16:06):
help guide our community andanswer questions for them to be
more successful with themarketing and promotion things
with their TLD and partnershipsand building and
such.
But externally, most of what wetalk about does have an
external benefit to the Web3domain space in general.
As I'm going to mention alittle bit later, a lot of the
(16:27):
tools that Freename has builtand developed are actually, you
know, multi-naming servicecompatible.
So they're meant to becooperative and the benefits
that and the utility thatFreename has created can be used
by all.
So no matter whether you'refrom ENS, unstoppable Handshake,
whatever community you'recoming from might learn
something that works out for youand, like I said, it's a great
(16:48):
general education for both newand experienced investors.
So again, every Friday we'll bedoing this workshop and we'll
be diving into a new subject,topic or anything of interest
that helps clarify certaintopics or certain discussions in
the Web3space.
Also and sorry to keep teasingyou, but another thing that I
(17:09):
feel like is just extremelynecessary to do before we dive
into this is, again, we may havepeople that are tapping into
the space, both either now orvia or during the podcast, who
may be hearing about what thisstuff is for the first time, and
so I always like to begin bydefining the difference between
what a Web 2 and Web 3 domain is, so that we are all on the same
(17:31):
page.
You know, the word domain canbe confusing, and it is a term
that everyone is familiar with,but they associate with one
thing Most of the planet, whenthey hear the word domain name,
is going to think about a com,xyz, io, etc.
That exists in the DNS or ICANNspace.
They are going to expect totype that thing into their web
browser and then they're goingto expect that thing to take
(17:53):
them to the content that existson the other end.
That is how Web2 domains work.
They have been around for 30years or so and they are
currently a multibillion-dollarindustry.
Web3 domains work in ablockchain environment.
This is a new, innovativetechnology.
It works very similar and, ofcourse, their structure looks
exactly the same.
(18:13):
But this is not something thatmost people are going to be
familiar with when you bring itup in just a random conversation
.
But for anyone who is familiarwith blockchain addresses,
blockchain addresses are longand complicated, kind of the
same format as IP addresses.
So humanizing them and creatinga route for people to get to
them by typing in that humanname is what Web3 domains
(18:35):
do.
Like I said, similar to howWeb2 domains work, just in two
completely different ecosystemsand environments.
Web3 domains is not amulti-billion dollar ecosystem
Well, it actually kind of isright, we do have somebody worth
a billion but we expect this tobe, you know, kind of an
evolution of what we calldigital identity.
So difference in the two.
Now let's get into it which isthe real on-chain and okay.
(19:05):
So as our space grows, like Isaid, both Web3 in general and a
digital identity entities inthis space are, it's just
natural they're going tocontinue to expand their quest
for opportunity as thatopportunity becomes available in
thespace.
And there are bound to bescenarios where toes are kind of
quote unquote, stepped on right.
The recent launch of the TLD athand, which is onchain, and
(19:27):
there's like a million more.
We'll talk about that.
But the recent launch of theonchain TLD, this one in
particular, is in partnership, Ibelieve, with Onchain
Foundation and UnstoppableDomains.
It happens to be one of thescenarios, right, and it's the
obvious inspiration behind thisconversation.
So when this got launched, thisjust happened, like last week,
(19:49):
last week, but during thislaunch, you know, I saw a couple
conversations about it, as Iusually do, and it looks like it
got recently discovered by afew in like the UD community,
from people I respect as well,and I saw that they were
discussing, like on Twitter, theTLD, like this TLD in
particular, and I think a coupleof them brought up a few others
(20:11):
.
But I feel like they recentlydiscovered that these TLDs have
either been available or alreadyacquired by other investors and
other naming protocols,particularly in this case,
freename right, which is whywe're having this conversation
Again, as I had to explain onthose tweets that Fedame has
(20:31):
operated under this technicaland business model since its
exception over two and a halfyears ago, so this isn't a new
thing,right?
So, like with this conversation, came a bunch of questions on
both sides of the fence, and Idid the best I could to to
answer those questions inTwitter format.
