Web2 vs Web3 Domains: Your Name, Your Keys, your Future

The battle between Web2 and Web3 domains represents much more than just technological evolution – it's about who truly owns and controls our digital identities. In this eye-opening Tech Talk episode, Marcus (WenAirdrop) dives deep into why traditional domain ownership is fundamentally flawed and how blockchain-based domains are revolutionizing our relationship with online identity.

For decades, we've accepted a system where we never actually own our domain names – we just rent them annually from registrars, risking total loss if we miss a payment. Web3 domains flip this model on its head with permanent ownership secured by blockchain technology. No annual fees. No risk of seizure. True digital property rights.

The episode explores Freename's latest integration with BNB Chain, expanding their multi-chain domain offerings to eight different blockchains. This flexibility allows users to choose the ecosystem that aligns with their needs while maintaining complete ownership of their digital identity.

Beyond just replacing complicated wallet addresses with human-readable names, Web3 domains serve as universal login credentials across applications, profile management systems, and community-building tools. The most exciting development might be democratized access to top-level domains (TLDs) – something requiring millions of dollars and regulatory approval in Web2, now accessible to everyday users in Web3.

Whether you're a crypto enthusiast, entrepreneur, investor, or simply someone concerned about digital ownership rights, this episode illuminates why Web3 domains represent the future of how we'll establish, manage, and monetize our online presence. The question isn't whether Web3 domains will become essential – it's whether you'll recognize the opportunity while it's still early.

Listen now to understand which domain system offers better utility for your digital future, and discover how platforms like FreeName are making it possible to truly ow

Own a Web3 TLD with Freename
Freename.io is the leading Domains platform in Web3. Users can mint their own customized Web3 TLDs.

Geek out with style - NerdMerch
Shop web3 tech inspired print on demand merch featuring original designs by IHeartDomains

Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

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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.

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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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• 
  Hopefully everybody can hear meclearly.
  Yeah, posted a couple of thingsat the top of the space as
  somewhat of a controversialtitle, I guess, to some people,
  but definitely the foundation ofa great conversation.
  Looking forward to getting intotoday Again.
  
  (01:56):
  It's a continuation of someconversations we've already been
  having this week, as well asour workshop from yesterday.
  So, yeah, we will get into itin just a second Again.
  Appreciate the love.
  Thank you guys for coming andlistening live.
  If you could, please hit thatbottom right-hand bubble like
  retweet.
  If you want to come up and aska question, feel free to do so
  
  (02:19):
  or leave a comment.
  But, yeah, just one more second.
  We'll get right into it.
  All right, all right, all right.
  Again, thank you guys for beinghere and welcome to our Tech
  
  (02:40):
  Talk podcast.
  This is a live discussion thatI record here every single week
  on X, where we highlight news,innovation, education, alpha and
  business development in theWeb3 technology and digital
  identity space.
  I am your host, marcus akaOneAirdrop, the founder of
  iHeartDomains and communitymanager at Freename.
  For the past two and a halfyears, we have been your number
  
  (03:02):
  one resource for unbiased Web3and blockchain domain
  educational content and spaces,with over 100, and some of these
  tech talk episodes and YouTubevideos yeah, that we produced
  over that period of time.
  If you want to see our entirearchive of tech talks, you can
  do so either on our website atiHeartDomainscom, where they are
  all accompanied with a shortblog overview of the episode in
  
  (03:26):
  question, or you can listen toit easily on your favorite
  podcast player, and it's easy tosee that archive at
  techtalkhost, also on YouTube aswell.
  So, yeah, no matter how youwant to digest all this alpha,
  we try to provide for you asusual.
  I do want to open up with just alittle bit of opening news,
  
  (03:46):
  some of which is pinned up atthe top of the space.
  So we've been, we're kind of Imean, we're still in the middle
  of some of the biggest news froma free name surrounding the
  minimass snap and you know got aquite, quite a lot still that
  we're going to be focusing onthat.
  But one of the kind of I guessyou'd say parallel announcements
  
  (04:10):
  that's come out that's equallyas big is our integration with
  B&B Chain.
  So B&B Chain just recentlyretweeted and informed basically
  their world that free namedomains are now available to be
  minted on their chain and theywork on that platform.
  So, you know, as is truefashion, we will now begin the
  process of, you know, creatingpartnerships and integrations
  
  (04:32):
  and, you know, building somegreat utility for domains that
  are now being chosen to beminted on BNB chain.
  But, you know, them officiallyrecognizing that partnership,
  opening doors for us to, youknow, continue to expand the
  footprint and utility.
  You know, for holders, whetheryou're an SLD holder, you know,
  in our ecosystem, you're able tochoose which blockchain you
  want to mint on from either theSLD or the TLD level.
  
  (04:54):
  So, you know, having thatchoice.
  Now, if you're bullish on BNBchain which at one point, you
  know, admittedly, I was very,very, very bullish on that chain
  Then, yeah, this is a happymoment for you.
  And, again, just to remind you,green and domains you can mint
  on eight different blockchains,including now BNB Base, solana,
  
  (05:16):
  polygon, chiliz, say, and a fewothers and more to come.
  So, yeah, expect a lot morecontent and context regarding
  that particular integration sothat we can make it make sense
  to everybody, so you can begintaking advantage of it.
  And then also and we're goingto kind of get quick and tense
  
  (05:36):
  subject to the update newsreally short, just want to
  re-remind everybody that our ownpersonal registry for the TLDs
  that we own on FreeDane are openand are available for
  registration and are nowavailable to be minted on BNB
  chain.
  You will see one of thosepinned up at the top
  defiwalletexchain.8888 anddefiwallet or, yeah, did I say
  
  (05:59):
  defi wallet twice?
  Well, you see itdefiwalletexchain.888, defi
  wallet all available to beminted.
  The one in particular at thetop will take you straight to
  the landing page for defi wallet.
  But, yeah, any of the free nameexisting coupon codes will work
  , so those are available as well, which means you can get your
  forever name on any one of theseTLDs for as low as like $2 or
  
  (06:21):
  $3.
  And so, yeah, yeah, Idefinitely want you to take
  advantage of that, especially asI take this space to make it
  make sense.
  So, uh, again, welcome, uh, toour tech talk.
  This is the web three domainworkshop series.
  Uh, where we explore the futureof digital identity, branding
  and ownership on chain.
  
