August 18, 2025 • 28 mins
The quest for digital identity in Web3 isn't a zero-sum game. As we navigate this evolving landscape, three major naming services have emerged—each with unique strengths that serve different segments of the ecosystem rather than competing for total dominance.
ENS established itself as the crypto-native standard, deeply integrated with Ethereum culture and infrastructure. When you see a .eth address, you immediately recognize someone who lives and breathes on-chain. With names as NFTs and flexible resolvers, ENS offers battle-tested identity solutions for those embedded in the Ethereum ecosystem, despite traditional renewal requirements and gas considerations.
Unstoppable Domains took a different approach by creating a consumer-friendly experience with familiar interfaces and one-time purchases. They've focused on removing barriers through extensive integrations across wallets, browsers, and applications. Their strategy positions Web3 naming as an accessible product rather than a complex technical concept, making them an ideal gateway for mainstream adoption.
Freename stands apart by treating naming as a customizable ecosystem. Beyond personal domains, they offer the unique opportunity to own top-level domains (TLDs)—transforming users from participants to platform creators. This shift enables brands, DAOs, and communities to design identity layers that support their specific needs while creating network effects and potential revenue streams through each new registration.
The most strategic approach isn't choosing one service exclusively but leveraging the unique advantages of each. Own personal domains that represent you across platforms, diversify your digital identity portfolio, and for those building communities or brands, consider the transformative power of owning a TLD where your audience can gather.
As Web3 matures, naming will become invisible infrastructure—powering logins, payments, and identity verification seamlessly in the background. Those positioning themselves early across these services won't be asking which one rules them all, but rather how they can benefit from the entire ecosystem as digital identity becomes fundamental to o
Be your own .ANYTHING! Earn unlimited income with your own customized Web3 TLD from Freename.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
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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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
do do, thank you.
(02:21):
Thank you, gmgm, and happyfriday.
Welcome to our spaces, to ourTech Talk podcast.
We record this every other week.
This is a bi-weekly discussionwhere we highlight news,
innovation, education, alpha andbusiness development in the
Web3 domain name space and inthe digital identity space.
(02:43):
I am your host, marcus aka WintAirdrop.
I'm the founder of iHeartDomains and we are your number
one resource for unbiased Web3and blockchain domain
educational content, with over25 recorded Tech Talks episodes
and YouTube videos produced andarchived over the past two and a
half years.
You can actually search ourentire podcast archive for prior
(03:06):
recordings and an easy-to-readblog overview of each episode at
iHeartDebatescom.
Prior recordings are alsoavailable in podcast format on
every major podcast player,including Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheartradio, and thoseare easily reachable.
I'm going to open up, as Iusually do, with some recent
(03:30):
industry news.
For those of you who aren'talready aware, we have launched
our official certificationprogram for Web 3.0 and digital
identity at learnweb3.xyz.
That is an eight-module coursethat we have launched and
created that takes pretty muchbeginners through the you know,
(03:53):
from front to back, really thefundamentals of digital identity
, from everything fromunderstanding what crypto on the
blockchain even is to you know,setting up a wallet,
understanding digital identity,all those good things.
So just launched that actuallya couple weeks ago on the first.
It is now live If anybody wantsto take a look at that.
(04:15):
We also have a community thatis attached to this course to
help anybody or assist anyonewho is currently looking for
employment or is interestedagain in asking any questions
and learning about some of thebasics of Web3.
So, once again, you can findthat at learnweb3.xyz.
(04:36):
If you know someone who islooking to scale up or for a
career change, you know thiscertification hopefully will
expose them to the world of Web3and potentially qualify them
for some of the jobs thatactually have Web3 as a
requirement.
Again, we've highlighted beforeand in other conversations that
there are a lot of Web3companies out there that,
(04:57):
although you know they'relooking for a marketing
professional or they're lookingfor you know someone to handle
you know anything social mediamanagement, community management
, you know whatever it is theyalso need that person to have
some sort of experience or havesome sort of familiarity with
Web3 in order to properly engage.
(05:19):
Also, there's certain toolsthat are, you know, really
native to Web3 that people inWeb3 have utilized for branding
and marketing and thesecompanies need to know or need
to have employees on hand.
You know that they don't haveto like train three or four
times or retrain all over againto know these things.
So yeah, once again,learnweb3.xyz.
(05:41):
Let's continue to build andgrow together.
Let's share this out.
Um, and then the last uhannouncement really just to keep
it simple is once againregistrations are available to
our live for our own web3 tldsin our own catalog.
So that is dot dgen, dotexchange and dot d5 wallet.
We own these tlds Freenameplatform.
(06:04):
Very easy to find your name andpurchase your SLD by just going
to iHeartDomainscom.
Right there on the front pageyou'll see the option to click
it.
It'll take you right to thelanding pages for each.
Again, our domains arepurchased once and on forever,
so there are no renewals, andyou can use them in places like
(06:24):
metamask snap.
You can use them with our freename dns or extension to resolve
websites natively on yourbrowser, or you can experiment
with them on uh alternativeupcoming browsers like carbon,
who we just recently have apartnership with.
Now that also now integratesour resolver and they will
resolve there as well.
Integrates our resolver andthey will resolve there as well.
(06:47):
And then also we've got thiscool little neat integration
that we just crossed the bridgeor partnered with with Freedane,
which is Strawberry AI, andthat also has our API integrated
, so you can go there and alsoask for any information on a
user domain or any records thatyou connect to it.
It'll recognize those.
Your domain or any records thatyou connect to it, it'll
(07:07):
recognize those.
It's a pretty neat tool and,again, it gives you a pretty
good vision from where the spaceis going moving forward.
Well, all right, all right.