And then, of course, you know,we talked about these in the web
three domain workshop yesterday.
(20:51):
But but how did this happen,right, you know?
Can this happen?
You know, does one of them haveto go?
Who's regulating this?
And then, of course, which oneis real or fake, just as I did
yesterday, all of thesequestions can really actually be
answered with a simpleunderstanding of how blockchain
(21:15):
technology and how naming on theblockchain both currently does
and will work, and even how eachof these names naming systems
are are are going to be used,right?
Because, I mean, I think I'vegiven 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 utilizedby one community, and so we'll
(21:36):
get into that part.
But another thing, too, likethis again not a new
conversation, as we've alreadyseen in our space with how
wallet played out both publiclyand legally the short answer to
this question and I'm going todig into it is they're both real
, right Depending.
So one of the things I did wantto do, though, in response to
(21:59):
that conversation because youknow, again, I try to do the
best I can to do this viaTwitter, but I do want to begin
by clarifying a few bigmisunderstandings so we can
dispel some of themisinformation that's out there,
and this kind of helps set theplaying field for which one is
real.
So, as I mentioned againearlier, the business model that
(22:19):
currently exists at Freenamehas been their business model
and has been the exact samesince its inception.
And I'm actually a day oneFreenamer, right, I showed up
day one, that's when I mentioneddgen.8888.
I showed up day one, that'swhen I mentioned dgen.8888.
(22:50):
And they've operated this exactsame way.
Before UD pivoted its businessmodel to handing out TLDs, it
last week's Web3 domain workshopwas actually on the process to
apply for ICANN.
You know how likely this is tohappen, so that promise is a
pretty thin one.
But my point is is that waybefore this current business
model that exists that we seeand we're claiming is like the
victor way before this existed?
(23:11):
Freedame has been doing thisVictor, way before this existed,
freedame has been doing this.
They've been connecting withindividual investors.
Tlds, or what we call Web3 TLDsthat are created on its tech
stack have been offered forinvestment and they've been
operating as such.
They've never pivoted, they'venever shifted, they've only
evolvedright.
And that's what struck a nerveto me, because one of the things
that came up in theconversation and I can't
(23:32):
remember who it was that said itor who came to the conclusion.
It doesn't matter, because Iwasn't trying to argue, I was
just trying to clarify.
But what struck a nerve wasduring this conversation as to
which TLD was real.
We are called clones and I'mlike my question was of who
right, question was of who right, and some good questions were
(23:59):
asked and again creates thisneed for clarification because,
like the of who, like maybeHandshake has that claim, or
maybe D-Web or DecentralWeb ifyou guys aren't familiar with
them, maybe they have that claim.
And again, like FreeName hasnever made it a secret that
their purpose was to make thoseprotocols you know, or create a
protocol that would be moreuseful and more commercially
friendly than those protocol,more investable, which in my
(24:21):
opinion, I think it has.
But I'm like, certainly youdon't mean we're clones of
Unstoppable.
So I want to clear some stuffup before we kind of get to the
otherstuff.
One of the first things I guessthat was supporting that
argument was this ICANNaccreditation thing right To be.
I'm going to say this for thehundredth time for anyone who is
(24:42):
listening from wherever you'relistening from, I don't care if
you own a box or whatever youown 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.
(25:06):
They did this first and Iexplained this as well.
Freename has a whole asspartnership with a company
called ShortDot, which ShortDotowns several actual ICANN TLDs.
They're a real owner of TLDs,including IOU.
They own Bond, they own WS,they own many others, right,
(25:26):
ShortDot and FreeName have anactual joint venture.
This is a legal partnershipcalled WebUnited.
This is a legal partnershipcalled WebUnited.
(25:48):
Under this partnership theyhave developed several pieces of
technology that they areintegrating into the Web2 space,
in addition to tokenizing Web2domains into Web3, which to that
extension.
Currently, right now, that'sthe tech stack that they did
this for and that they're goingto continue to build on that
techstack.