  (06:42):
  This is a collaborative effortthat we do with Freedame.
  As I explained at the beginningof every one of our workshops,
  we do this both for our VIPcommunity in private on
  Thursdays.
  So if you are a VIP member ofthe Freedame community.
  This is a utility that'savailable to you In those
  workshops.
  We do them via Google Meet sothat you are able to interact.
  
  (07:02):
  You're able to see my face.
  We screen share, we dig throughthese in pretty good detail.
  The purpose of these workshopsfor the VIP community is to
  assist in business developmentand growth and to help nurture
  you in your journey in Web 3.0domain.
  We are a very collaborativepartnership, as I've explained
  many times, I think, on X, sothat's a utility that we offer
  
  (07:25):
  directly to the VIP community.
  And then I do this the followingday on Fridays, via my tech
  talk, because theseconversations are important for
  the general space.
  Again, while I might be talkingspecifically about an
  opportunity that lies with 3Dame, that opportunity, you know, or
  how to capitalize on anopportunity, can be copied and
  
  (07:47):
  pasted to pretty much any namingservice, and a lot of the tools
  that FreeName has already built, like the Resolver, resolves
  other name services.
  So a lot of what I'm talkingabout, I think, is beneficial to
  you, whether you're bullish on,you know, the FN ecosystem or
  any ecosystem in general, whichis why we see value in
  recreating the workshop in thisform.
  So, again, welcome to our Web3domain workshop.
  
  (08:09):
  Hopefully you will get valuefrom this conversation.
  I think, again, it's a verygood conversation to have,
  especially, you know, as ourspace begins to create a lot of
  gray area between Web2 and Web3domaining.
  So, yeah, very excited to getinto it.
  Um, one of the things I alsousually do before getting into
  
  (08:29):
  these spaces is I usually, uh,you know, define the difference
  between web two and web threedomains, but considering that
  this entire space is centeredaround that topic, we're going
  to skip that part.
  So, yeah, now we're going todive right into it.
  So, yeah, if you're listeningto this for the first time and
  also if you're I know everyonelistening live.
  That is Twitter native and Web3domain native a lot of things
  
  (08:51):
  that I might say might berepetitious, might be things
  that you've already heard,because this is published as a
  podcast and on YouTube.
  This does reach a much largeraudience than I get here live,
  and a lot of that audience hasnever heard of Web3 domains or
  Web3 in general before.
  So forgive me if I slow thingsdown a little bit or if it feels
  like I'm talking to acompletely different demographic
  
  (09:13):
  , but all right.
  So if you've ever wondered whypeople in Web3 are ditching
  traditional dot coms in favor ofthings like eafs, exes, or even
  launching their own top-leveldomains like bgen or
  .420.
  This is what we're going tocover in this episode.
  We're going to look at the coredifferences between the Web2
  
  (09:36):
  domains and Web3 domains.
  We won't dive so much into theecosystem of Web2 domain, but
  talk about some of the technicaldifferences.
  We're going to talk about thereal-world use cases in emerging
  tech around Web3 naming.
  We're going to talk about whyWeb3 domains have potential that
  is greater than just being forwebsites, which is the core
  
  (10:00):
  utility of Web2Domaining.
  And then, most importantly,we're going to talk about the
  investment opportunity,especially, you know, with Web3
  TLDs, and why now is the time toget in while it's still early.
  So, with that being said, let'sstart with what we already know
  and are familiar with with Web2Domaining.
  So these are your dot coms,your dot nets, dot orgs, dot,
  
  (10:21):
  ais, dot X, ynets, orgs, ais,xyzs, et cetera.
  We all know them, we're allfamiliar with them.
  We use them on a daily basis togo from point A to point B on
  the internet.
  They've been around since the90s and, for the most part, they
  work.
  Yeah, they do what they'resupposed to.
  But here's the dealright.
  So when you get into and Iwould say I don't know what the
  
  (10:44):
  exact ratio is between likebusiness owners on the planet
  that have domain names versuslike regular people who just use
  them, but for the most part,when you start getting into, you
  know the side of the fencewhere you're actually needing a
  domain or registering a domainand dealing with that part of
  ownership, the thing that you'llrealize is that you'll never
  actually own your Web2 domain.
  
  (11:06):
  You start off with initialregistration and then, every
  single year, like the tax man,they come for their due and if
  you miss that due, your domainwill essentially be lost.
  It will go to an auction, to anexpired auction, and then
  someone else will either grab itor it'll drop and it can be re
  -registered again by someoneelse.
  