Now I'm going to get into themain discussion.
The topic for this space is it'swhich name service will rule
them all?
And I?
The inspiration for this topicobviously is, you know, a lot of
(07:30):
people are wanting to know thedifferences between each
namespace, wanting to know thedifferences between each
namespace.
One of the things that I doover at Freename is I handle a
lot of customer serviceinquiries and we get a lot of
people who come to us who hadexperience in other name
services and naturally, yourfirst questions are comparative
and sometimes in this comparison, we're under the misconception
(07:55):
that one name service has to bethe one that basically is the
best.
That's the crown jewel, right,if there's a Toyota, there has
to be a Bentley.
Right, if there's a Yang, therehas to be a Yang.
But the inspiration behind thisparticular topic is that, to an
extent, yes, they the differentname services that exist,
(08:17):
especially the ones that we aremost familiar with, they do very
much so have differences, butthose differences don't make
those differences.
I don't think don't don'tcreate a scenario where they
have to disappear in order forany of them to thrive.
I believe that thosedifferences kind of help create
(08:38):
a total picture of diversity andvalue in our space.
So, again, going back to thetopic, which name service will
rule them all?
Today we're going to be talkingabout the top three name
services and, again, some of thedifferences and some of the
similarities and also some ofthe opportunities that exist for
each, or if you're investing ineach in the space.
(09:02):
So, again, every era of theinternet has crowned a new kind
of name.
Right, web one, which is thefirst internet.
It gave us the storefronts withdot coms.
Web two is where we startedreally experimenting with social
handles, right, so that's theadvent of Twitter and Facebook,
and this is really where thattype of identity came into play.
(09:23):
But Web 3 is different, right,your name isn't just a label,
it's actually your wallet, soit's an instrument you can now
use to get paid.
It can be your login fordecentralized apps.
It can be your brand and appsit can be your brand and it
definitely should be used forbranding if you're already in
the Web3 space, and it'd also bea token-gated access pass.
(09:45):
Right now, as we're continuingto build the space out, we're
deciding really how those namesare gonna work, who's gonna
control them and how much powerthey give back to people in the
communities.
Again, there are three majorplayers and there's a lot of
players, right, so I'm notpurposely leaving anybody out.
I did have one comment on thepost mentioning, like, bio Shout
(10:06):
out to them.
Got a chance to meet them inperson.
A lot of people love whatthey're building.
Also, you know, shout out toother names out there SNS, et
cetera.
Shout out to other namespacesout there SNS, et cetera.
But today we're going to talkabout the main three, right, the
three that pretty much everyoneis familiar with, and
especially in my little book,right, and that is ENS,
unstoppable domains, aka UD andfree name.
(10:28):
And again, understanding eachone is key to kind of not only
just choosing wisely, but again,maybe choosing all three,
depending on what your needs arein the space.
So one of the first things I'mgonna do is I'm gonna go through
just a brief overview of eachnaming service and I'm really
gonna give them their flowersand their big ups because, again
(10:49):
, each of them do contributesomething positive to the space.
So E&S almost needs nointroduction.
It is the crypto nativestandard, right?
It grew up inside of Ethereum,basically back when Ethereum was
just first getting popping andbecoming the beast.
It is now, and it speaks thesame language as the builders
(11:10):
who essentially have createdDeFi and NFTs and who have made
on chain culture possible,created DeFi and NFTs and who
have made on-chain culturepossible.
When someone sees a eth, itsignals to them that I live
on-chain right, names are NFTs,resolvers are flexible and the
whole thing plugs neatly intoEthereum tool set.
The trade-off is that Ethereumfollows a very classic domain
(11:34):
rhythm, right.
So it follows something thatwe're very familiar with in the
Web2 space, which is renewals.
There's also gas considerations.
It's not as bad as it used tobe.
It definitely isn't as bad asit used to be, but there were,
especially in the middle of,like the NFT bull runs, the bull
run of 2021, et cetera.
(11:55):
You know doing anything withanything that's on Ethereum
chain, you know you probablycould have used that money to do
anything else.
So gas is something to consider.
And then again, you know there'svery much an Ethereum first
world view.
You know that kind of comesfrom the community, right, but
(12:15):
if you're deep in the community,deep into the crypto stack,
you're definitely going to feelright at home with an ENS domain
If you want.
The most battle-tested identityreally inside of the blockchain
.
Ens is comfort food Again, giveflowers where flowers is due.
Now going to unstoppabledomains, in contrast to that.
(12:35):
And another thing as well Nowgoing to unstoppable domains, in
contrast to that, and anotherthing as well ENS, for the most
part and completely right, enswould be considered a
decentralized ethos.
Who believe in smart contracts,controlling identities, not
(12:57):
people, decentralization,controlling protocols and not
people, et cetera.
Suppose ENS comes super closeto that and that is how they are
set up.
I'm saying that because, incontrast to that, another naming
service, which has equally asmuch presence in the space and
stoppable domains, hasapproached it from a completely
(13:17):
different perspective.
They are a for-profit businessand they've approached this as a
consumer product.
You know they've made getting aWeb3 name feel familiar via the
UI that most people are used towhen they're searching for a
regular domain name.
You simply search for one, youfind it and you pay for it with
a debit or credit card.
For all of their extensions, ifI'm not mistaken, are all
(13:43):
one-time purchases.
So, in contrast again to havingrenewals, which most people are
used to in the traditional dnsspace, and the same thing that
you will you unfortunately haveto still pay if you're in the
ENS ecosystem.
Unstoppable was, I believe,probably one of the first you
(14:04):
know to market that they had norenewal fees.