But they did this first, andthe reason why I'm mentioning
this is because when this wasmentioned in that particular
conversation, themisunderstanding was that free
names accreditation came afterUDs, therefore we were copying
(26:11):
them.
I'm like no, no, no, no, no,free name has a completely
different.
So and again, as I explained inthe workshop yesterday,
existing in the same space,having something that's called
the same thing, but having twocompletely different agendas or
markets that you're operating in, it's completely possible.
And free names, again, theywere first, so they can't be
(26:33):
copying you if they were first.
And the question I asked there,which was really just to be
asked but there is anotherentity that got their
accreditation before UD as well.
So if anybody copied, anybody,dig down that rabbit hole, right
.
But the accreditation for freename was originally in support
of this joint venture and again,it's continuing along a
(26:54):
business plan that existed farbefore anybody else started
talking about it or making itmainstream in the space.
So wanted to clarify thatone.
A Number two and, if any, I'mgoing to say some things that
some people might take the wrongway.
I'm going to say some thingsthat some people might take the
(27:15):
wrong way.
This is just me keeping it abuck.
For those of you who have knownme, you've known I've been in
this space for years and youknow I've been in this space as
a member or participant invirtually every platform.
I see the good in everybody.
I try to unite people againwith the general vision of the
space growing as a whole.
The whole bubble growing makesus all prosperous, right, but I
(27:37):
do also got to keep it 100 with.
You know where some things fallshort, okay.
So, with that being said, itwas
also.
I think people confuseFreename's tech stack and their
opportunity with the other onesthat are out there, right?
So one of the misunderstandingswas that when you purchase a
TNAT TLD from free name, youhave this non-working, blank
(27:59):
asset that just sits there thatyou now got to go be a developer
and go figure out how to dosomething with it.
That's the furthest thing fromthe truth.
So and that question sometimesis also merged in with the but
you don't have that much utility, okay.
So I'm going to address both ofthose.
And Freename does have a bunchof utility, kind of.
(28:19):
The purpose of these Web3domain workshops is to explain
it all to you.
And we're at like number sixnow is going to continue to grow
.
There is a really, really bigteam behind Freename who is
pushing every single day intheir own departments to make
this the behemoth that it isgoing to continue to
be.
With that being said, don'tever sleep on something just
(28:41):
because it doesn't have anintegration yet.
But going back to theintegrations that it's already
had and the things that it doesfor its investors, there are
several again, severalintegrations that already
currently work from day one,such as the Freedom Extension,
their DNS.
We also have integrations withMailChain, ethermail, all kinds
(29:06):
of people that do Web3 messaging, huddle for doing Web3 video
conferences, many, many more.
But all of those utilities areavailable to you to empower your
SLDs from day one.
Another thing which we talkedabout in one of the prior Web3
domain spaces is that Freenameinvestors are treated like
(29:27):
partners from day one.
The entire opportunity atFreename is turnkey.
Most of the utility that theyhave and some of the additional
utilities that they've createdto monetize your domains from
day one are nocode.
So some of the things thatFreename does a little bit
(29:48):
different to the other again,ecosystems that we purposely and
have made very clear that weare in this space to help create
an alternative product to whichwould be Handshaker D-Web.
Much love to those communities,but that's the experience over
there.
To build over there, you got toknow how to build.
The experience is different onFreename and I've made this
pretty clear.
(30:08):
Some of the no-code tools whenyou purchase a TLD that are
available for you from day oneis the ability to not only
control pricing but to createpromo codes.
You're also able to create whatis called a reseller page.
This is a one-click page thatyou're able to put out there
that people can gives themresults on your TLD.
(30:31):
It gives suggestions for othernames on your TLD.
It actually uses AI to kind ofpopulate different suggestions.
It's like a sales tool in oneright.
It's a whole registration pagethat's available on day one.
Second one no code, one click,okay.
So definitely want to dispelthe myth that when you join
Freename you're on your own.
(30:51):
In addition to that, my veryexistence in this space is one
of the utilities that exist toFreename partners and investors.
We have two different groups.
We have both our general group.