  (11:27):
  But in any event, if you don'tpay for it every single year
  without bail, or if you don'tregister for multiple years up
  front, it's not something thatyou truly own.
  It's an asset that you can lose.
  You know you're renting it fromwhatever registrar that you've.
  You know you registered itfrom.
  And then, lastly and again,it's not the biggest fear
  
  (11:47):
  necessarily for everyone, but itcan happen and other things
  have happened.
  But you can also lose yourdomain for other reasons.
  Right, you can be.
  You know your domain can becensored, it can be removed.
  In the case of ai, which is avery popular TLD, it's got a
  high premium on it.
  Things are moving like hotcakes, but it has a very well-known
  
  (12:09):
  and a very well-stamped, youknow set of rules and
  regulations that are alignedwith that TLD.
  There are things you cannotbuild on that TLD and if you do
  so, you run the risk ofeventually getting it shut
  down.
  And so, again, when it comes toownership, or even owning the
  content that you connected to,it's not permanent.
  It can't be permanent.
  That's by design.
  There are benefits to that andthen, for some, there are, you
  
  (12:31):
  know, negatives to that.
  So, again, even though you canbuild an entire brand and
  business and identity becausethis is still identity your dot
  com.
  There's a lot of companies thatare known specifically by their
  domain name.
  It's still identity.
  There's a lot of companies thatare known specifically by their
  domain name.
  It's still identity.
  You're not really in control ofit, as we're growing into an
  age where everything is startingto become digital and now we're
  
  (12:53):
  starting to become this newthing called on-chain, that can
  become a problem, allright.
  So transitioning now to Web3domains.
  And again, throughout this, itmust be emphasized that this is
  built on a completely differenttechnology stack, as each works
  
  (13:13):
  natively.
  They do not do the same thingand were not built for the same
  purpose.
  However, there is a lot ofsynergy and gray area that is
  being built between the twospaces where, eventually, both
  will be able to do both.
  But now again, switching theconversation to Web3 domains.
  They aren't the same thing butsimilar, but let's start talking
  
  (13:33):
  aboutthem.
  So again, unlike Web2 domains,which are basically, they live
  and operate in the traditionalDNS system that is governed by
  ICANN, web3 domains live on theblockchain, they are
  decentralized, they aretokenized and, in most cases,
  once you met them, you own themforever.
  
  (13:54):
  There are some protocols thatoperate the same way on a rental
  basis, where, if you don't paythe renewal fee, you can lose it
  , but again, specifically to ourvalue offering, our domains are
  forever free.
  So again, paying once you ownyour domain forever, no renewals
  , no subscriptions.
  And this becomes extremelyimportant when it comes to that
  
  (14:17):
  word called identity, which issomething that I drill down on
  constantly.
  How can you name yourselfsomething, or be something, or
  share that you are something.
  If eventually it could besomething else, right?
  I think names, just like ourreal names in real life, have
  permanence.
  I think names on the blockchainneed permanence as well.
  So, value number one payingonce, owning
  
  (14:39):
  forever.
  Don't have to worry aboutlosing your name for any reason
  whatsoever, unless you're clumsywith your crypto keys.
  Again, now, they're censorshipresistant.
  Although you can't buildcontent on them, you can set up
  a bunch of different contentrecords, which are just as
  important as the content itself,and again, we're going to this
  gray area in the future whereyou actually can, like sort of
  
  (15:02):
  build content on them.
  However, that, you know,continues to progress or
  continues to evolve.
  The underlying value is stillthe same.
  Whatever you're able to buildwill be censorship resistant
  because, again, in order tochange content, in order to
  
  (15:22):
  modify, alter or in any wayinteract with this domain name,
  you will need access to thecrypto keys that manage or own
  that NFTft.
  And so, not your keys, not yourcrypto, not your domain.
  Another centralized entity forno, for any reason cannot come
  and take your domain becausethey feel like it.
  Um, so, yeah, big plus there aswell.
  
  (15:42):
  Some minuses to that also, uhand, and thankfully we haven't
  come into, I don't think, anyexamples of how that can go
  weird.
  I'm sure we will at some pointand you know, hey, we'll figure
  out how the world chooses toaddress it then, but for now
  that is.
  One big perk is that, at leastfor now, you can create
  censorship-resistant content orcontent records connected to
  
  (16:06):
  your Web3 domain name.
  So again, owning your data,owning what's connected to it
  and protected from anyone beingable to erase it.
  Then again, like we were sayingearlier, the potential for it
  to be more than just a websiteIn Web3, again different purpose
  than these even being createdIn Web2, web2 domains were a
  necessity to humanize and tomake it easier to interact with
  
  (16:31):
  websites, which are basicallyattached to IP
  addresses.
  The way the internet reallyworks is IP addresses route to
  websites and your domain nameresolves the IP address.
  In Web 3, almost everythingthat we do interact with,
  especially our identity, ie ourwallet, is a 0x address.
  
  (16:52):
  It's 0x, a bunch of numbers andcharacters, and that is
  essentially your first form ofdigital identity, just in the
  same as it.
  You know, you can't reallyremember or it's not practical
  to operate copying and pastingIP addresses.
  It's not practical or it's notfriendly in any way to normies
  
  (17:13):
  to operate by copying andpasting zero X addresses either.
  Nor, when you're trying to lookup something, find records of
  something, look for atransaction, look for a document
  , look for an NFT, is itpractical to have to search for
  it via its zero X address?
  And so Web3 domains resolve tozero X addresses, making these
  easier to read, interact with,share, et
  cetera.
  But, that being said, first andforemost, the biggest utility
  
  (17:37):
  and the biggest way that itoperates more than just a Web2
  domain, is that you can usethese things to send and receive
  money.
  So it is your wallet address.
  Because it resolves andreplaces your wallet address, it
  now becomes your wallet address.
  And so, as we know, now, withour MetaMask snap plugin, you
  can go to MetaMask and type inwinairdrop, which is my Web3
  digital identity, and it willpull up my wallet address and
  
  (18:00):
  allow you to send me money.
  I dare every single person whois listening to this space to
  try that just one time.
  Go for it Then, in addition tothat so that's utility number
  one again, a lot of greatarea.
  I'm.
  I'm talking about assets intheir native form, okay, so.
  So right now I'm talking aboutthe benefits of web3 native
  
  (18:22):
  domain names and and prior, whenwe were talking about web2
  domain names and talking aboutwhat they can do natively and
  web2 what they're built foragain, a lot of gray area right
  now.
  At some point, both of thesewill be able to do both, but I'm
  just talking about what theycan do natively in Web 2, what
  they're built for Again, a lotof gray area right now.
  At some point, both of thesewill be able to do both, but I'm
  just talking about what they donow.
  Okay, so yes, I do realize thatnow the technology exists for
  your com to be your wallet, nowyour technology exists for it to
  
