May 18, 2025 • 38 mins
What if most of the advice about brands needing .eth domains is fundamentally misaligned with how established companies actually build and maintain their brand identity? This provocative Tech Talk challenges conventional Web3 wisdom by examining why major brands like Nike and Apple might be better served by alternative strategies when entering the blockchain space.
The podcast dives deep into the critical distinction between Ethereum Name Service (ENS) as a powerful technological protocol versus .eth as merely one namespace option. You'll discover how ENS's own technology actually provides brands with a smarter path forward: importing their existing DNS domains directly onto the blockchain without diluting years of brand equity or confusing their audience.
Through practical examples and strategic analysis, we explore the logistics of blockchain integration for businesses, the power of consistent branding during technological transitions, and why custom TLDs represent the natural evolution for brand identity in Web3. Rather than forcing brands to adopt an unfamiliar extension that potentially misaligns with their identity, the discussion reveals how companies can leverage blockchain technology while maintaining the domains they've spent millions building.
The conversation culminates with a thought-provoking perspective on the parallels between domain adoption during the early internet era and today's Web3 evolution. Just as few could predict how valuable domain names would become for business, we're witnessing the early stages of blockchain-based digital identity transformation. Whether you're a brand strategist, Web3 enthusiast, or digital identity professional, this episode provides crucial insights for navigating the evolving landscape of digital ownership.
Ready to rethink your Web3 domain strategy? Tune in to challenge your assumptions and discover why the future of brand identity might look very different than many Web3 maximalists predict.
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My name is Marcus Andrews aka” WenAirDrop”, founder of IHeartDomains LLC, and since 2022 we have been a leading resource for News, Innovations, Education, Alpha and Business Development in the Web3 Domain & Digital Identity space.
If you're interested in Web3 domain insights, development, and news, don't miss our upcoming TECH Talk episodes featuring industry builders. Join our live discussions on Twitter/X spaces and engage with our community on platforms like Warpcast and Link3 for real-time updates and valuable ALPHA. Your journey into the future of digital identity begins with us!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you.
Thank you, hello, hello andhappy Friday.
Going to get started in just asecond.
Yeah, thank you guys for beinghere and welcome to another
iHeart Domains Tech Talk.
Yeah, excited to get into thetopic today.
This is one you know I'vespoken about and you know, kind
of given my opinion on a fewtimes, but I'm going to dive
into it in a little moretechnical detail to make it make
(02:38):
sense.
So very excited for theconversation.
But again, I'm going to getstarted here in just a second.
I am pinning a couple things tothe top of the space and then
we will jump right into it.
So I apologize in advance forthe awkward silence.
All right, I was looking forsomething in particular to pin,
(03:05):
but I can't seem to find it.
But in any event, we'll goahead and get started, go ahead
and wrap up this beautifulFriday and jump into this
weekend.
Been experimenting with thisnew time and I like it.
So, a little bit later in theafternoon, for me, the previous
tech talks have been earlier, at630 in the morning, so you know
(03:25):
quite a big time difference.
But yeah, continue toexperiment with different times
and this is about the third onewe've done at this time but in
any event would like to welcomeanyone listening both live and
listening in the future on ourpodcast, to our tech talk
podcast.
This is a live discussion that Irecord here weekly here on X,
(03:46):
where we highlight news,innovation, education and alpha
in the Web3 technology anddigital identities space, ie
those Web3 domain names.
I am your host, marcus akaWinAirDrop.
I'm the founder ofiHeartDomains and I'm also the
community manager at Freename.
We are your number one resourcefor unbiased Web3 and
blockchain domain educationalcontent.
(04:07):
I've done about 150 of thesetech talk episodes that are also
YouTube videos over the pasttwo and a half years and if you
would like to listen to any ofour previous recordings, you can
reach our archive in one of twodifferent ways.
In one of two different ways,you can either listen to these
episodes and read an easy blogoverview of each directly on our
(04:29):
website at iHeartDomainscom, or, if you prefer to listen in
your favorite podcast player,including Apple, spotify,
iheartradio, any of that goodstuff.
You can easily listen to theseepisodes there and you can get
to that archive at techtalkhost.
Simply just choose a playerthat you want and it'll take you
right to it.
Open news is pretty much goingto kind of be the same.
(04:51):
Not much has been going on.
Well, okay, there's a couplethings that have been going on
in the Web3 domain space Notdirectly related to, like, tlds
or anything of the sort, but ifyou are a holder of soul domains
, sns, any of those you may beeligible for the airdrop.
Well, you likely are eligiblefor the airdrop that they are
(05:13):
going to do.
So, again, make sure you doublecheck and verify all links.
If you go directly to theirTwitter profile, you should be
able to find the airdrop checker.
But for those of us who I mean,I've given this advice for
years right, one of the bestthings you could possibly do if
you're an investor in this spaceis diversify your bags.
(05:34):
If you have diversified intothe SOL space, especially if
you're early and especially ifyou set it as your primary for
your Solana account.
But, yeah, you probably do havean allocation of their new
token that they are going tolaunch.
Don't know how big this tokenis going to be, but free money
is free money and it's freemoney from Web3 Domaining.
(05:56):
So that's probably the biggestpiece of news I can think of
outside of our own space.
As I mentioned last week, one ofthe things I do want to remind
everyone of is that DomainXBT,our own AI agent that we built
to help both Web2 and Web3domainers, is live.
It is public for anyone to use.
(06:16):
It is 100% free.
You do not have to have a chatGPT account.
If you are curious about Web3domains, web2 domains, want to
ask a question, want to appraisea name, all you have to do is
go to domainxptcom, type thename in and it will do all the
work for you.
If you want to do anythingadditional, such as create art
(06:37):
banners, full HTML websites, etcetera, you're also able to do
so from the what would you callit, the custom GPT.
So you have a chat interfaceagain that you'll be able to
interact with when you get onthe site, and then you'll also
have the option to go intoChatGPT, into the actual custom
built module for it, which iswhere you'll have a lot more
(06:59):
capability.
That will require a Chat GPTaccount.
But yeah, in any event,domainxbt, the most awesome Web
2, web 3 tool, buddy, companion,ai built for domainers.
So, yeah, encourage everybodyto check that out.
And then, last but not least, onthe announcements, our own
(07:19):
djain, exchain and defi walletdomains are available for
registration.
If you're looking for a coolname to enter the space with, or
just want to show love andsupport to our community and
keep us building and growing,keep me happy.
Feel free to register yourfavorite name on
djnexchangedefiwallet.
All on a free name, and you caneasily get to that at
iHeartDomainscom.
(07:40):
It is literally smack On thefirst page.
You'll get the option to choosethe name that you're looking
for.
All right, without further ado.
Getting to the main topic athand, as you can see pinned up
at the top of the space why mostbrands don't need a eth.