If you own one domain name offof 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
(31:14):
and got your free domain usingthat $10 code, you could join
that community and you'd get thesame love as somebody that's
got $10,000.
So there's that community thatyou're able to join, to ask
questions at any point, to gethelp, to get suggestions for
anything that you want.
I mean it's a completely openand active community and I even
believe today.
Yeah, paige, if any of you guysaren't familiar with Veteran
(31:35):
Domainer Paige Howe, he is alsoa big member and an advisor to
FreeName has been since thestart.
One of the services that heprovides every Friday inside of
that group is he actually doesappraisals.
So you get appraisals from adude who's been doing domaining
(32:00):
for like 30-something years who,on record, has sold two
separate domain names for morethan a million dollars each.
You get that for free for goingto get in a $10 domain name.
So that part exists right.
But if you've really putsubstantial investment into the
free name ecosystem and youbecome one of those VIPs, then
you get to the VIP group, whichis where you get to meet me,
right.
You get these workshops.
You get also an additionaldiscount that's available to
VIPs all the time.
We have product calls that arewith VIPs.
(32:22):
You have the.
We just opened up what westarted doing called Office
Hours, which gives you aone-on-one with me and any
member of the team that alignswith an issue that you have.
There are again, there'ssupport for our free name
investors and community from thesecond you join it.
You are definitely not alone.
This is a funded team of morethan one person.
(32:44):
So just wanted to put that outthere and clarify that
misunderstanding.
And then, lastly, so going backto the again.
So going back to the again asopportunities are created in the
space, I'm not going to negatethat the existence of some
companies or the creation ofsome companies are going to
(33:06):
purposely step on the toes ofothers.
If there is any entity andagain, not to stir up anything
with these communities, I've gotmuch love for them.
If you know me, you know whereI'm coming from.
But if there's any entitiesthat should like have an issue
with anything right now as faras the existence of free name,
again it would be handshake anddissent, as we've said before,
(33:27):
and it was we got accused thatwe are here.
So I think some people who justaren't paying attention to
history are thinking that, likewe're creating these tlds, like
after unstoppable announces,like a partnership, and it's
like, nah, brother, they'vealways been there.
And not only have they alwaysbeen there, but at free name's
(33:47):
inception, as I've mentionedbefore, there weren't that many
people here and free name reallywanted to have a cohesive
cooperative space.
I know some other entities likehave pretended that they do,
but FreeName really did right.
So almost all of FreeName'sresolution products, the ones
that I've demonstrated thus farin these workshops, they all
(34:09):
resolve unstoppable ENS domains.
Both their Web3 DNS does theirextension with both the payments
, everything that Freename hasbuilt that resolves Web3 domains
, has blanked out in our ownecosystem Anything that was, you
know, a property of ENS orUnstoppable.
They blocked out, of course,all the ICANN TLDs and they
(34:31):
blocked out a bunch of bigkeywords and brand names, like
they did the same honorablething that anybody would think
that somebody was really tryingto build in the space did.
We didn't know that you guyswere going to make up like 50
more.
And again now it's creatingthis conversation.
But I want to make it clearthat just because something's
happening now doesn't mean thatit was malicious to begin with.
(34:51):
Freename was never created tocompete with Unstoppable or ENS.
It just happens to look thatway now, but maybe not right.
And now we'll, with that beingsaid, getting through those
clarifications.
I'm going to kind of get intothe meat of this and explain why
it's again for lack of a betterterm why it's kind of a nothing
(35:13):
burger.
Right, and again, if anybodywants to join this convo, feel
free to come up and request aspeaker role or ask your
question in the comments, butdefinitely good for everybody
who is here.
So far live and pulled up tothe conversation.
But, yeah, let's get to onchainspecifically, or actually
whatever TLD.
So here's a couple big pointsthat I kind of really want to
(35:37):
land, and this is some thingsthat I demonstrated yesterday.
First big point, and an obviousone Blockchain is unregulated.
Ok, we are in the wild, wildwest.
We are in a space wheretechnology rules, not the law.