So that removes definitely theanxiety around, you know, having
this bill that may beconstantly on your shoulder, a
bill that may not be the easiestto pay, because that's the
other part too.
Right, it's not the easiest topay your E&S or renew your E&S
if you're not crypto native,whereas If you had renewals in
(14:28):
another centralized system, itmay be just something as simple
as setting your wallet orsetting a credit card or auto
pay or something like that.
That's not the case, but again,they've spent these past few
years building integrationsacross different wallets,
browsers and apps so that anon-technical person can buy a
name today and see it in workingplaces right, if your goal is
(14:51):
fast onboarding and broadaccessibility, unstoppable is a
friendly front door.
Now let's go to Freename again.
Overview of Freename.
Freename arrives with adifferent angle, so Freename
treats naming like an ecosystemthat you can design.
You're able to make a personalname just like anywhere else,
(15:14):
but you can also step behind thecurtain and create the stage
itself.
So our system is multi-chainand I think Unstoppable is on a
couple chains ENS, you meant iton Ethereum.
So, again, to deal with anyrecord changes or anything like
that, you're going to be subjectto Ethereum gas, but it will
resolve basically to any EVMblockchain.
(15:37):
So not multi-chain, but stilluseful for sending money to any
chain.
But again, you meant a namelike anywhere else.
Our system is multi-chain.
Our UX has the same modern lookand feel as an unstoppable and
our general mindset is letcommunities shape their own
(15:58):
identity layer.
If you're a brand, if you're aDAO, a creator network or a
platform that wants naming to bea part of your product, free
name is tuned for that level offlexibility and it is turnkey.
So how do these things feel inreal life?
Again, you can use an E&S namepretty much plugs you into
(16:20):
Ethereum culture.
They resolve in most wallets,most dApps will recognize them
and your on-chain footprint willfollow you around An
unstoppable domain.
Right, it's very easy to get tothe path from I bought it to.
It works and they've made thatreally smooth for newcomers with
different things like theirchat groups and their profile
(16:43):
pages.
Again, kudos to them forbuilding those.
Those are very easy to set upand it helps you really connect
it and make it usable and createthat success moment.
And then use a free name nameand you're going to notice how
much room you now have to turnidentity into a feature and into
a business.
Names can evolve intomembership cards.
They can evolve into paymentdestinations, of course, by
(17:05):
connecting into your wallet todifferent profile hubs and for
building blocks, whatever you'remaking, again, being able to
own the TLD it opens up acompletely different world of
possibilities.
All three agree on one bigvalue and one big promise that
names should be portable, theyshould be user-owned and they
should be usable.
(17:26):
They let you point to ahuman-readable name instead of a
messy wallet string.
They attach private profiledata that you choose to share
and you can carry this identitybetween apps without asking any
platform for permission.
This alone is a massive upgradefrom Web 2.
In practice, you'll probablysee that people hold more than
(17:49):
one, and this is why I say it'sa good practice to be diverse,
because then you're not missingout and you're able to extract
the value from each of theseecosystems as you continue to
grow.
Again, you want a very usablename across the Ethereum
ecosystem, and ENS name is that.
I've got my ENS.
Iheartdomainseth, winairdropeth, etc.
Can't negate the value.
(18:10):
If you want something againthat's posed for mainstream
integrations.
This company has a lot of bigplans.
We'll see how this pans out,but for me, it was a no-brainer
to grab a couple of names onUnstoppable as well.
So of course, I've gotIRDomainsx, winairdropx, et
cetera, et cetera.
And then for projects that needcustom identity, that need the
(18:34):
ability to build a community,monetize that community token,
gate that community and createan entire ecosystem behind their
brand, we've got Freename andit's posed already for a
multi-chain future.
Now this is when we're talkingapples to apples again.
On the naming side.
You can't go wrong with any ofthese protocols.
(18:56):
You really can.
I need to stress that youreally should not come to the
table with a.
Which one is best?
I can only have one to serve myneeds.
Get what your wallet can afford.
Get what's available to you.
Again, this space is way too newto start casting winners, and
some people may already say,well, ens is a winner, because
of course, they're alreadywinning now.
(19:16):
Sure right, but nobody likes it.
There's no one thing thateveryone on the planet Earth has
adopted and has adopted justthat thing.
It's just not the way humannature works.
In every single product,there's diversity, and again,
with these three and many more,there's again many more naming
services.
Having your name on them, youcannot go wrong.
(19:37):
They all execute as they'resupposed to and they are all
building.
But here's kind of where, again,the opportunity starts to
differ, and this isn'tdistracting from the value of
any of those other namingservices.
It's just what it is right.
So, again, registering apowerful name is powerful.
It's going to give you presenceon the blockchain, but when we
(19:59):
talk about owning a top leveldomain, which is the dot itself,
it gives you a whole differentpresence.
Now, this is something that isexclusively available through
free name, and and by that Imean that, the opportunity today
for you to go to a shoppingcart, find a TLD that you like,
purchase it, monetize it andstart marketing it.
(20:22):
Today, that is exclusive toFreeName.
That is the opportunity thatexists here, and this changes
your role from participant toplatform.
There may be other platformsthat have collaborated with
projects to launch TLDs.
You may be lucky enough to beone of those platforms with
projects to launch TLDs.
You may be lucky enough to beone of those platforms or
projects to get chosen at somepoint.
But if you ain't, if you're aone-man band, if you're a guy
(20:43):
with a cool idea, if you gotsome friends in the DFW that
you're trying to get into Web3,you probably ain't going to get
picked by those other guys.
And the closest thing and thebest thing for you is over here
for your name.
Just wanted to put that outthere.
But again, when you own a TLD,now you're not just another
(21:03):
address on the street, you'reone of the ones who is drawing
the map.