(08:01):
So yeah, once again, I do wantto welcome everybody to our Tech
Talk podcast.
Today's episode might ruffle afew feathers, and that's
actually kind of a good thing.
It's always good, again, tokeep yourself diversified, to
keep yourself up to date onwhat's going on in the industry,
but also to keep yourself frombecoming like a maxi or trapped
(08:22):
in kind of a thought processthat isn't productive, and not
necessarily saying that you know, my ENS brothers and my E
brothers are, you know, stuck ina bubble.
But I think sometimes themaximalism on one particular TLD
or chain or another cansometimes like eclipse what
reality is.
So again, we're going deep intosomething I hear way too often
(08:46):
from brands, startups andstrategists on Web3, which is
should we get our eth name?
My answer, as you can see atthe top, is not really.
I don't think most brands needa eth.
In many cases, I actually thinkit's kind of counterproductive,
and I'm going to break it down,like I said, from a very
(09:07):
strategic perspective, so thatpeople can see that this isn't
coming from feelings or anythinglike that.
This is coming from logic,right, and this is just the way
the space is going to pan out.
So let me, first and foremost,give some kudos to eth dot.
Uh, ens or not E, but ENS, per,and that's.
That's another thing that Iwant to clarify too.
You're going to hear somedistinguished, some distinctions
(09:28):
between ENS, which is the giantthat produced E, and then E
itself, which, again, is just acommunity TLD at the end of the
day.
So first things first.
Ens, or Ethereum name service,is one of the most powerful
protocols of Web3.
It is probably the mostintegrated protocol in Web3.
(09:49):
Of course, we know that it hasits native metamask resolution.
It's on Etherscan.
You can use it on OpenSea, onUniswap, even Ledgers, everyone
and anyone in Web3 has their eth.
It works perfectly, right.
You get an address, you get aprofile and even an avatar.
The problem is that eth, again,it represents an ethos, it
(10:15):
represents a blockchain, itrepresents a culture that may
not necessarily align witheveryone, right, and then, even
when you're talking about ENSand eth, those two names get
conflated.
The things have to be kind ofseparated and I'll explain a
little bit what that means.
But ENS is a tech and, again,eth is just a namespace.
(10:35):
And while eth has a strongcultural capital in the crypto
native world, it doesn'tnecessarily mean anything or
even convert to any type ofvalue to legacy brands who have
spent years, and sometimesmillions, building on their
primary domains.
So, one of the big points that Imake about brands and there's a
(10:57):
couple of things right, andthis derives from a few
different conversations Irecently learned, apparently,
that there is a departmentinside of what was it?
Godaddy that's apparentlystoring eth names for the
biggest brands in the world.
You know who may eventuallycome looking for it.
I don't know if it's going tobe like a philanthropic effort
or when they come for it, theyget it, you know, gifted to them
(11:18):
so that they can be welcomedinto the space of Web3, or if
it's like a situation wherethey're going to have to pay
like a premium for it.
But again, there's a reason whybrands don't want these things
and why it may be an uphillbattle trying to really to pitch
these things to them.
So again, brands already havean extremely strong identity.
(11:41):
Think about this If you're Nike,if you're Apple, if you're
Shopify, your brand or yourdomain the current one that you
use, the one that people cantype in right now and go to your
website has pretty much beenbaked into everything that
you've done marketing-wise sinceyour inception.
Nikecom isn't just a domain,it's an experience, it's a trust
(12:02):
signal and, because of all theyears that they've built on top
of it, is an seo juggernaut.
Same with applecom, same withanythingcom.
If you're a brand and you'vebeen building on it, again there
is real real estate, there'sreal value to that name and
you've probably put it on abillboard or something.
So when, when someone says, well, you need to grab this name on
(12:25):
the blockchaineth before someoneelse does, I think they kind of
missed the point or kind ofmissed that when they're looking
at brands, because the bigquestion is what do these brands
gain by suddenly promoting aeth handle.
And I'll explain what thatmeans, because I think
previously the conversation wasthis is the brand's gateway into
(12:47):
Web3, but that's notnecessarily the case.
Eth isn't the only entrancethat these brands have into the
space.
But going back to the ethhandle, for someone like Nike
and I believe Nike does haveNikeeth it's interesting that
I'm using them as an example,but I don't think they use it
publicly.
But again, like putting the Eon the back of it, especially
(13:09):
with an IRL or an in-personaudience that's coming to buy
shoes that doesn't necessarilyknow about crypto, it extremely
confuses their audience, right?
It also again it dilutes theirbrand authority by adding this
other thing that they have toexplain If the world already
knows you as Nikecom, whysuddenly start marketing and
pushing Nikeeth?
(13:30):
And then here's the ticker,especially when EMS themselves
again that juggernaut behemothof a platform that powers the
community, tldeth, especiallywhen it allows you to import
your DNS domain directly andjust use it just like an ETH
name.
So yes, in this case ENS haskind of shot itself in the foot.
(13:52):
Nikecom can actually become itsown ENS name by changing the
records or by using DNSSEC andessentially it will work exactly
the same.
It will resolve on chain.
It can receive crypto, it canbe used with dApps.
There's no need to rebrand, noneed to retrain your customers.
You get to keep your brand andyou get to still bring it on the
(14:13):
blockchain.
I want to talk about a couplevalue propositions, and I'm
going to talk about this alittle bit.
Then the value proposition forbrands doing this and how I
think they'll come in the space,and then what I think the next
proposition for value for themis.
So again want to touch back onENS and DNS.
This is something that Iactually have a very early
(14:34):
experience with.
Back during the right, I guess,when we entered the bear, when
gas was just extraordinarilyhigh for no reason to even
change records on ENS, mostpeople weren't thinking about
using on-chain DNS set to bringDNS domains into the ENS
ecosystem just because it costsa few hundred bucks to do so.
I, however, wanted to prove apoint and wanted to push that
(14:57):
technology forward, and therewere a few people that did so.
So even when people weren'ttalking about on-chain DNS
domains, when people weren'ttalking about turning dot-coms
into Web3 addresses, I, alongwith others like Sean Murray and
a few others in the space, werealready experimenting with that
technology and paying the gasto do so, but then they made it
(15:21):
super duper easy.
First there was that GoDaddything, right?
So, if you don't already know,the GoDaddy and ENS partnership
allows you to pretty much easilygo in behind the scenes and
turn your whatever domain issitting at GoDaddy if you're
using them as a registrar,you're able to turn it into an
DNS domain, essentially, butthen DNS itself.
(15:44):
They made the DNSSEC well GASISa lot cheaper, and also they
have GASIS DNSSEC and there'salso a million ways to bring a
DNS domain on-chain.