  (18:43):
  become an NFT and Web 3.0digital ID and the other
  benefits that come with Web 3.0be assigned to Web2 domains and
  viceversa.
  Right, we have pre-named DNSand all kinds of other things
  that allow people to create Web2content attached to Web3
  domains.
  But yeah, I'm talking aboutnative utility, just to clarify
  that.
  But yeah, you could builddecentralized websites, which is
  
  (19:06):
  a completely different animalthan what you can currently
  build on Web2 domains.
  These are websites where, again, the content is stored on a
  decentralized server that cannotbe, you know, erased or edited
  or censored or anything likethat, so that technology
  creating, you know, kind of thatWeb2 atmosphere for Web3.
  And then, continuing on andwe've had these conversations,
  
  (19:28):
  you know, more than just awallet, you'll be able to use
  these to log into Web3 apps forreal digital identity within
  those apps, to be able toreceive PO apps, for token
  gating, for online reputation,for all these good things.
  And you know, in our case theseare interoperable across
  multiple ecosystems so it reallycan be your all-in-one digital
  
  (19:48):
  identity.
  So now let's talk aboutreal-world utility, now that
  we've kind of clarified whatthey both do and compare them a
  little bit head-to-head.
  So, again, with a Web2 domain,you can build a website in like
  three seconds and it will work,end of
  story.
  If you're looking for thatutility, if you're a brand new
  
  (20:10):
  business, if you need to get anonline presence, if you want
  these things to work and nothave to explain it to anybody, I
  mean, that works, the internetworks.
  Nobody's trying to replace theinternet.
  I think that's a bigmisconception, maybe because of
  just like, how creative peopleare with marketing Web3TLDs.
  But no, but these are not meantto replace the internet.
  
  (20:30):
  That that process works, thatwill always have value, however
  the technology stack, the valuethat this adds on top as a layer
  , on top of web 2, as we get,you know, a completely new breed
  of you know, digitalentrepreneurs, digital products
  that can be sold, where we startbeing able to take more control
  
  (20:52):
  and ownership over our data andmonetization.
  Then we start seeing the valueof Web3 domains.
  But at the end of the day it'salways still going to have to be
  built on Web2frameworks.
  So the utility of Web2 domainsfor the most part, perceptually,
  is limited to building awebsite.
  They can actually do more.
  There are a lot of ways thatDNS and you know, for security
  
  (21:16):
  and for reverse resolution onthat side and all that stuff.
  There's a lot of ways that Web2domains are using the backend.
  But, as I explained yesterdayduring the workshop,
  perceptually you ask 99.99% ofpeople what a com is used for
  and they're going to saybuilding a website and again,
  done an awesome job at brandingthat People won't look for
  anything else to build a website.
  
  (21:37):
  But also people won't look at acom to do anything else if they
  don't need a website.
  So that's what you can do witha Web 2 domain build a website
  With a Web 3 domain on theutility side and, again, a lot
  of this is indevelopment.
  We are still we're early, butall of this is workable too, and
  it's workable in a surprisinglygood way.
  
  (21:59):
  Right, there's a lot you cansurprisingly do, like today, and
  one of those is you cancurrently build a decentralized
  website.
  This is a question that Ianswered on one of the spaces
  that we did on Tuesday.
  I was asked a question and theguest before us answered no, but
  you can actually.
  Now, is it a little janky?
  
  (22:20):
  Sure?
  Do you got to be super smartand maybe a dev?
  Sure, but is it possible?
  Yup, and that's the frameworkin the beginnings for the UI to
  continue to improve andeventually become one
  click.
  But we've mentioned platformslike WebHash.
  We've mentioned the free nameDNS.
  There's ways to do it.
  So, with a Web3 domain, today,you can build a centralized
  
  (22:43):
  website.
  You can also receive cryptopayments directly to that name,
  rather than having to copy pastethe 0x address.
  You can log into dms.
  You know we've talked about howyou know nouns and their
  ecosystem uses.
  Um, you know reverse resolutionand digital identity in their
  auction process and within theircommunity for voting,
  
  (23:04):
  participating in the dow.
  It has value.
  Right, you can send and receiveentities or tokens kind of goes
  right back to the cryptopayments.
  Whatever you need to send tosomebody, it's a lot easier to
  send it to a name than hopingthat you did not copy that zero
  X address correctly.
  And then also, again, this hasvalue as people are coming into
  
  (23:26):
  the digital space, as morepeople are starting to build and
  monetize at Web3, your name isyour
  name.
  Some of you, if you know, youknow, but that's like kind of a
  popular phrase here but my nameis my name, right, when it comes
  to branding being able to brandsomething as powerful and as
  multi-useful as your domain nameI think we're going to start
  
  (23:49):
  seeing a lot of examples of thatas people start to put it in
  practice.
  So even like right now, withthe Twitter handle, like you
  brand yourself with that, youbecome that.
  But sharing that name acrossthe Twitter sphere, across the
  world, is only useful on Twitter, the only way somebody can
  really use it unless you havethat same handle kind of
  mirrored everywhere and you knowuniformly.
  