You get to define how yourcommunity shows up, how these
names are issued, what theyunlock, how the identity layer
supports the product you'rebuilding.
Musicians can turn fandom intotheir nameartist, daos can make
governance feel native withtheir member namemydap.
Games can brand entire worldswith player namegamertag.
(21:30):
Educators, events, marketplaces, studios really anyone who
thrives on community can nowturn naming into a growth engine
rather than an afterthought.
When you own the dot,everything that you do now to
promote that creates momentumand that momentum compounds and
this is an example that I gaveboth yesterday and, I believe,
(21:53):
earlier today Marketing.
One name is one thing, right,selling it to another person,
and now they have it.
You don't have it anymore, cool.
But have you ever thought aboutthat?
Like, what a house?
Right.
And the house, I think, is agreat example, especially when
you sell a house you lived infor a while, you did things to
it right.
You made it, you fixed it up.
(22:13):
When it was broken, you madepatches, you personalized it,
you put your love and your workinto the home.
And then there's nothing wrongwith selling that home to
another person If you needed tomove on, if you needed to
downsize, if you got the valuethat you needed out of it.
But then you always get thatbuyer's remorse later because
those memories that you builtright, the work that you put in
(22:35):
it, kind of disappears with it.
And that's what happens whenyou sell a domain, right.
But when you're marketing a TLD,when you're marketing the dot,
all of that counts and itcompounds and it has value.
Every single new SLD that'sminted on it is a small
billboard for your ecosystem.
Loyalty from your communitydeepens now because namespace
(22:57):
itself holds a meaning.
It's a shared culture, it's notjust a skew.
And then, of course, there's aneconomic layer.
As you build this branding, asyou build this value, as you
continue to build traffic,community, et cetera, now you're
going to get people who arecoming and they're buying this
name and every single timesomeone comes and they mint an
(23:18):
SLD on your TLD, you have anopportunity to earn income.
Specifically, you earn 50% ofthe income of any SLD that's
registered on your TLD and thatcan add up quite quickly.
So, again, if you live andbreathe Ethereum and the
Ethereum culture and ethos, ensis a beautiful fit.
(23:39):
And if you prioritize thingslike simple onboarding or
consumer-grade experience,stoppable does land that plane.
But if you're here to build acommunity or a brand, or if you
want the identity to be anactual business and not just a
bolt-on, free name is definitelywhere you'll feel at home.
(23:59):
If you're thinking beyondpersonal names, if you're
thinking about culture, aboutdistribution, about network
effect, owning a TLD throughfree name is the move that most
people will only recognize inhindsight that most people will
only recognize in hindsight.
(24:20):
We are super early today.
Web3 naming isn't a trend.
This is literallyinfrastructure.
It is a part of how this spaceworks.
Right.
It makes it make sense.
It makes mapping things makesense.
In a few years, people will usethese names without thinking
They'll be signing in with it.
They'll will use these nameswithout thinking They'll be
signing in with them.
They'll be paying other peoplewith them.
They'll be proving who they arewith them.
(24:41):
They'll be participating withthem.
Just like DNS faded into thebackground while powering
everything, people in the realworld don't have a conversation
about DNS and IPAN and wordslike that it just is.
It works.
People use it every single daywithout knowing what it is, and
(25:02):
at some point, web3 naming willbe just like that Unstoppable
will keep welcoming the next 100million users, dns will keep
setting standards for the cryptonative world, and free name
will keep turning identity intoecosystems and giving founders,
creators and communities thesteering wheel.
The question isn't which onemust lose.
(25:24):
It's how you'll place your betsso you can win with all of them
.
Own a name that represents youreally, because self-custody
identity is the point of all ofthis.
And if you're buildingsomething bigger than yourself,
again consider owning the dotthat your people can gather
under.
This is the rare move thatturns an audience into a network
(25:45):
, that can turn a product into aplatform and can turn a brand
into a place where people cancollect and add value.
Again, there's a million waysand a million reasons why we can
say a TLD, a domain.
Everything in this space hasvalue and I'm glad that you guys
pulled up here to learn.
And again, every single day,we're continuously building,
(26:05):
we're learning.
I'm super bullish on our newestintegration with Strawberry.
I think I've said that likemaybe four or five times,
probably dedicated a lot of timeto it in this morning space, or
five times probably dedicated alot of time to it in this
morning space, but it doesrepresent again the progression
of tools that are out there,that are already existing, that
are already becoming smarter,plugged directly into our
(26:25):
ecosystem.
That answered the veryquestions that we thought held
us back right.
The same questions that we usedto ask ourselves if you're not
crypto native, if the ui is hard, if there's gas, if I don't
know how to use a wallet, howwill I ever figure out or care
what any of these things are?
And AI answers that questionright.
(26:45):
Ai can make a user experiencefor someone extremely fast.
It can make all those hurdlesdisappear in non-existence and
it can even be personalized,automated and do all this stuff
behind the scenes.
So get ready for this world,get ready for this digital world
, for this on-chain world, forthis ai energetic world.
Just like you needed a namewhen you were born, every single
(27:09):
thing that start that appearson the blockchain, that exists
on the blockchain, will alsoneed a name and, again, can't go
wrong with any of those othername services.
But if you want to be on thebuilding side of the equation
with something that is turnkey,that's already primed for
success, then that opportunitydoes exist with free names.
So, as you're building yourportfolio, as you're
(27:30):
diversifying, as you're lookingat your 100.eats, get 200.xs and
cryptos, add a couple dot,whatever your brand's in there,
and you'll thank yourself laterBecause, again, any of us that
are here now early we've beensaw where this is coming, but
it's more evident than ever thatwe're on the right track and
you know that our each and everyday, our names no matter which
(27:53):
names the space you're investedin are gaining relevance.