My point being is that any brandthat has a domain name can
essentially create a clone thatis able to be used on chain.
(16:04):
So, going back to the Nikescenario and this may be the
worst scenario to use, I'm surethere's probably better examples
, but I'm going to go to them,and this is very well what they
might do, because, again, I knowadidas has their eth.
I think Nike has their eth, butas far as I know, they do not
use it, and this is why, becauseyou can now use your own brand,
(16:25):
in this case Nikecom, as yourwallet address.
You can actually set it as yourprimary ENS name, depending on
how you bring it on-chain.
In the case of on-chain DNSSEC,which is how I brought two of
my domains into the space, I wasable to set them as my primary
ENS name and they actually doreverse resolve.
When I'm out here in the wildplaying around with my burner
(16:47):
wallet If any of you have everseen testdefiwalletid that is
one of my burner wallets that isbased on a DNS domain.
You could do every single thingwith it that you can do with
any other ENS domain or eth.
I have seen a couple of reportsfrom some you know, some
strictly eth maxis, and there'sa difference.
There's a difference betweenENS maxis and eth maxis.
(17:08):
Eth maxis love ENS and eth andreject anything outside of it,
even though ENS empowers it.
And then, of course, ens maxisjust love the tech.
But for eth maxis they will saythat the on-chain DNS
counterparts don't workeverywhere.
Not sure where they don't work,but mine haven't had any issues
.
And then the important thingabout this is, all of this is
(17:31):
with zero need to touch a eth.
Another thing logistically too,and this is something that was
brought up by Gary himself, garyPalmer Jr if you guys have ever
, you know, spoken with him orbeen in space with him.
Extremely intelligentindividual.
He is a bulldog for ENS.
He is one of those eth maxiswho is like eth or nothing.
(17:52):
He was the one who mentionedthis secret, like this fund or
whatever, this wallet that hasall these ENS in it, right, and
he was explaining the reason whythis was set up.
And as he's explaining this,I'm like'm like well, this is
the problem in itself, but hewas explaining that the reason
why some brands have not come onboard is because of the
(18:13):
logistics of it, right?
Uh, you know, first they haveto understand what it is, but
then, second, it has to becustody somewhere, right?
But then, in addition to that,it's got to be renewed and
someone has to keep up with it.
It's something that can easilybe forgotten about if you're not
crypto native.
And as I'm thinking of thesethings, I'm like well I, if you
bring one of these things onchain using DNSSEC, guess what
(18:35):
you never have to deal with onthe ENS side.
You never have to deal withrenewals, so you get the best of
both worlds.
It's the easiest path into Web3for a company.
You just have to have onetechnical guy one time figure
out how to bring this thing onchain.
You have no cost ever on theon-chain side, no management, no
renewals, no expiration ever,but you still manage your name,
(19:00):
the exact same way that you doyour brand, the exact same way
that you do on the Web2 side.
So again, why would a seriousbrand with compliance teams,
investor pressure, suddenlystart pushing a eth when they
can keep the domain that they'vespent years building equity
around and, to be honest, theyshouldn't ENS functionality?
So again, and this is a shoutout to ENS, I love the tech.
(19:23):
I cannot negate the tech, Icannot deny the tech.
I believe that a lot of peoplewill come into the space via
that tech.
I do believe that this tech isthe easiest vehicle probably to
bring most brands on chain andto get them to understand the
value of a name.
But that tech does not requirethem to come in through a eth.
(19:45):
Now, once they are here again,once a brand is here, once they
start understanding the value oftheir name on chain, once they
built a brand-chain right oronce they brought their customer
base on-chain through bringingtheir brand on-chain with, again
, not confusing their audience,keeping their brand consistent,
just maybe introducing theutility or some sort of benefit
(20:07):
on the other side.
Right Now, then they have theopportunity to completely
harness and create a entirelynew community on-chain, which I
think is the next level ofprogression for brands as Web3
begins to pick up steam, and thenext thing for them now is
going to be the ability to issueeither identity or the ability
(20:27):
to name or label things thatthey're putting out in the space
with their own uniqueidentifiers.
And so if you ask an ENS maxior eth maxi how that would look,
most of them will think orhopefully say and I say with
hope that brands will come intothe space on a eth third level
(20:48):
domain.
We do know some examples ofsome partnerships that they were
able to land.
Again, kudos to them for thosepartnerships.
I think some of thosepartnerships were given just due
to the size of therelationships to the people that
they have with those particularentities in the space and the
relevance.
But people like Base with BaseE.
(21:10):
So obviously, if you want yourname associated on their
registry per se and I'm usingquotations because I don't even
know what to call it if it's athird-level domain, bro, but if
you want a name on theirregistry, it will read baseeth.
Same thing with.
What is it?
I think Uniswap.
They have unieth.
(21:31):
There's a couple differentexamples out there.
Even my own degen has beencloned as degeneth right.
But now taking it back to what Ijust mentioned before if
labeling thing, and especiallyokay.
So here's a couple of things.
Number one there's more thanone blockchain.
I'm not sure if I'm the firstperson that has ever said that
(21:51):
out loud or if it's like thefirst realization.
Some people may have heard ofthis, but there's more than one
blockchain and a lot of them arenot called ETH right, and a lot
, especially, as you know, web3continues to grow.
More things continue to beinnovated and built.
It is, I mean, it's not hard tothink that there might be a lot
(22:13):
of brands that come into thespace that just have nothing to
do with ETH right, ethereumitself as the blockchain, as the
currency, as the technology, asanything right.
I mean, what if a brand comesin through Solana?
What if a brand comes inthrough Bitcoin?
My point is is that the samescenario that I gave before is,
if it confuses branding or itadds unneeded dilution, at that
(22:36):
point it just does exactly thesame when it comes to labeling
or issuing subnames For anEthereum-focused community where
it's really a part of yourethos, your identity, be cool,
right.
But if it's not, again, ifwe're going back to a Nike where
, in the dozens of years ofexistence, it's had nothing to
(22:57):
do with Ethereum ever Most ofits customers just want some new
Jordans that has nothing to dowith Ethereum.
But you're able to provideeither like NFT, to label things
with that thing, dot their name, and then now that goes
(23:24):
obviously into my bestopportunity that I have to put
out here.
This is where free name and thecustom TLD strategy changes the
game.
You know, I've said it amillion times and of course we
know, and I'll do the commercialagain.
With FreeName, of course,you're able to own your TLD or
bring TLDs on chain, such asNike in this case, instead of
(23:45):
Ether.
Even in my case, I'm able toown Dgen straight out instead of
having to dilute it with a DgenEth.
You're able to issue your ownsubdomains, which, again for
identity, if you're building acommunity, that's the cleanest
potential or cleanest possibleway for great branding and again
(24:06):
, to not lose them in thedisconnect of trying to figure
out what something else is andfor labeling things and I've
spoken about this on otherspaces as well, how I know and
predict that names will be usedin relation to AI agents and
assistants that will begin beingdeployed.