Ok, and even if and when I canapprove some of these things as
(35:59):
Web2 domain names, that stillain't going to give any of them
any authority over this space.
I really need you to understandthis.
As I defined earlier, Web2 andWeb3 are two completely
different things, even thoughthey have the same name.
Peanut butter sandwich and abologna sandwich are two
(36:20):
different things, even thoughthey're both a sandwich, and
they have two different markets.
That's completely different,though, but you get my point.
My point is that, if both ofthese exist, right, if the ICANN
version of NET.
Well, look at right now.
You're looking at an example ofit right now.
Dot-ef is an actual, real-lifeTLD that does not belong to ENS.
(36:44):
Dot-ef is a TLD that sits inthe ICANN ecosystem that is
dormant, that was originallyassigned to the country of
Ethiopia and ENS does not ownthat TLD yet completely made an
entire immutable ecosystem thatcan't be shut down.
(37:04):
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 ethain't shit they can do about the
millions that already exist onENS.
It's just a fact.
Nobody owns the blockchain andif the government has no
authority over TLDs or theability to shut down TLDs,
(37:26):
certainly UD and itspartnerships don't okay.
So when you see one and this isme talking directly to my free
name investors when you see anew one getting popped out there
, just acknowledge it and moveon, because it's not the end-all
(37:47):
be-all Again.
No one's stamping this.
There's no government officialthat flies down to UD's office
and says, yeah, that one's youIf you assign this.
No one else can get it Again.
We see how this already playedout with wallet and no shade to
UD.
I even said in the workshopyesterday I've been around like
I come from the UD community.
I was investing in UD before Icame into any of these other
naming services.
I still hold them, I stillmeant some, I still got.
(38:07):
I got techtalkpodcast.
The other day I met UD and Imet Matt and Sandy in person,
respect them both highlyprofessionally and just keep it
at above.
Right, I'm just trying to keeppeople kind of with a level head
so that this doesn't turn intolike vicious competition but
just turns into to go build,right, and look at the space,
(38:30):
the bigger picture of the space,which is the more people we can
start adopting to the narrativeof them needing a name of any
source from anyone, the biggerour bubble gets, which creates
more opportunity for all of us,right.
And with that being said, everyname doesn't have to be
universally appealing or evenused, right.
So again, going back to thislike owning the whole internet
(38:54):
thing, right, somebody mightcome up with and this is going
to be controversial but nft,right now, the nft that exists
on UD, I guess we've accepted itas being kind of like the
universal standard nft, butsomebody can create a better nft
that works for their communityand has utility for their
(39:16):
community specifically, and thatwould work just fine.
It wouldn't at all conflictwith the one that exists,
because the two worlds don'tmatch right, or the two worlds
don't meet.
Every single name that's outthere isn't going to be the name
for all right, just because itsounds like a word everyone's
going to like.
Not everyone's going to likeits tech stack.
Not everyone's going to likeits integrations.
(39:38):
I mean, some people are goingto absolutely be forced into
only using an ENS or a ethbecause of its current
integrations.
That's just the way.
It is.
Kudos for them, locking thatdown.
Some of the things thatFreename is doing, though, as
well.
They're going to create certaintools and certain partnerships
where you're going to be forcedinto that ecosystem if you want
to use it, and that's not a badthing.
That just means that there'sdifferent opportunities for
(40:00):
people to build.
Again, you know some of thepartnerships 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 anotherexample, just to lay this down
on you.
It's like look at Austin orSecret.
(40:20):
You cannot possibly tell methat those two TLDs are owned
forevermore and can never beencroached on by any entity on
the planet besides the AustinAsian American Chamber of
Commerce.
Or Secret protocol Like no oneuses these Like who uses Anime
commerce.
Or dot secret protocol Like noone uses these like who uses dot
(40:41):
anime, like.
Again, these TLDs and thesepartnerships should have been
made right.
So, again, let me.
Let me clarify that.
But in addition to thesepartnerships, you've got to
understand that if the valuedoesn't exist outside of these
partnerships, you can't layclaim to the whole world
blockchain-wide, like come on,bro.