  (24:13):
  But you still have to tellpeople.
  You have to look for this name.
  Think about a universalusername.
  Uh, and I explained how thesework in forecast and how they
  actually have created an amazingecosystem using digital
  identity where you can log intoother apps with forecast, and it
  brings that one identity withyou everywhere.
  So we're going to end up comingto that, and then it'll be an
  
  (24:33):
  identity that you own, and thenit'll be an identity that you
  can send money to, and thenit'll be an identity that you
  can type in and you can verifythat this person is a human
  being or holds a certain assetand et cetera, something that
  can do more than just our simplesocial profiles.
  So that is also, you know, thefuture of Web2 domain names.
  And then, if you are able to gothe distance or enter kind of
  
  (24:58):
  the other side of the equation,which is owning a TLD, you can
  now create entire naming layersfor a community, entire
  namespaces that you can buildvalue from.
  So huge leap in utility for howpeople are currently using Web2
  domains, for how people youknow are currently and are
  anticipating using Web3domains.
  So it's not just that Web3domains do more Again, they're
  
  (25:22):
  built for how the internet andhow the next generation of
  entrepreneurs is evolving.
  They're designed to move withyou across wallets, games,
  marketplaces, daos, platformsand beyond.
  So, as the Web3 space goes andI say this constantly.
  Still, the value of these, thevalue of Web3 domains, is
  
  (25:43):
  literally tied to the growth ofWeb3.
  So if you believe that Web3will eventually become the end
  be all all encompassingecosystem of the planet Earth,
  then everyone's going to need aname and everything's going to
  be the name Allright.
  So, shifting to the investmentopportunity and we talked about
  this as well yesterday, so don'tget it wrong the Web two domain
  
  (26:06):
  ecosystem by far eclipses theweb 3 domain ecosystem currently
  .
  I mean, yeah, I mean that'sjust.
  There's nothing else to sayabout that.
  I mean, it's been around for 30years.
  You have both a very vibrantSecondary ecosystem for premium
  domains, and I'm sure you'veheard stories like Hotels dot
  
  (26:28):
  com selling for $11 million orVoicecom for $30 million.
  You know these are veryinvestable assets that are the
  real deal.
  I've met the guys who soldthese things.
  These are serious people,right.
  The thing is, though, and as Ispoke about yesterday, is that
  at that level, right at, I wantto make a living doing the main
  
  (26:50):
  level, for a lot of peoplethat's just not accessible.
  So A all the good names aregone, right, are there names
  that you can still hand,register or catch on expired
  auctions or things like thatthat you can still flip and make
  money on.
  Yeah, and it's still anextremely lucrative business to
  be in and nothing I say is goingto stop anyone who's in that
  
  (27:12):
  business from being in thatbusiness, and it's not intended
  to do that.
  But if you don't have eitheryou know, a lot of capital
  behind you to go pick a bunch ofreally good names so that you
  have a higher likelihood ofbeing able to sell them and make
  a profit, of being able to sellthem and make a profit, or I
  mean, if you, you know, if youdon't feel like there is enough
  
  (27:35):
  you know inventory out there foryou to truly build a portfolio
  that you can stand on, then Web3presents like really a clean
  slate of opportunity for you.
  Even at this stage, right evenafter you know protocols like
  ENS have already, you know, comeand launched and you know
  protocols like ens have already,you know, come and launched and
  , you know, done their thing,and ud's already come and
  
  (27:55):
  launched and done theirthing.
  You know free name provided acompletely different opportunity
  and lucrative opportunity andthen even took it a step forward
  by providing the opportunity acompletely different level as
  well.
  So in our space, the web3 space, uh, you not only are able to
  invest you a similar fashion asyou are in Web2 in premium names
  .
  So if you have arteth, you gomake some money.
  
  (28:16):
  If you got financex, you'reprobably going to make some
  money, or pariscrypto, you'reprobably going to be able to
  flip that and make some money.
  But on platforms like Freename,you can take the ability to
  create a revenue source andbuild a business much further by
  owning a top-level domain.
  Again, this can be somethingthat you can use not only to
  
  (28:38):
  create your own naming ecosystemfor your community.
  Literally, it could just be autility or it could be something
  .
  If you build that kind ofcommunity where people want to
  be bullish, want to join, wantto show their signal that
  they're associated with it, youknow you can register domains on
  it, just like people registertheir domains on every other TLD
  out there, for whatever reasonthey feel like they like
  it.
  
  (28:58):
  And if you have a popularenough TLD, so like look at this
  right, look at, just look atwhen people wonder where can my
  TLD go?
  And even at this stage, wherecan my TLD go?
  My lineage is eth.
  Right, eth was dead.
  It's a real ICANN TLD that wasbasically hijacked and cloned by
  ENS, right, and they found avalue for the Web3 that just did
  
  (29:24):
  not exist inWeb2.
  Web2 is completely dominated bycom.
  Most people don't think aboutmany extensions outside of it,
  except for, like ai, like I said, which is on fire io, org in
  you know all those ones, right,but just in the last couple of
  years, with eth, they were ableto take a nothing TLB, add value
  
  (29:45):
  to it in the Web 3 space andsell what millions of them, the
  Web3 space, and sell whatmillions of them.
  And if you yourself, if you'recreative enough and create
  something that people like orthat is popular enough, don't
  matter what it is, that samepotential exists for you.
  So will some of us makehundreds or thousands of dollars
  
  (30:05):
  on your TLD, and will that beour ceiling?
  Sure, if that's the only effortthat you put into it.
  But what I'm saying, though,for real, for real is.
  ENS has made hundreds ofmillions of dollars on one TLD.
  All of us on this stage got oneTLD.
  So think about that, theopportunity that currently
  exists for you if you're able tofind the right connections and
  
  (30:26):
  build the right bridges andcreate the right amount of value
  behind your Web3 TLD, andyou're able to do this at a
  fraction of what you could dothis for in Web2, like the
  process in Web2, as we explainedseveral times, it ain't this,
  it ain't just going on a websiteand registering your TLD.
  You've gotta have hundreds ofthousands of dollars,
  
  (30:50):
  participate in auction.
  You know the drill.
  To have the same opportunity inWeb 2, is something else
  completely different, where thatopportunity right now is right
  at our fingertips here in Web 3.
  What that essentially meansagain going back to the being
  able to register your owntop-level domain is that,
  instead of having to registerjust second domains like
  