These on-chain assistants willneed names so that you'll be
(24:28):
able to tie it back to theiroriginal owner.
And when we talk about branding,branding isn't something that
blockchain does for you.
Branding is something thatthese brands have done over the
past dozen years and, ifanything, it brings value to the
blockchain and not vice versa.
Again, so I don't think brandshave anything to gain by adding
(24:51):
a blockchain to the back oftheir on-chain identity,
blockchain to the back of theiron-chain identity.
I think, most likely, they'llbe attracted to the technology
of being able to own their brandundiluted.
You come on, represent yourselfpersonally as your namecom or
your namexyz or whatever it isthat you've spent millions of
dollars on.
Look at the iconcom.
(25:11):
That's just a sale that justwent through a couple of weeks
ago for $12 million.
I asked a lot of money to spendon something to then put all of
your marketing budget into forbranding to just abandon it,
because you want to adopt thetechnology when you don't have
to dismiss, dismissed or whenyou don't have to abandon your
(25:38):
name in order to adopt thattechnology and when you can
still come on chain and createan entire following community
without diluting that brand thatyou've built.
Um, so, yeah, with that beingsaid, uh, what are some
strategic takeaways, uh, I think, from this conversation for
brands looking to enter thespace?
Um, if you're a brand, I dothink that the obvious choice
for you is to use the technology, something like and another
(26:00):
thing too as well, I think Imentioned at the beginning of
the space there's multiple waysto come into the space.
If you're a debater, you're abrand in Web2.
I focus this conversation onENS's technology just because
I'm speaking about this inrelation to eth, because I don't
want to take anything away fromthe value of ENS itself.
(26:20):
So I do want to highlight thatENS itself has amazing
technology that allows you tobring DNS domains into the space
.
There are, however, other waysto bring DNS domains into the
space, including our owntechnology at Freename, our Miro
technology, which right now isavailable for ws and eventually
will be available at severaldifferent registrars, or any
(26:41):
registrar that wants tointegrate that technology in
order to bring your coms, yourxyzs and et cetera into the
space.
So again, even us at Freename,we see that as a logical
solution again for legacy brandswho have built on their domain.
We see that as a logicalsolution, again for legacy
brands who have built on theirdomain.
So, if you're a brand, bringyour DNS domain into the space,
turn it into your own personalidentity, use it which is
(27:04):
something that your customersare already familiar with to
then educate your customers onblockchain, to create benefits
and ecosystem and a community onblockchain.
And then, when you startbringing your community into the
space and you want to nowreward them, to tokenize them,
to track them, to give them asense of ownership, you can then
(27:24):
launch your TLB on Freename.
You can issue something that isundiluted.
You can give them their namesdot your brand.
Or you can issue assets thatare that asset name, dot your
brand.
You're also able to own andcontrol your own namespace,
which there's a lot of differentthings you can do with that,
from token gating events to allkinds of different things.
(27:45):
Right, there's a million waysthat a lot of different people
are either currently using oranticipate using Web3, digital
identity and, again, owning yourown namespace for a company is
a big piece of digital realestate and I think it's going to
be the natural progression andthe natural choice after they
bring their own brand onto thespace and then again, if you are
(28:08):
.
So now, on the contrast toeverything that I've said about
brands not needing a eth, do Istill think that eth has a
relevance in the space?
Well, obviously, like a millionplus people have gotten one.
I think that there is stillgoing to be a big culture here
in Web 3.4, and, as Web 3.0grows, there's still going to be
a need, a desire and a marketfor them.
(28:30):
That same thing exists forevery single one of our TLDs as
well, and that's the other pointthat I want to make, too.
Any one of us who owns anyother TLD that is in this space,
that is natively in this space.
Look at the eth playbook.
Build a community based aroundthe value that you're able to
offer Web3.
And you're able to generate asizable revenue and a sizable
(28:53):
community as well.
And then, of course, if you'resitting on any brand names, you
can use those to bring brands tothe space and also convey that
value to them.
So again, we're very fastheading to a world where more
people are coming on chain.
As people come on chain,they're going to be dealing with
wallet addresses, they're goingto be dealing with smart
contracts, they're going to bedealing with assets, and all of
(29:16):
these things need to be named.
All of these things are thingsthat our Web3 identity and our
digital identity are here tosolve, and in this space, this
is where every single brand isgoing to need a way to keep
track, to label, to manage thiscommunity, to incentivize this
community, and the path to doingso, again, I think, is by
(29:36):
owning your own namespace,issuing your own namespace
undiluted, and, again, for that,most brands aren't going to
need a e.
Hopefully, I did a good job ofconveying that message without
being too harsh on ENS.
Again, I have a pretty good,sizable portfolio of it for
individuals that are coming inthe space and looking for
(29:57):
something easy to use and don'thave that much going on.
Again, wonderful names to use.
I mean, there's a million otherTODs to choose from.
But brands, when we're talkingabout how to bring them into
space, how to convey value, it'sreally good to understand what
is most likely to be somethingthat they'll be receptive to.
So that they're receptive to it.
If you keep trying to pitchthem a particular extension
(30:21):
we're trying to pitch them a ethin this case and you see them
rejecting it, then maybe you'vegot to look at it and see that
the reason why they may berejecting it is because it
doesn't connect, and to figureout a better way to get them to
connect, because, at the end ofthe day, it doesn't matter how
any of them come into the space.
As long as more people comeinto the space and more people
start adopting the space,they're eventually also going to
(30:44):
run into things that need aname, or they're going to run
into a situation where they'regoing to need to name something
themselves and eventually we'reall going to win.
So, yeah, once again, I do wantto thank you guys for tuning in
live to this Tech Talk.
Also, for anyone who is goingto be listening to this after
again, we are going to publishthis on our podcast in the next
(31:07):
couple of days.
Hope you take a lot from it aswell and take this consideration
in your investing journey.
And there's a lot of differentways that you can enter the
space.
You know you can enter thespace.
You know you can enter thespace flipping.
You know single SLDs ondifferent name services, all the
way down to owning thesenamespaces yourself and creating
and building your owncommunities.
And, again, to understand wherethese things will fit, to
(31:28):
understand how likely it is thatcertain brands or certain
entities, certain individualswill receive this tech will make
it a lot easier for you tocommunicate it.
We do this every single Friday.
Again, I've been running thesetech talks for over three years.
Thank you, guys all for tuningin.
We'll talk to you guys nextFriday.
Have a great weekend and, again, focus on your mission and not
(31:49):
your condition.