Let's continue building a webwhere we actually own our own
identity and, for the ones thatare ready to lead, you can own
your own namespace as well.
Focus on your mission and notyour condition.
Hope everyone has a happyweekend and happy demanding.
Tomorrow is my birthday.
I turned to Big 44.
(28:13):
So if I'm AFK, that is why I'mgoing to enjoy my life and
reflect on my time so far in thespace.
Again, blessed here to be witheach and every one of you.
Thank you for attending my techtalk.
For anyone who is going to belistening to this later, or
anyone who prefers to listen tothis podcast format, again, this
will be uploaded both on ourwebsite and on our podcast in
(28:35):
the next couple of days.
Again, happy Friday.
Talk to you guys in the nextcouple of weeks.
Thank you for attending ourTech Talk.
do do, thank you.
(02:21):
Thank you, gmgm, and happyfriday.
Welcome to our spaces, to ourTech Talk podcast.
We record this every other week.
This is a bi-weekly discussionwhere we highlight news,
innovation, education, alpha andbusiness development in the
Web3 domain name space and inthe digital identity space.
(02:43):
I am your host, marcus aka WintAirdrop.
I'm the founder of iHeartDomains and we are your number
one resource for unbiased Web3and blockchain domain
educational content, with over25 recorded Tech Talks episodes
and YouTube videos produced andarchived over the past two and a
half years.
You can actually search ourentire podcast archive for prior
(03:06):
recordings and an easy-to-readblog overview of each episode at
iHeartDebatescom.
Prior recordings are alsoavailable in podcast format on
every major podcast player,including Apple Podcasts,
spotify, iheartradio, and thoseare easily reachable.
I'm going to open up, as Iusually do, with some recent
(03:30):
industry news.
For those of you who aren'talready aware, we have launched
our official certificationprogram for Web 3.0 and digital
identity at learnweb3.xyz.
That is an eight-module coursethat we have launched and
created that takes pretty muchbeginners through the you know,
(03:53):
from front to back, really thefundamentals of digital identity
, from everything fromunderstanding what crypto on the
blockchain even is to you know,setting up a wallet,
understanding digital identity,all those good things.
So just launched that actuallya couple weeks ago on the first.
It is now live If anybody wantsto take a look at that.
(04:15):
We also have a community thatis attached to this course to
help anybody or assist anyonewho is currently looking for
employment or is interestedagain in asking any questions
and learning about some of thebasics of Web3.
So, once again, you can findthat at learnweb3.xyz.
(04:36):
If you know someone who islooking to scale up or for a
career change, you know thiscertification hopefully will
expose them to the world of Web3and potentially qualify them
for some of the jobs thatactually have Web3 as a
requirement.
Again, we've highlighted beforeand in other conversations that
there are a lot of Web3companies out there that,
(04:57):
although you know they'relooking for a marketing
professional or they're lookingfor you know someone to handle
you know anything social mediamanagement, community management
, you know whatever it is theyalso need that person to have
some sort of experience or havesome sort of familiarity with
Web3 in order to properly engage.
(05:19):
Also, there's certain toolsthat are, you know, really
native to Web3 that people inWeb3 have utilized for branding
and marketing and thesecompanies need to know or need
to have employees on hand.
You know that they don't haveto like train three or four
times or retrain all over againto know these things.
So yeah, once again,learnweb3.xyz.
(05:41):
Let's continue to build andgrow together.
Let's share this out.
Um, and then the last uhannouncement really just to keep
it simple is once againregistrations are available to
our live for our own web3 tldsin our own catalog.
So that is dot dgen, dotexchange and dot d5 wallet.
We own these tlds Freenameplatform.
(06:04):
Very easy to find your name andpurchase your SLD by just going
to iHeartDomainscom.
Right there on the front pageyou'll see the option to click
it.
It'll take you right to thelanding pages for each.
Again, our domains arepurchased once and on forever,
so there are no renewals, andyou can use them in places like
(06:24):
metamask snap.
You can use them with our freename dns or extension to resolve
websites natively on yourbrowser, or you can experiment
with them on uh alternativeupcoming browsers like carbon,
who we just recently have apartnership with.
Now that also now integratesour resolver and they will
resolve there as well.
Integrates our resolver andthey will resolve there as well.
(06:47):
And then also we've got thiscool little neat integration
that we just crossed the bridgeor partnered with with Freedane,
which is Strawberry AI, andthat also has our API integrated
, so you can go there and alsoask for any information on a
user domain or any records thatyou connect to it.
It'll recognize those.
Your domain or any records thatyou connect to it, it'll
(07:07):
recognize those.
It's a pretty neat tool and,again, it gives you a pretty
good vision from where the spaceis going moving forward.
Well, all right, all right.
Now I'm going to get into themain discussion.
The topic for this space is it'swhich name service will rule
them all?
And I?
The inspiration for this topicobviously is, you know, a lot of
(07:30):
people are wanting to know thedifferences between each
namespace, wanting to know thedifferences between each
namespace.
One of the things that I doover at Freename is I handle a
lot of customer serviceinquiries and we get a lot of
people who come to us who hadexperience in other name
services and naturally, yourfirst questions are comparative
and sometimes in this comparison, we're under the misconception
(07:55):
that one name service has to bethe one that basically is the
best.
That's the crown jewel, right,if there's a Toyota, there has
to be a Bentley.
Right, if there's a Yang, therehas to be a Yang.
But the inspiration behind thisparticular topic is that, to an
extent, yes, they the differentname services that exist,
(08:17):
especially the ones that we aremost familiar with, they do very
much so have differences, butthose differences don't make
those differences.