  (31:11):
  Jessicaweb3, you can now be theowner of Jessica or even web3,
  which in our case I think wedon't have web3.
  We may have blocked it out, orif somebody does in our
  community on web3, congrats toyou.
  But my point is is that you'reable to own the right of the dot
  , which then produces assets onthe left of the dot, and these
  
  (31:31):
  are all NFT independently ownedassets that once you own, the
  other person, the hierarchicalperson on the chain cannot then
  come and remove and snatch awayfrom you, which can even happen
  yeah, sorry to hear this, butwhich can still even happen with
  ENS sub-level domains.
  So for a lot of people in theENS community that have used
  
  (31:54):
  creating third level orsub-level domain registries just
  to work around to try to getthe same benefit, the problem
  with doing that is, yeah,they're not real and they are
  completely controllable by theowner of the SLD or second-level
  domain in this case.
  And so there's still a lot ofsecurity and ownership issues
  with that.
  If you're coming to Web3, youknow to kind of for that reason,
  
  (32:19):
  right, like we talked about atthe initial beginning, if the
  value of being here in Web3 isownership, then yeah, that makes
  sense.
  So, in any event, when youregister a domain on someone's
  TLD, on Freename, it is your SLD.
  No one can take that from you.
  So that is how it works here.
  Again, digital real estate 2.0,but with way more flexibility
  
  (32:41):
  and built in earning path.
  So again, we are extremelyearly.
  Why is now the time to get intothe space.
  Again, it's about opportunity.
  While everybody is side-eyeingand smirking, it is the best
  time for you to be looking andaccumulating, because nothing
  will ever be as cheap as when noone understands what it is and
  
  (33:04):
  doesn't know why they want itwanted.
  And then nothing is moreexpensive than when everyone
  finally clicks and figure outthat they needed it this whole
  time and starts to rush to getit.
  And that's where you want to be, is you want to be right there
  with your bag of names, withyour ecosystem built, with your
  platform, with your community,with whatever value that you
  
  (33:24):
  have for your naming system?
  You want to be there waitingfor that moment of click.
  And it will happen.
  Again, as I said, this isdirectly tied to the growth of
  Web 3 itself.
  It's a no brainer, it's just away of things.
  People the masses that willenter the space will not be able
  to manage zero hex addresses.
  
  (33:45):
  They cannot manage IP addresses.
  It's just again, it's commonsense.
  It's not an if, it's just awhen.
  Even right now and we know it,we see it Almost every single
  person that's currently in Web3uses a Web3 domain name.
  So if you're already here,you've already adopted this, and
  
  (34:05):
  when more people get here,they're going to adopt it as
  well.
  And if you've got a cool enoughname, they're going to buy you
  because it's going to be a cooland workable choice.
  But yeah, no-transcript.
  
  Speaker 3 (34:23):
  Hey, good morning.
  Fantastic recap, and actuallyI'm going to be taking the
  archive of this and I'll besending this to a couple people
  in my industry on the SEO side,number one.
  So I want to say thank you.
  And number two, I've got somethings I'm going to send you
  later on.
  I dropped off the map a littlebit, so I want to catch up with
  you on a couple things For thispurpose, for the archive, for
  
  (34:43):
  the listeners on the podcastlater.
  Today is the 28th of March.
  A significant amount ofregulation is going on right now
  and changes on the financialside of the industry, everything
  from investments to banking,and that's going to be the stuff
  with Ripple, the stable coin,the digital asset reserve
  
  (35:03):
  currency.
  So at least the average personon the street is starting to
  hear a little bit more about it.
  If they just follow, say, trumpor politics, pro or con,
  whatever it is, at least thetopic is starting to work its
  way to millions of people, withobviously a significant amount
  of confusion and, as you said,they're confused.
  They don't understand it yet.
  So, therefore, the opportunityis there.
  
  (35:23):
  What are you seeing here?
  These new regulations, like thebanks just got the green light
  for certain things, like theoffice of the comptroller of the
  currency to do cryptotransactions, or banks can issue
  stable coins or things likethat.
  All of this is coming.
  You can see what's happeningwith this final thing still
  pending about the Ripple SECcase.
  
  (35:43):
  Once that happens, do you seethe need for people to possibly
  have their first ever cryptowallet?
  And then, of course, I wouldexplain it.
  Like you know, no one everremembers the VIN number on a
  car their car but they wouldremember when 123 is as a vanity
  plate, and that seems to be theconversation that at least
  makes them understand.
  
  (36:04):
  Okay, it's much easier toremember a much shorter name.
  That's the association that theaverage person can wrap his or
  her head around.
  But from our standpoint, whatare you seeing?
  That's going to be intelligent.
  Should these stablecoin billsand the average bank on every
  street corner in America startto offer some form of crypto or
  
  (36:27):
  digital assets, what are youthinking would be the smart way
  to go about that?
  To educate people, add value and, of course, have them either
  come into our TLDs specificallyor at least grow the space.
  I'm open to anything you'rethinking in terms of, because I
  was looking at everything frompeople having to pay their
  property taxes and then,therefore, they would have a
  digital identity that would belike, let's say, san Antonio dot
  
  (36:48):
  Bexar County, all the way, withthe address on the SLD side,
  right, and I know that has sometrouble with if you sell a house
  who gets the private keys.
  Totally understand that.
  So I'm just thinking ofdifferent things that could be
  done, that the counties mightbuy a bunch of these names so
  people could pay their propertytaxes in a digital asset all the
  way to something to help withjust normal everyday banking
  
  (37:10):
  transactions all the way.
  I just want to buy coffee atstarbucks but I want to pay for
  it in xrp or something like that.
  So, completely open to yourthoughts on all of this, thank
  you yeah, yeah, absolutely so,and we kind of talked about this
  .
  