Actually, no, before I close,we actually got ECW that wants
to pop up, I'm gonna add.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I just wanted to ask, let you know one thing I was
taking a look at while you werementioning the reasons for a
brand or I'll even use it at themore minor level a local
business in any city or that hasany sort of competition in
Google.
One thing that we could do topossibly help is that, from the
SEO side of things, which theydo understand, their rankings.
(32:23):
Currently, the dot eth again,is the only web3 domain when
appended with dot limo or dotlink.
So the url is, you know extra,you know when airdrop dot
ethlimo or dot link, whatever itwould be.
Uh, the amount of power thatthat double extension has in the
search engines is surprisinglymore powerful than most people
(32:46):
realize.
Even though it is a subdomain.
It's rooted on that ethlimo orethlink where everything in the
SEO tool, ahrefs, which is oneof the tools some people use,
SEMrush or some of the others,it's a 76, which is pretty
powerful and authoritative.
So, in essence, if someonecreates a basic HTML page and I
(33:08):
was just looking at one righthere something like in defense
of electricity markets orsomething, with the exception of
one image, it's an ugly blogaesthetically.
I'm not saying the content isbad, just the aesthetics, with
all text with links.
Those links are not onlyvisible in any browser Safari,
chrome, whatever people woulduse but the link juice is
(33:30):
getting recognized by Ahrefs,which is our best indication if
Google's picking up those linksas well.
So, in essence, for and Ibelieve eth on, wherever they're
sold, at about $5 a year, pluswhatever it costs for the
hosting, which hopefully isn'tmuch, you can get some free,
low-cost HTML Web3 storage.
So for basically $7, $8 a year,you can have almost I won't say
(33:55):
an unlimited, but an X numberof pages that could each have
different links pointing out,and it can actually be a very,
very cheap alternative to someof the more costly SEO link
networks, delivering the sameamount of power to the website,
thereby freeing up money forthem to do something else more
money into ads.
They can keep it in theirwallet, you know whatever they
want to do.
So I just wanted to let you knowthat might be the only reason
(34:16):
why, if there's hesitancy aboutbringing any sort of local brand
, local business, whatever youwant, into the eth or the Web3
ecosystem, this one right nowand I just double checked the
stats might be the hybridbetween the thing that they do
understand their SEO rankingsand I have to run a test to see
if the links move spots, one ortwo or three spots up in Google.
(34:38):
But if they do, I'll let youknow and that might be a selling
point to get them into Web3.
And then ultimately, oncethey're in, they can then get
more involved if they so choose.
I just want to bring that toyour attention.
That might be the one reasonwhy it could work, because it's
something they alreadyunderstand.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, and as you were saying that and I appreciate
you saying that and this is agreat final thought to kind of
leave with but, as you weresaying that, like the
realization came over me.
So, like fads, right, or thingsthat are just like trends, they
typically fade away prettyquickly and even the best of
(35:15):
them will fade away in like afew years.
But, but things that have likelegs, things that that will like
again, that that we think willeventually become like standard
technology, I think we canpretty much say that Web3, or
blockchain, is one of thosethings, right, that I mean
blockchain has been around forquite some time and, with that
(35:36):
being said, I'm just, I'mtransporting myself back in the
days when you know DNS or domainnames or internet as it was
first introduced to me.
Like it was first introduced tome, I think, when I was in what
was it like eighth grade orsomething like that.
I think it was the first time Ireally paid attention to the
internet and it's just crazy,like back then.
(35:56):
I wonder how many people thoughtabout any of this.
I wonder how many people evenknew what an SEO was.
I wonder how many peoplethought how that would translate
into the value for theirbusiness.
I wonder how any of thoseconcepts that we understand and
that people are out here everysingle day usually convert and
sell 10 million, 5 million, 1million, whatever million dollar
(36:17):
domains to people on acontinuous basis.
I'm wondering if any of thatstuff connected or was even
thought of then.
And then I just want if youcould put yourself then and then
now obviously understand youknow where that space has gone.
It's really easy to then now seeyourself here and again it's
(36:39):
we've, we're kind of past the.
Is this a fad thing, right?
So I think by now we allrecognize that we're in the
middle of a movement, right,we're in the middle of a
technological movement, thatwe've chosen our horse to ride
in this technological movement,meaning these domains, and as
you're speaking about whatbusinesses will eventually use
these for, or how youcommunicate this to a small
(36:59):
business, again I'm justthinking like man.
They just don't know, and evenwe don't know, how big these
things are, how monumental thesethings may be or useful these
things may be to a business in20 years, because we can
communicate even this utilitynow and we're still again, many
(37:20):
years removed from the best ofthese.
And if people can't imaginethat again, I take you back to
when you first learned about theinternet.
If you can't imagine that, again, I take you back to when you
first learned about the internet.
If you could have imagined thatdomain names would be sold and
bagged in the way that they arenow, based on what they do for
business, and so, even though ifI were to explain this to a
small business owner I mightconfuse them with that analogy I
would hopefully bring them backto get it while it's cheap,
(37:42):
because you don't know whatit'll do in years from now, when
there's a whole lot moreutilities.
And I'm even smart enough toexplain to you why not own it
once, own it forever, and thenyou can build with it and do
something with it or not dosomething with it.
But at the end of the day, weknow that technology is always
going to change you.
Outgrow our belief, so investin technology.
That's how I want to end thisspace.
(38:04):
Thank you again for bringingthat up, sir, and again look
forward to speaking to you guysnext week on our next Tech Talk.
Focus on your mission, not yourcondition.
Happy domaining, thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you, hello, hello andhappy Friday.
Going to get started in just asecond.
Yeah, thank you guys for beinghere and welcome to another
iHeart Domains Tech Talk.
Yeah, excited to get into thetopic today.
This is one you know I'vespoken about and you know, kind
of given my opinion on a fewtimes, but I'm going to dive
into it in a little moretechnical detail to make it make
(02:38):
sense.
So very excited for theconversation.
But again, I'm going to getstarted here in just a second.
I am pinning a couple things tothe top of the space and then
we will jump right into it.
So I apologize in advance forthe awkward silence.
All right, I was looking forsomething in particular to pin,
(03:05):
but I can't seem to find it.
But in any event, we'll goahead and get started, go ahead
and wrap up this beautifulFriday and jump into this
weekend.
Been experimenting with thisnew time and I like it.
So, a little bit later in theafternoon, for me, the previous
tech talks have been earlier, at630 in the morning, so you know
(03:25):
quite a big time difference.
But yeah, continue toexperiment with different times
and this is about the third onewe've done at this time but in
any event would like to welcomeanyone listening both live and
listening in the future on ourpodcast, to our tech talk
podcast.
This is a live discussion that Irecord here weekly here on X,
(03:46):
where we highlight news,innovation, education and alpha
in the Web3 technology anddigital identities space, ie
those Web3 domain names.