I don't think don't don'tcreate a scenario where they
have to disappear in order forany of them to thrive.
I believe that thosedifferences kind of help create
(08:38):
a total picture of diversity andvalue in our space.
So, again, going back to thetopic, which name service will
rule them all?
Today we're going to be talkingabout the top three name
services and, again, some of thedifferences and some of the
similarities and also some ofthe opportunities that exist for
each, or if you're investing ineach in the space.
(09:02):
So, again, every era of theinternet has crowned a new kind
of name.
Right, web one, which is thefirst internet.
It gave us the storefronts withdot coms.
Web two is where we startedreally experimenting with social
handles, right, so that's theadvent of Twitter and Facebook,
and this is really where thattype of identity came into play.
(09:23):
But Web 3 is different, right,your name isn't just a label,
it's actually your wallet, soit's an instrument you can now
use to get paid.
It can be your login fordecentralized apps.
It can be your brand and appsit can be your brand and it
definitely should be used forbranding if you're already in
the Web3 space, and it'd also bea token-gated access pass.
(09:45):
Right now, as we're continuingto build the space out, we're
deciding really how those namesare gonna work, who's gonna
control them and how much powerthey give back to people in the
communities.
Again, there are three majorplayers and there's a lot of
players, right, so I'm notpurposely leaving anybody out.
I did have one comment on thepost mentioning, like, bio Shout
(10:06):
out to them.
Got a chance to meet them inperson.
A lot of people love whatthey're building.
Also, you know, shout out toother names out there SNS, et
cetera.
Shout out to other namespacesout there SNS, et cetera.
But today we're going to talkabout the main three, right, the
three that pretty much everyoneis familiar with, and
especially in my little book,right, and that is ENS,
unstoppable domains, aka UD andfree name.
(10:28):
And again, understanding eachone is key to kind of not only
just choosing wisely, but again,maybe choosing all three,
depending on what your needs arein the space.
So one of the first things I'mgonna do is I'm gonna go through
just a brief overview of eachnaming service and I'm really
gonna give them their flowersand their big ups because, again
(10:49):
, each of them do contributesomething positive to the space.
So E&S almost needs nointroduction.
It is the crypto nativestandard, right?
It grew up inside of Ethereum,basically back when Ethereum was
just first getting popping andbecoming the beast.
It is now, and it speaks thesame language as the builders
(11:10):
who essentially have createdDeFi and NFTs and who have made
on chain culture possible,created DeFi and NFTs and who
have made on-chain culturepossible.
When someone sees a eth, itsignals to them that I live
on-chain right, names are NFTs,resolvers are flexible and the
whole thing plugs neatly intoEthereum tool set.
The trade-off is that Ethereumfollows a very classic domain
(11:34):
rhythm, right.
So it follows something thatwe're very familiar with in the
Web2 space, which is renewals.
There's also gas considerations.
It's not as bad as it used tobe.
It definitely isn't as bad asit used to be, but there were,
especially in the middle of,like the NFT bull runs, the bull
run of 2021, et cetera.
(11:55):
You know doing anything withanything that's on Ethereum
chain, you know you probablycould have used that money to do
anything else.
So gas is something to consider.
And then again, you know there'svery much an Ethereum first
world view.
You know that kind of comesfrom the community, right, but
(12:15):
if you're deep in the community,deep into the crypto stack,
you're definitely going to feelright at home with an ENS domain
If you want.
The most battle-tested identityreally inside of the blockchain
.
Ens is comfort food Again, giveflowers where flowers is due.
Now going to unstoppabledomains, in contrast to that.
(12:35):
And another thing as well Nowgoing to unstoppable domains, in
contrast to that, and anotherthing as well ENS, for the most
part and completely right, enswould be considered a
decentralized ethos.
Who believe in smart contracts,controlling identities, not
(12:57):
people, decentralization,controlling protocols and not
people, et cetera.
Suppose ENS comes super closeto that and that is how they are
set up.
I'm saying that because, incontrast to that, another naming
service, which has equally asmuch presence in the space and
stoppable domains, hasapproached it from a completely
(13:17):
different perspective.
They are a for-profit businessand they've approached this as a
consumer product.
You know they've made getting aWeb3 name feel familiar via the
UI that most people are used towhen they're searching for a
regular domain name.
You simply search for one, youfind it and you pay for it with
a debit or credit card.
For all of their extensions, ifI'm not mistaken, are all
(13:43):
one-time purchases.
So, in contrast again to havingrenewals, which most people are
used to in the traditional dnsspace, and the same thing that
you will you unfortunately haveto still pay if you're in the
ENS ecosystem.
Unstoppable was, I believe,probably one of the first you
(14:04):
know to market that they had norenewal fees.
So that removes definitely theanxiety around, you know, having
this bill that may beconstantly on your shoulder, a
bill that may not be the easiestto pay, because that's the
other part too.
Right, it's not the easiest topay your E&S or renew your E&S
if you're not crypto native,whereas If you had renewals in
(14:28):
another centralized system, itmay be just something as simple
as setting your wallet orsetting a credit card or auto
pay or something like that.
That's not the case, but again,they've spent these past few
years building integrationsacross different wallets,
browsers and apps so that anon-technical person can buy a
name today and see it in workingplaces right, if your goal is
(14:51):
fast onboarding and broadaccessibility, unstoppable is a
friendly front door.
Now let's go to Freename again.
Overview of Freename.
Freename arrives with adifferent angle, so Freename
treats naming like an ecosystemthat you can design.
You're able to make a personalname just like anywhere else,
(15:14):
but you can also step behind thecurtain and create the stage
itself.