And so that's what I'm trying toclarify is that when you see
(41:03):
these partnerships being made,especially if you're an investor
of this technology in any othernamespace and you're starting
to think that the names you haveare worthless, take that into
consideration.
Build your own partnershipsthat give value to your names,
and they'll never coincide witheach other.
Both of these ecosystems canand they will exist.
This is how I believe thisplace is going to plan out, and
(41:26):
that's why I said earlierunderstanding the tech and how
these things even work answersthis question for you.
There are different blockchainsout there.
How can one TLD that's sittingon one blockchain benefit
someone who's building on acompletely different tech stack
and another blockchain.
If they like the name and theycan build a community around the
name, then they can bothcoexist.
(41:47):
The only thing similar in thosenames is the word.
That's it, nothing else.
So, and then lastly, is ifyou're really that concerned
about it, like if you're justlike nah, marcus, ain't talking
about nothing and again I alwayssay the words like not
financial advice, also not legaladvice, anything that I'm
(42:08):
saying right now, if I'm sayingsomething that you're like yo,
that's stupid, I know the lawlike one of them does have to go
.
Ignore me, ok, do you?
I'm just putting this out.
There is what I think is myopinion of how we can best
navigate and understand thespace as it is currently.
But again going to my lastthing, if you're really that
concerned about it, legallyprotect your investments.
(42:31):
So the difference inopportunity is another thing
that needs to be clarified.
So the difference inopportunity is another thing
that needs to be clarified andI've spelled it out a million
(42:53):
times.
But again, when I go intoecosystems that we really
compare with, I don't understandhow, like UD or ENS, keeps
coming're buying a ether or a UDname.
There's nothing wrong with that.
People make millions andmillions of dollars buying and
flipping assets, getting theirfirst early.
You know the process right.
But the opportunity to exist ina free name is completely
different.
When you're buying an assetthat is basically an asset that
(43:15):
you're collecting and holdingand flipping, the business of
doing that collectively is abusiness, but the asset itself
isn't an individual business.
What you're acquiring fromFreename is an asset that then
can produce assets and that,again, with a one-click reseller
page, enables you to allowpeople to mint their name on
your name.
(43:35):
It is a business in a box andyou should treat it as such.
And if you are so concernedwith some the existence of your
name popping up somewhere elseand potentially pushing you out
of the market, you can legallyprotect it the same way you can
protect any other business.
All right.
Questions comes up in our groupoften like how do we do that?
Well, there's a couple ofdifferent ways, both like
(43:55):
formally and informally.
I'll talk about the informalway first, since that's probably
the easiest thing any of youguys can do.
On the TLD side, if you own aTLD with free name or anywhere
again, no matter if you're onHandshake, decentralweb, if
you're sitting on an asset, yougot a solid idea.
You think your TLD is going tochange the world and you want to
make sure nobody's going to Fwith it.
(44:17):
Tell somebody else, like that'sthe first thing you can do,
right?
Tell anybody else.
There's so many owners outthere of these TLDs that don't
tweet.
You don't tweet, you don'tmarket, you don't promote, you
don't tell anybody that you ownthe TLD.
You've built nothing around it,there's no landing page for it,
(44:37):
there's no declaration thatI've created a business and I
have an intent to create acommunity with this TLD.
So here in the United Statesand I'm going to get to the
formal part but here in theUnited States at least it is a
very difficult and almostimpossible process to do what's
called a trademark on a Web3 TB.
I know because I've tried itright.
(44:58):
But, as I explained yesterday inthe workshop, one of the things
the reason why I tried it and Iknew that it was going to fail
kind of in advance, but one ofthe reasons why I tried it
anyway was to create a papertrail was to set basically a
flag of saying I tried to dothis first, and that's what I
(45:19):
mean Things like promoting it onyour social media, creating
landing pages for it, gettingpeople to mint it, creating a
real business declaring yourflag, like what UD does every
single time.
They launch a TLD when theymake these announcements, when
they tag their partner, whentheir partner retweets and tags
it too, when there's a landingpage where you can go mint it,
(45:40):
that's what they're doing.