I am your host, marcus akaWinAirDrop.
I'm the founder ofiHeartDomains and I'm also the
community manager at Freename.
We are your number one resourcefor unbiased Web3 and
blockchain domain educationalcontent.
(04:07):
I've done about 150 of thesetech talk episodes that are also
YouTube videos over the pasttwo and a half years and if you
would like to listen to any ofour previous recordings, you can
reach our archive in one of twodifferent ways.
In one of two different ways,you can either listen to these
episodes and read an easy blogoverview of each directly on our
(04:29):
website at iHeartDomainscom, or, if you prefer to listen in
your favorite podcast player,including Apple, spotify,
iheartradio, any of that goodstuff.
You can easily listen to theseepisodes there and you can get
to that archive at techtalkhost.
Simply just choose a playerthat you want and it'll take you
right to it.
Open news is pretty much goingto kind of be the same.
(04:51):
Not much has been going on.
Well, okay, there's a couplethings that have been going on
in the Web3 domain space Notdirectly related to, like, tlds
or anything of the sort, but ifyou are a holder of soul domains
, sns, any of those you may beeligible for the airdrop.
Well, you likely are eligiblefor the airdrop that they are
(05:13):
going to do.
So, again, make sure you doublecheck and verify all links.
If you go directly to theirTwitter profile, you should be
able to find the airdrop checker.
But for those of us who I mean,I've given this advice for
years right, one of the bestthings you could possibly do if
you're an investor in this spaceis diversify your bags.
(05:34):
If you have diversified intothe SOL space, especially if
you're early and especially ifyou set it as your primary for
your Solana account.
But, yeah, you probably do havean allocation of their new
token that they are going tolaunch.
Don't know how big this tokenis going to be, but free money
is free money and it's freemoney from Web3 Domaining.
(05:56):
So that's probably the biggestpiece of news I can think of
outside of our own space.
As I mentioned last week, one ofthe things I do want to remind
everyone of is that DomainXBT,our own AI agent that we built
to help both Web2 and Web3domainers, is live.
It is public for anyone to use.
(06:16):
It is 100% free.
You do not have to have a chatGPT account.
If you are curious about Web3domains, web2 domains, want to
ask a question, want to appraisea name, all you have to do is
go to domainxptcom, type thename in and it will do all the
work for you.
If you want to do anythingadditional, such as create art
(06:37):
banners, full HTML websites, etcetera, you're also able to do
so from the what would you callit, the custom GPT.
So you have a chat interfaceagain that you'll be able to
interact with when you get onthe site, and then you'll also
have the option to go intoChatGPT, into the actual custom
built module for it, which iswhere you'll have a lot more
(06:59):
capability.
That will require a Chat GPTaccount.
But yeah, in any event,domainxbt, the most awesome Web
2, web 3 tool, buddy, companion,ai built for domainers.
So, yeah, encourage everybodyto check that out.
And then, last but not least, onthe announcements, our own
(07:19):
djain, exchain and defi walletdomains are available for
registration.
If you're looking for a coolname to enter the space with, or
just want to show love andsupport to our community and
keep us building and growing,keep me happy.
Feel free to register yourfavorite name on
djnexchangedefiwallet.
All on a free name, and you caneasily get to that at
iHeartDomainscom.
(07:40):
It is literally smack On thefirst page.
You'll get the option to choosethe name that you're looking
for.
All right, without further ado.
Getting to the main topic athand, as you can see pinned up
at the top of the space why mostbrands don't need a eth.
(08:01):
So yeah, once again, I do wantto welcome everybody to our Tech
Talk podcast.
Today's episode might ruffle afew feathers, and that's
actually kind of a good thing.
It's always good, again, tokeep yourself diversified, to
keep yourself up to date onwhat's going on in the industry,
but also to keep yourself frombecoming like a maxi or trapped
(08:22):
in kind of a thought processthat isn't productive, and not
necessarily saying that you know, my ENS brothers and my E
brothers are, you know, stuck ina bubble.
But I think sometimes themaximalism on one particular TLD
or chain or another cansometimes like eclipse what
reality is.
So again, we're going deep intosomething I hear way too often
(08:46):
from brands, startups andstrategists on Web3, which is
should we get our eth name?
My answer, as you can see atthe top, is not really.
I don't think most brands needa eth.
In many cases, I actually thinkit's kind of counterproductive,
and I'm going to break it down,like I said, from a very
(09:07):
strategic perspective, so thatpeople can see that this isn't
coming from feelings or anythinglike that.
This is coming from logic,right, and this is just the way
the space is going to pan out.
So let me, first and foremost,give some kudos to eth dot.
Uh, ens or not E, but ENS, per,and that's.
That's another thing that Iwant to clarify too.
You're going to hear somedistinguished, some distinctions
(09:28):
between ENS, which is the giantthat produced E, and then E
itself, which, again, is just acommunity TLD at the end of the
day.
So first things first.
Ens, or Ethereum name service,is one of the most powerful
protocols of Web3.
It is probably the mostintegrated protocol in Web3.
(09:49):
Of course, we know that it hasits native metamask resolution.
It's on Etherscan.
You can use it on OpenSea, onUniswap, even Ledgers, everyone
and anyone in Web3 has their eth.
It works perfectly, right.
You get an address, you get aprofile and even an avatar.
The problem is that eth, again,it represents an ethos, it
(10:15):
represents a blockchain, itrepresents a culture that may
not necessarily align witheveryone, right, and then, even
when you're talking about ENSand eth, those two names get
conflated.
The things have to be kind ofseparated and I'll explain a
little bit what that means.
But ENS is a tech and, again,eth is just a namespace.
(10:35):
And while eth has a strongcultural capital in the crypto
native world, it doesn'tnecessarily mean anything or
even convert to any type ofvalue to legacy brands who have
spent years, and sometimesmillions, building on their
primary domains.
So, one of the big points that Imake about brands and there's a
(10:57):
couple of things right, andthis derives from a few
different conversations Irecently learned, apparently,
that there is a departmentinside of what was it?
Godaddy that's apparentlystoring eth names for the
biggest brands in the world.
You know who may eventuallycome looking for it.
I don't know if it's going tobe like a philanthropic effort
or when they come for it, theyget it, you know, gifted to them
(11:18):
so that they can be welcomedinto the space of Web3, or if
it's like a situation wherethey're going to have to pay
like a premium for it.
But again, there's a reason whybrands don't want these things
and why it may be an uphillbattle trying to really to pitch
these things to them.
So again, brands already havean extremely strong identity.
(11:41):
Think about this If you're Nike,if you're Apple, if you're
Shopify, your brand or yourdomain the current one that you
use, the one that people cantype in right now and go to your
website has pretty much beenbaked into everything that
you've done marketing-wise sinceyour inception.