So our system is multi-chainand I think Unstoppable is on a
couple chains ENS, you meant iton Ethereum.
So, again, to deal with anyrecord changes or anything like
that, you're going to be subjectto Ethereum gas, but it will
resolve basically to any EVMblockchain.
(15:37):
So not multi-chain, but stilluseful for sending money to any
chain.
But again, you meant a namelike anywhere else.
Our system is multi-chain.
Our UX has the same modern lookand feel as an unstoppable and
our general mindset is letcommunities shape their own
(15:58):
identity layer.
If you're a brand, if you're aDAO, a creator network or a
platform that wants naming to bea part of your product, free
name is tuned for that level offlexibility and it is turnkey.
So how do these things feel inreal life?
Again, you can use an E&S namepretty much plugs you into
(16:20):
Ethereum culture.
They resolve in most wallets,most dApps will recognize them
and your on-chain footprint willfollow you around An
unstoppable domain.
Right, it's very easy to get tothe path from I bought it to.
It works and they've made thatreally smooth for newcomers with
different things like theirchat groups and their profile
(16:43):
pages.
Again, kudos to them forbuilding those.
Those are very easy to set upand it helps you really connect
it and make it usable and createthat success moment.
And then use a free name nameand you're going to notice how
much room you now have to turnidentity into a feature and into
a business.
Names can evolve intomembership cards.
They can evolve into paymentdestinations, of course, by
(17:05):
connecting into your wallet todifferent profile hubs and for
building blocks, whatever you'remaking, again, being able to
own the TLD it opens up acompletely different world of
possibilities.
All three agree on one bigvalue and one big promise that
names should be portable, theyshould be user-owned and they
should be usable.
(17:26):
They let you point to ahuman-readable name instead of a
messy wallet string.
They attach private profiledata that you choose to share
and you can carry this identitybetween apps without asking any
platform for permission.
This alone is a massive upgradefrom Web 2.
In practice, you'll probablysee that people hold more than
(17:49):
one, and this is why I say it'sa good practice to be diverse,
because then you're not missingout and you're able to extract
the value from each of theseecosystems as you continue to
grow.
Again, you want a very usablename across the Ethereum
ecosystem, and ENS name is that.
I've got my ENS.
Iheartdomainseth, winairdropeth, etc.
Can't negate the value.
(18:10):
If you want something againthat's posed for mainstream
integrations.
This company has a lot of bigplans.
We'll see how this pans out,but for me, it was a no-brainer
to grab a couple of names onUnstoppable as well.
So of course, I've gotIRDomainsx, winairdropx, et
cetera, et cetera.
And then for projects that needcustom identity, that need the
(18:34):
ability to build a community,monetize that community token,
gate that community and createan entire ecosystem behind their
brand, we've got Freename andit's posed already for a
multi-chain future.
Now this is when we're talkingapples to apples again.
On the naming side.
You can't go wrong with any ofthese protocols.
(18:56):
You really can.
I need to stress that youreally should not come to the
table with a.
Which one is best?
I can only have one to serve myneeds.
Get what your wallet can afford.
Get what's available to you.
Again, this space is way too newto start casting winners, and
some people may already say,well, ens is a winner, because
of course, they're alreadywinning now.
(19:16):
Sure right, but nobody likes it.
There's no one thing thateveryone on the planet Earth has
adopted and has adopted justthat thing.
It's just not the way humannature works.
In every single product,there's diversity, and again,
with these three and many more,there's again many more naming
services.
Having your name on them, youcannot go wrong.
(19:37):
They all execute as they'resupposed to and they are all
building.
But here's kind of where, again,the opportunity starts to
differ, and this isn'tdistracting from the value of
any of those other namingservices.
It's just what it is right.
So, again, registering apowerful name is powerful.
It's going to give you presenceon the blockchain, but when we
(19:59):
talk about owning a top leveldomain, which is the dot itself,
it gives you a whole differentpresence.
Now, this is something that isexclusively available through
free name, and and by that Imean that, the opportunity today
for you to go to a shoppingcart, find a TLD that you like,
purchase it, monetize it andstart marketing it.
(20:22):
Today, that is exclusive toFreeName.
That is the opportunity thatexists here, and this changes
your role from participant toplatform.
There may be other platformsthat have collaborated with
projects to launch TLDs.
You may be lucky enough to beone of those platforms with
projects to launch TLDs.
You may be lucky enough to beone of those platforms or
projects to get chosen at somepoint.
But if you ain't, if you're aone-man band, if you're a guy
(20:43):
with a cool idea, if you gotsome friends in the DFW that
you're trying to get into Web3,you probably ain't going to get
picked by those other guys.
And the closest thing and thebest thing for you is over here
for your name.
Just wanted to put that outthere.
But again, when you own a TLD,now you're not just another
(21:03):
address on the street, you'reone of the ones who is drawing
the map.
You get to define how yourcommunity shows up, how these
names are issued, what theyunlock, how the identity layer
supports the product you'rebuilding.
Musicians can turn fandom intotheir nameartist, daos can make
governance feel native withtheir member namemydap.
Games can brand entire worldswith player namegamertag.
(21:30):
Educators, events, marketplaces, studios really anyone who
thrives on community can nowturn naming into a growth engine
rather than an afterthought.
When you own the dot,everything that you do now to
promote that creates momentumand that momentum compounds and
this is an example that I gaveboth yesterday and, I believe,
(21:53):
earlier today Marketing.
One name is one thing, right,selling it to another person,
and now they have it.
You don't have it anymore, cool.
But have you ever thought aboutthat?
Like, what a house?
Right.
And the house, I think, is agreat example, especially when
you sell a house you lived infor a while, you did things to
it right.
You made it, you fixed it up.