  Speaker 2 (37:25):
  I think it was the way that I think that it will
  potentially be integrated, whichnow goes to answering your
  
  (37:50):
  question.
  I think stable coins are a veryuseful form of crypto and so I
  think, like the progression ofthis right as, like you said, as
  people become more aware thatthere is this technology layer
  that makes transferring, holdingand receiving money safer, I
  think that's the narrative thatpeople will have to go with.
  
  (38:11):
  It's not gambling, it's not youcan hold this and make 10
  million dollars.
  It's a new form of payment thatis more transparent, faster,
  safer your keys, your crypto,etc.
  And it's still backedone-to-one to a dollar, so it's
  a stable coin.
  I think that'll be a very usableand introducible form of crypto
  because they're they're notmuch direct right and, if I'm
  
  (38:36):
  not mistaken, and and this iskind of the direction we're
  already going so signals, right,you, you can kind of look at
  stuff that's happening withworld liberty financial to
  figure out the temperature ofwhat's going on here, at least,
  like with the way our governmentis looking at through the
  currency.
  So then, the number one whichwe talked about a while ago was,
  you know, them acquiring theirown domain, which I thought was
  
  (38:58):
  a very big signal because they,at least you know, are
  confirming that this makes thespace at least more usable and
  more personable and morebrandable the whole point of
  these things.
  So that's signal number one.
  But, if I'm not mistaken, Ithought I just saw an
  announcement that they arelaunching a stable coin.
  So this financial arm, orwhatever that the president has
  
  (39:20):
  interest in, is now launching astable coin because, again,
  stable coins, I think, are avery usable and introducible
  form of cryptocurrency.
  With that being said, when westart getting to the point where
  people are able to now usethese stable coins, these
  dollars that are just digital,maybe even with their own bank,
  instead of, you know, havingchecking savings, it has
  checking savings and then youknow USDC or whatever, yeah, now
  
  (39:46):
  the natural way to interactwith people and send and receive
  money to people.
  Again, it just becomes easierwith having a personalized name,
  a universal name.
  Sure, your bank is probablygoing to give you a username
  that you can do that with due,but the universal name that you
  can still route to that will bebetter as well.
  So, again, all roads lead backto meeting a Web3 domain name at
  
  (40:06):
  some point if you're sendingand receiving crypto.
  All roads for ownership, forconvenience, is having an
  interoperable web3 domain namethank you there, and that's.
  
  Speaker 3 (40:20):
  I was just jotting some notes down.
  The other thing I was going toask you I forgot to mention
  earlier um, just yesterday I wason a space with one of the more
  long veterans almost twodecades in virtual worlds,
  metaverses, things like that,like we've discussed before.
  But they have part of theirrevenue model the need to sell
  
  (40:42):
  internal domains, becausethey're actually building their
  own browser that would thensupport it, and then they're
  going to basically become agateway where people would then
  build their own little subvirtual worlds around it.
  So let's say, you know namescon for for, for domaining, as
  an example, that could have itsown virtual world, its own
  virtual trade show that would bebuilt on their ecosystem, and
  they said they were going to beselling domains on it.
  
  (41:03):
  But at least from the loginaspect, they would be open to
  the topic of allowing those withexisting Web3 domains to at
  least participate as a normallogin, knowing that they then
  could have to purchase their owndomain to have more advanced
  functionality within thismulti-virtual world ecosystem.
  So I'm going to map it out alittle bit.
  
  (41:24):
  I'll reach out to youseparately.
  The takeaway, though, is, if wesee any typical Web3 platform,
  it could be everything.
  What's the knowledge with thequizzes, mighty Study, right All
  the way to some of the otherones that we've discussed before
  , but anything else?
  That's a Web3 platform thattypically requires an email and
  
  (41:46):
  a password to log in.
  Is that and assuming they haveenough of a customer base is
  that something ever worthdiscussing that basically wait a
  minute you're a Web3 platform,but I'm using a Web2 email and a
  password to log in.
  Should I then at least considerthat that should be an open
  candidate for digital identityintegration, even if it is
  
  (42:07):
  simply just to handle the loginprocess?
  Is that the right way to thinkabout these things in terms of
  opportunities, or is that justgoing too far?
  
  Speaker 2 (42:14):
  No, that's exactly the way that you should take it
  for opportunities.
  So, going back to again, we all, over the course of these years
  , have done the best jobs we canat explaining what digital
  identity is like.
  We all, over the course ofthese years, have done, you know
  , are the best jobs we can atexplaining like what digital
  identity is or can be, but likejust looking at a domain in
  general, right.
  
  (42:35):
  So even when we talk about,like the general resolution,
  most people think domain name,wild address.
  I need to share a wild address.
  I share domain instead.
  You know just kind of like andso, just like I said with the
  website thing, thecom thing, howyou know great branding, but
  now that's the only reasonpeople want to use it.
  I'm really hoping that that'snot how this works here, right,
  
  (42:56):
  because the difference is notonly does this resolve for your
  website, but this also resolvesto whatever you put on your
  records, which is essentiallyyour identity.
  You can put an avatar you puton your records, which is
  essentially your identity.
  You can put an avatar, you canput social accounts, you can put
  multiple other naming services,you can connect everything
  about your Web3 and digital lifeto this thing, and then that
  
  (43:16):
  enables the evolution of this,which will one day be sign in
  with rename, right, and don'tquote me on that.
  I don't know if that'll be whatit's called or what form this
  will take.
  I'm just making this up, butthere are some versions of this
  that already exist.
  So there's already sign in withEthereum, which allows you to
  sign in apps and D apps usingyour Ethereum wallet.
  It acts.
  