Nikecom isn't just a domain,it's an experience, it's a trust
(12:02):
signal and, because of all theyears that they've built on top
of it, is an seo juggernaut.
Same with applecom, same withanythingcom.
If you're a brand and you'vebeen building on it, again there
is real real estate, there'sreal value to that name and
you've probably put it on abillboard or something.
So when, when someone says, well, you need to grab this name on
(12:25):
the blockchaineth before someoneelse does, I think they kind of
missed the point or kind ofmissed that when they're looking
at brands, because the bigquestion is what do these brands
gain by suddenly promoting aeth handle.
And I'll explain what thatmeans, because I think
previously the conversation wasthis is the brand's gateway into
(12:47):
Web3, but that's notnecessarily the case.
Eth isn't the only entrancethat these brands have into the
space.
But going back to the ethhandle, for someone like Nike
and I believe Nike does haveNikeeth it's interesting that
I'm using them as an example,but I don't think they use it
publicly.
But again, like putting the Eon the back of it, especially
(13:09):
with an IRL or an in-personaudience that's coming to buy
shoes that doesn't necessarilyknow about crypto, it extremely
confuses their audience, right?
It also again it dilutes theirbrand authority by adding this
other thing that they have toexplain If the world already
knows you as Nikecom, whysuddenly start marketing and
pushing Nikeeth?
(13:30):
And then here's the ticker,especially when EMS themselves
again that juggernaut behemothof a platform that powers the
community, tldeth, especiallywhen it allows you to import
your DNS domain directly andjust use it just like an ETH
name.
So yes, in this case ENS haskind of shot itself in the foot.
(13:52):
Nikecom can actually become itsown ENS name by changing the
records or by using DNSSEC andessentially it will work exactly
the same.
It will resolve on chain.
It can receive crypto, it canbe used with dApps.
There's no need to rebrand, noneed to retrain your customers.
You get to keep your brand andyou get to still bring it on the
(14:13):
blockchain.
I want to talk about a couplevalue propositions, and I'm
going to talk about this alittle bit.
Then the value proposition forbrands doing this and how I
think they'll come in the space,and then what I think the next
proposition for value for themis.
So again want to touch back onENS and DNS.
This is something that Iactually have a very early
(14:34):
experience with.
Back during the right, I guess,when we entered the bear, when
gas was just extraordinarilyhigh for no reason to even
change records on ENS, mostpeople weren't thinking about
using on-chain DNS set to bringDNS domains into the ENS
ecosystem just because it costsa few hundred bucks to do so.
I, however, wanted to prove apoint and wanted to push that
(14:57):
technology forward, and therewere a few people that did so.
So even when people weren'ttalking about on-chain DNS
domains, when people weren'ttalking about turning dot-coms
into Web3 addresses, I, alongwith others like Sean Murray and
a few others in the space, werealready experimenting with that
technology and paying the gasto do so, but then they made it
(15:21):
super duper easy.
First there was that GoDaddything, right?
So, if you don't already know,the GoDaddy and ENS partnership
allows you to pretty much easilygo in behind the scenes and
turn your whatever domain issitting at GoDaddy if you're
using them as a registrar,you're able to turn it into an
DNS domain, essentially, butthen DNS itself.
(15:44):
They made the DNSSEC well GASISa lot cheaper, and also they
have GASIS DNSSEC and there'salso a million ways to bring a
DNS domain on-chain.
My point being is that any brandthat has a domain name can
essentially create a clone thatis able to be used on chain.
(16:04):
So, going back to the Nikescenario and this may be the
worst scenario to use, I'm surethere's probably better examples
, but I'm going to go to them,and this is very well what they
might do, because, again, I knowadidas has their eth.
I think Nike has their eth, butas far as I know, they do not
use it, and this is why, becauseyou can now use your own brand,
(16:25):
in this case Nikecom, as yourwallet address.
You can actually set it as yourprimary ENS name, depending on
how you bring it on-chain.
In the case of on-chain DNSSEC,which is how I brought two of
my domains into the space, I wasable to set them as my primary
ENS name and they actually doreverse resolve.
When I'm out here in the wildplaying around with my burner
(16:47):
wallet If any of you have everseen testdefiwalletid that is
one of my burner wallets that isbased on a DNS domain.
You could do every single thingwith it that you can do with
any other ENS domain or eth.
I have seen a couple of reportsfrom some you know, some
strictly eth maxis, and there'sa difference.
There's a difference betweenENS maxis and eth maxis.
(17:08):
Eth maxis love ENS and eth andreject anything outside of it,
even though ENS empowers it.
And then, of course, ens maxisjust love the tech.
But for eth maxis they will saythat the on-chain DNS
counterparts don't workeverywhere.
Not sure where they don't work,but mine haven't had any issues
.
And then the important thingabout this is, all of this is
(17:31):
with zero need to touch a eth.
Another thing logistically too,and this is something that was
brought up by Gary himself, garyPalmer Jr if you guys have ever
, you know, spoken with him orbeen in space with him.
Extremely intelligentindividual.
He is a bulldog for ENS.
He is one of those eth maxiswho is like eth or nothing.
(17:52):
He was the one who mentionedthis secret, like this fund or
whatever, this wallet that hasall these ENS in it, right, and
he was explaining the reason whythis was set up.
And as he's explaining this,I'm like'm like well, this is
the problem in itself, but hewas explaining that the reason
why some brands have not come onboard is because of the
(18:13):
logistics of it, right?
Uh, you know, first they haveto understand what it is, but
then, second, it has to becustody somewhere, right?
But then, in addition to that,it's got to be renewed and
someone has to keep up with it.
It's something that can easilybe forgotten about if you're not
crypto native.
And as I'm thinking of thesethings, I'm like well I, if you
bring one of these things onchain using DNSSEC, guess what
(18:35):
you never have to deal with onthe ENS side.
You never have to deal withrenewals, so you get the best of
both worlds.
It's the easiest path into Web3for a company.
You just have to have onetechnical guy one time figure
out how to bring this thing onchain.
You have no cost ever on theon-chain side, no management, no
renewals, no expiration ever,but you still manage your name,
(19:00):
the exact same way that you doyour brand, the exact same way
that you do on the Web2 side.
So again, why would a seriousbrand with compliance teams,
investor pressure, suddenlystart pushing a eth when they
can keep the domain that they'vespent years building equity
around and, to be honest, theyshouldn't ENS functionality?
So again, and this is a shoutout to ENS, I love the tech.
(19:23):
I cannot negate the tech, Icannot deny the tech.
I believe that a lot of peoplewill come into the space via
that tech.
I do believe that this tech isthe easiest vehicle probably to
bring most brands on chain andto get them to understand the
value of a name.