(22:13):
When it was broken, you madepatches, you personalized it,
you put your love and your workinto the home.
And then there's nothing wrongwith selling that home to
another person If you needed tomove on, if you needed to
downsize, if you got the valuethat you needed out of it.
But then you always get thatbuyer's remorse later because
those memories that you builtright, the work that you put in
(22:35):
it, kind of disappears with it.
And that's what happens whenyou sell a domain, right.
But when you're marketing a TLD,when you're marketing the dot,
all of that counts and itcompounds and it has value.
Every single new SLD that'sminted on it is a small
billboard for your ecosystem.
Loyalty from your communitydeepens now because namespace
(22:57):
itself holds a meaning.
It's a shared culture, it's notjust a skew.
And then, of course, there's aneconomic layer.
As you build this branding, asyou build this value, as you
continue to build traffic,community, et cetera, now you're
going to get people who arecoming and they're buying this
name and every single timesomeone comes and they mint an
(23:18):
SLD on your TLD, you have anopportunity to earn income.
Specifically, you earn 50% ofthe income of any SLD that's
registered on your TLD and thatcan add up quite quickly.
So, again, if you live andbreathe Ethereum and the
Ethereum culture and ethos, ensis a beautiful fit.
(23:39):
And if you prioritize thingslike simple onboarding or
consumer-grade experience,stoppable does land that plane.
But if you're here to build acommunity or a brand, or if you
want the identity to be anactual business and not just a
bolt-on, free name is definitelywhere you'll feel at home.
(23:59):
If you're thinking beyondpersonal names, if you're
thinking about culture, aboutdistribution, about network
effect, owning a TLD throughfree name is the move that most
people will only recognize inhindsight that most people will
only recognize in hindsight.
(24:20):
We are super early today.
Web3 naming isn't a trend.
This is literallyinfrastructure.
It is a part of how this spaceworks.
Right.
It makes it make sense.
It makes mapping things makesense.
In a few years, people will usethese names without thinking
They'll be signing in with it.
They'll will use these nameswithout thinking They'll be
signing in with them.
They'll be paying other peoplewith them.
They'll be proving who they arewith them.
(24:41):
They'll be participating withthem.
Just like DNS faded into thebackground while powering
everything, people in the realworld don't have a conversation
about DNS and IPAN and wordslike that it just is.
It works.
People use it every single daywithout knowing what it is, and
(25:02):
at some point, web3 naming willbe just like that Unstoppable
will keep welcoming the next 100million users, dns will keep
setting standards for the cryptonative world, and free name
will keep turning identity intoecosystems and giving founders,
creators and communities thesteering wheel.
The question isn't which onemust lose.
(25:24):
It's how you'll place your betsso you can win with all of them
.
Own a name that represents youreally, because self-custody
identity is the point of all ofthis.
And if you're buildingsomething bigger than yourself,
again consider owning the dotthat your people can gather
under.
This is the rare move thatturns an audience into a network
(25:45):
, that can turn a product into aplatform and can turn a brand
into a place where people cancollect and add value.
Again, there's a million waysand a million reasons why we can
say a TLD, a domain.
Everything in this space hasvalue and I'm glad that you guys
pulled up here to learn.
And again, every single day,we're continuously building,
(26:05):
we're learning.
I'm super bullish on our newestintegration with Strawberry.
I think I've said that likemaybe four or five times,
probably dedicated a lot of timeto it in this morning space, or
five times probably dedicated alot of time to it in this
morning space, but it doesrepresent again the progression
of tools that are out there,that are already existing, that
are already becoming smarter,plugged directly into our
(26:25):
ecosystem.
That answered the veryquestions that we thought held
us back right.
The same questions that we usedto ask ourselves if you're not
crypto native, if the ui is hard, if there's gas, if I don't
know how to use a wallet, howwill I ever figure out or care
what any of these things are?
And AI answers that questionright.
(26:45):
Ai can make a user experiencefor someone extremely fast.
It can make all those hurdlesdisappear in non-existence and
it can even be personalized,automated and do all this stuff
behind the scenes.
So get ready for this world,get ready for this digital world
, for this on-chain world, forthis ai energetic world.
Just like you needed a namewhen you were born, every single
(27:09):
thing that start that appearson the blockchain, that exists
on the blockchain, will alsoneed a name and, again, can't go
wrong with any of those othername services.
But if you want to be on thebuilding side of the equation
with something that is turnkey,that's already primed for
success, then that opportunitydoes exist with free names.
So, as you're building yourportfolio, as you're
(27:30):
diversifying, as you're lookingat your 100.eats, get 200.xs and
cryptos, add a couple dot,whatever your brand's in there,
and you'll thank yourself laterBecause, again, any of us that
are here now early we've beensaw where this is coming, but
it's more evident than ever thatwe're on the right track and
you know that our each and everyday, our names no matter which
(27:53):
names the space you're investedin are gaining relevance.
Let's continue building a webwhere we actually own our own
identity and, for the ones thatare ready to lead, you can own
your own namespace as well.
Focus on your mission and notyour condition.
Hope everyone has a happyweekend and happy demanding.
Tomorrow is my birthday.
I turned to Big 44.
(28:13):
So if I'm AFK, that is why I'mgoing to enjoy my life and
reflect on my time so far in thespace.
Again, blessed here to be witheach and every one of you.
Thank you for attending my techtalk.
For anyone who is going to belistening to this later, or
anyone who prefers to listen tothis podcast format, again, this
will be uploaded both on ourwebsite and on our podcast in
(28:35):
the next couple of days.
Again, happy Friday.
Talk to you guys in the nextcouple of weeks.
Thank you for attending ourTech Talk.
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