It's kind of similar to thegold rush claims here in the
1800s in the US, where youshowed up and you planted your
flag.
That's what you got to do.
You got to tell people you gotit Right.
That I was making is thatcertain actions that you can do,
although you cannot get.
What's a registered trademark.
Certain of these actions willimply what is called an
(46:04):
unregistered trademark, which isstill legally defendable in
court.
So doing these things can helpyou.
Now, if you do, if you're like,hey, nah, I got to have it on
paper, I don't want no papertrail simply tweeting it, blah,
blah, blah, that ain't going towork.
Again, going back to theopportunity at hand and the
difference in opportunity andthose tools that you know some
(46:25):
people say that don't exist atFreename Another part of the
utility that is offered toanyone at Freename is, if you
purchase a TLD, freename haswell has the ability to access
an agent on your behalf and filefor a trademark application in
Switzerland, which is where theyare based.
They will do that for anybodywho owns a TLD in the Freename
ecosystem and their applications, unlike the US, do get passed.
(46:49):
So you will get a trademark inSwitzerland for your Freename
TLD if you use their process.
Well, I don't live inSwitzerland.
Why would I do that?
Well, having a trademark in anycountry actually sets a
precedent for you to be able toapply for it worldwide with WIPO
.
So all of these things lead toa thing again, if you're
(47:10):
extremely concerned aboutlegally protecting your
investments, depending on yourpartner and again, you can't be
a partner if you're the end userand buying as a collector and
just sitting on something Apartner, an entity that has a
whole team that again, businessmodel from day one, from the day
it started, the day it launched, was to operate like this,
right here.
(47:31):
When you've got the rightpartner, they'll help you with
anything that you're concernedwith and again, they can walk
you through not only thetrademark application and get it
done for you in Switzerland,but also, and as we mentioned
and went through on the lastWeb3Demain workshop, for those
of you who are just completelyturned on by the ICANN TLD
application thing, they willalso assist you in that
(47:52):
application as well.
Application as well.
And remember, you're beingassisted by an ICANN accredited
registrar as well that ispartnered with an entity that
already owns like five ICANNTLDs.
So, yeah, with that being said,hopefully that kind of answered
the question, at least from myperspective.
You know which of these TLDs isreal and can they coexist?
(48:16):
And again, that answer is yes,just just.
It's really a solid yes, butright, it's a yes depending
right.
Is there an opportunity inmultiple TLDs in these
namespaces existing, I guesswould 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
(48:39):
partnerships and some of theseTLDs like, well, even like
onchain, right, I mean, I don'tknow who onchain foundation is,
I don't know how big their reachis.
I looked at their website.
It's hella impressive.
It looks solid.
But 2,000 SLDs registered onTLD, bro, that yeah, nah, bro,
(48:59):
that's not going to cut it right.
That's hardly conquering theworld right.
So more power to thatpartnership.
I certainly hope that it growsand is successful for UD and do
what you got to do.
But if you got onchain andanother ecosystem and you can
build it bigger and build itbetter, and if you think you got
a better shot at ICANN, that'sthere too.
Don't get discouraged.
And that's the point that I'mtrying to make is it depends,
(49:20):
build better, and that's thething, 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.
Within the Freename ecosystem,yeah, here in about 40 minutes
we are going to transition intothe whale talk that we have
every Friday on free name.
So definitely invite anybody inthis space to attend that space
(49:40):
, where we'll have page pull upthere as well to talk about some
of the recent things that havehappened in the web three and
web two domain space.
But, yeah, as always, do.
Thank you guys for attendingthis web three domain workshop.
Again, this will be availableon our website as well as in
podcast form in about a week orso and, yeah, for anybody who
wants to get hands on or has anydirect questions.
Feel free to join the free namecommunity.
(50:02):
We do this every Thursday inthe VIP community.
We do this every Friday righthere on spaces.
Uh, focus on your mission now,your condition and happy,
demanding.
Thank you guys.
See you guys next week.
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