  (43:37):
  It acts.
  I don't think it acts the wayWell, they call it sign in with
  Ethereum, and I haven't reallyplayed with it that much.
  Actually, I don't want to givethat as an example.
  I'll give the better example,the Warcast one.
  So, as I mentioned during one ofthe workshops about Warcast,
  when you create a Warcastaccount, you get an identity per
  
  (43:59):
  se.
  You're able to either you knowand you can connect your digital
  identity, your E N S Wall or EN S Name, but in any event,
  whatever you build on work, yourprofile, your connections, your
  followers, your everything thatkind of stays with you in a
  social graph and then you'reable to take that social graph
  
  (44:20):
  and log in the other with it andit brings all that with you
  that your identity is universal,like everywhere.
  So you're able to to basicallysame as like a gmail, right, you
  log in with your gmail accountto somewhere and that knows I'm
  marcus and blah blah, but it'snot really bringing much with it
  , right, it's not bringing, like, all my nfts and verifications
  
  (44:40):
  and stuff like that with it.
  But in the case of web, threelogins that's how you know the
  evolution of how they may andcurrently can work.
  So, to answer your question, Isee a future where, yes, these
  are used as a universal login,where, instead of logging in
  with your email and password,you go to a website like
  Footlocker and it says you know,log in with FreeName or log in
  
  (45:04):
  with your wallet.
  You log in and then it's able todepending on what permissions
  you set, it's able to query anyrelevant information or NFTs
  that are sitting in your wallet.
  Maybe you have a coupon code orsomething sitting in there
  that's an NFT that you want orsomething that you're able to
  redeem for a real shoe to getshipped, and it's sitting as an
  NFT in your wallet.
  
  (45:25):
  Like you'll be able to dothings like that.
  Hopefully that answers yourquestion.
  
  Speaker 3 (45:32):
  Well, that was terrific.
  No, thank you, I'm going tosend.
  No, really, I'm done.
  Thanks.
  By the way, tomorrow morning,when I have to go to run some
  errands instead of making phonecalls, I'm going to be listening
  to the archive of this again.
  It's just getting in my head.
  I've got some other things.
  I'll send you separately.
  I just wanted to make sure Iwas up to speed.
  I know there's other spaceswhere there's some more advanced
  
  (45:52):
  or nuanced topics, but thisback to basics.
  But the bird's eye view isfantastic.
  So thank you for keeping meback on track.
  I was starting to go down thewrong rabbit hole on a few
  things, so I really appreciateit.
  
  Speaker 2 (46:05):
  No, I'm glad to have you on.
  I love having theseconversations, um, yeah,
  hopefully again thesediscussions, you know, for those
  that are listening back um areable to provide value and and
  you know, give context to, towhere this space, in my opinion,
  I think is is truly going andand will have the greatest
  impact.
  Opinion I think is truly goingand will have the greatest
  
  (46:28):
  impact.
  So, kind of wrapping up now andjust a reminder to everybody in
  45 minutes we have our Web3domain.
  Well, talk directly on the freename platform that is going to
  be hosted by me and Paige Howe,who is a 30-year Web2 domainer
  and also a veteran Web3 domainer.
  So spaces, you definitely don'twant to miss A lot of alpha
  drop by him on there.
  So that's going to start in 45minutes.
  
  (46:48):
  Uh, I'm going to go ahead andbring this home and and kind of
  wrap this up.
  So kind of in conclusion, whichhas the better utility web 2 or
  web 3 domains?
  Um, again, it really depends onwho you are and what your needs
  are.
  If you're 76 years old and youjust watch YouTube and go to the
  
  (47:10):
  grocery store every now andthen, then you probably don't
  need to listen to any of this,and if all you're needing to do
  is build websites, if you're awebsite developer, web2 domains
  are going to feel familiar fornow.
  But again, if we're talkingabout the ownership, we're
  talking about digital identity,talking about the future of
  payments, branding and long-termutility that will continue to
  
  (47:33):
  grow and develop every singleday.
  Web3 wins hands down.
  The Web2 domain space isn'tdeveloping.
  Again, they do what they do.
  They have their own market,they have their own ecosystem,
  they have their own cabal.
  Technologically, it's notimproving.
  
  (47:53):
  As a matter of fact, theimprovements that they're adding
  to Web 2 are actually Web 3related.
  So, again, if you're lookingfor what's going to be
  potentially a better investmentlong-term, especially into the
  future that we are building intoagain Web3, it seems like the
  
  (48:15):
  better investment has moreutility, especially with the
  offer of real ownership,different layers of
  functionality, the ability tobuild real on-chain communities
  and then, of course, the ease ofentry and the ability to
  generate income, especially withTLDs.
  
  (48:37):
  Web3 domains aren't just abetter utility.
  It seems like they may be a bit.
  Again, platforms like Freenameare making it extremely easy for
  people to enter the Web3digital identity space, whether
  you're looking for the name thatyou want to go by and have
  money sent to, or whether youwant to create your own
  ecosystem and explore DLDownership in building your own
  
  (49:01):
  protocol or platform.
  But, that being said, this isthe end.
  Thank you, guys for attendingour tech talk.
  This is about Web 2 versus Web3 in the domain space.
  Which has better?
  Utilities.
  Hope this sparked some questionsor ideas and, if it did so,
  feel free to either check outfreenameio Again you can
  
  (49:23):
  register either your TLDs orSLDs there or feel free to join
  the iHeart Domains community,where we do this every single
  week.
  We help educate you and guideyou on the basics and principles
  of Web3 Digital Identity, sothat we make it make sense.
  And yeah, with that being said,see you guys in a little bit.
  Hopefully you guys can make itto the Web3 Domain.
  
  (49:44):
  We Well Talk Again.
  Focus on your mission, not yourcondition.
  Happy, demanding.
  We'll chat soon, In a coupledays.
  This will be available as allepisodes are on our podcast, so
  for those of you who are waitingto listen back, I'll share that
  as well in the next few days.
  Thank you guys for attendingthe Tech Talk.
  We'll talk soon.