But that tech does not requirethem to come in through a eth.
(19:45):
Now, once they are here again,once a brand is here, once they
start understanding the value oftheir name on chain, once they
built a brand-chain right oronce they brought their customer
base on-chain through bringingtheir brand on-chain with, again
, not confusing their audience,keeping their brand consistent,
just maybe introducing theutility or some sort of benefit
(20:07):
on the other side.
Right Now, then they have theopportunity to completely
harness and create a entirelynew community on-chain, which I
think is the next level ofprogression for brands as Web3
begins to pick up steam, and thenext thing for them now is
going to be the ability to issueeither identity or the ability
(20:27):
to name or label things thatthey're putting out in the space
with their own uniqueidentifiers.
And so if you ask an ENS maxior eth maxi how that would look,
most of them will think orhopefully say and I say with
hope that brands will come intothe space on a eth third level
(20:48):
domain.
We do know some examples ofsome partnerships that they were
able to land.
Again, kudos to them for thosepartnerships.
I think some of thosepartnerships were given just due
to the size of therelationships to the people that
they have with those particularentities in the space and the
relevance.
But people like Base with BaseE.
(21:10):
So obviously, if you want yourname associated on their
registry per se and I'm usingquotations because I don't even
know what to call it if it's athird-level domain, bro, but if
you want a name on theirregistry, it will read baseeth.
Same thing with.
What is it?
I think Uniswap.
They have unieth.
(21:31):
There's a couple differentexamples out there.
Even my own degen has beencloned as degeneth right.
But now taking it back to what Ijust mentioned before if
labeling thing, and especiallyokay.
So here's a couple of things.
Number one there's more thanone blockchain.
I'm not sure if I'm the firstperson that has ever said that
(21:51):
out loud or if it's like thefirst realization.
Some people may have heard ofthis, but there's more than one
blockchain and a lot of them arenot called ETH right, and a lot
, especially, as you know, web3continues to grow.
More things continue to beinnovated and built.
It is, I mean, it's not hard tothink that there might be a lot
(22:13):
of brands that come into thespace that just have nothing to
do with ETH right, ethereumitself as the blockchain, as the
currency, as the technology, asanything right.
I mean, what if a brand comesin through Solana?
What if a brand comes inthrough Bitcoin?
My point is is that the samescenario that I gave before is,
if it confuses branding or itadds unneeded dilution, at that
(22:36):
point it just does exactly thesame when it comes to labeling
or issuing subnames For anEthereum-focused community where
it's really a part of yourethos, your identity, be cool,
right.
But if it's not, again, ifwe're going back to a Nike where
, in the dozens of years ofexistence, it's had nothing to
(22:57):
do with Ethereum ever Most ofits customers just want some new
Jordans that has nothing to dowith Ethereum.
But you're able to provideeither like NFT, to label things
with that thing, dot their name, and then now that goes
(23:24):
obviously into my bestopportunity that I have to put
out here.
This is where free name and thecustom TLD strategy changes the
game.
You know, I've said it amillion times and of course we
know, and I'll do the commercialagain.
With FreeName, of course,you're able to own your TLD or
bring TLDs on chain, such asNike in this case, instead of
(23:45):
Ether.
Even in my case, I'm able toown Dgen straight out instead of
having to dilute it with a DgenEth.
You're able to issue your ownsubdomains, which, again for
identity, if you're building acommunity, that's the cleanest
potential or cleanest possibleway for great branding and again
(24:06):
, to not lose them in thedisconnect of trying to figure
out what something else is andfor labeling things and I've
spoken about this on otherspaces as well, how I know and
predict that names will be usedin relation to AI agents and
assistants that will begin beingdeployed.
These on-chain assistants willneed names so that you'll be
(24:28):
able to tie it back to theiroriginal owner.
And when we talk about branding,branding isn't something that
blockchain does for you.
Branding is something thatthese brands have done over the
past dozen years and, ifanything, it brings value to the
blockchain and not vice versa.
Again, so I don't think brandshave anything to gain by adding
(24:51):
a blockchain to the back oftheir on-chain identity,
blockchain to the back of theiron-chain identity.
I think, most likely, they'llbe attracted to the technology
of being able to own their brandundiluted.
You come on, represent yourselfpersonally as your namecom or
your namexyz or whatever it isthat you've spent millions of
dollars on.
Look at the iconcom.
(25:11):
That's just a sale that justwent through a couple of weeks
ago for $12 million.
I asked a lot of money to spendon something to then put all of
your marketing budget into forbranding to just abandon it,
because you want to adopt thetechnology when you don't have
to dismiss, dismissed or whenyou don't have to abandon your
(25:38):
name in order to adopt thattechnology and when you can
still come on chain and createan entire following community
without diluting that brand thatyou've built.
Um, so, yeah, with that beingsaid, uh, what are some
strategic takeaways, uh, I think, from this conversation for
brands looking to enter thespace?
Um, if you're a brand, I dothink that the obvious choice
for you is to use the technology, something like and another
(26:00):
thing too as well, I think Imentioned at the beginning of
the space there's multiple waysto come into the space.
If you're a debater, you're abrand in Web2.
I focus this conversation onENS's technology just because
I'm speaking about this inrelation to eth, because I don't
want to take anything away fromthe value of ENS itself.
(26:20):
So I do want to highlight thatENS itself has amazing
technology that allows you tobring DNS domains into the space
.
There are, however, other waysto bring DNS domains into the
space, including our owntechnology at Freename, our Miro
technology, which right now isavailable for ws and eventually
will be available at severaldifferent registrars, or any
(26:41):
registrar that wants tointegrate that technology in
order to bring your coms, yourxyzs and et cetera into the
space.
So again, even us at Freename,we see that as a logical
solution again for legacy brandswho have built on their domain.
We see that as a logicalsolution, again for legacy
brands who have built on theirdomain.
So, if you're a brand, bringyour DNS domain into the space,
turn it into your own personalidentity, use it which is
(27:04):
something that your customersare already familiar with to
then educate your customers onblockchain, to create benefits
and ecosystem and a community onblockchain.
And then, when you startbringing your community into the
space and you want to nowreward them, to tokenize them,
to track them, to give them asense of ownership, you can then
(27:24):
launch your TLB on Freename.
You can issue something that isundiluted.
You can give them their namesdot your brand.
Or you can issue assets thatare that asset name, dot your
brand.
You're also able to own andcontrol your own namespace,
which there's a lot of differentthings you can do with that,
from token gating events to allkinds of different things.
(27:45):
Right, there's a million waysthat a lot of different people
are either currently using oranticipate using Web3, digital
identity and, again, owning yourown namespace for a company is
a big piece of digital realestate and I think it's going to
be the natural progression andthe natural choice after they
bring their own brand onto thespace and then again, if you are
(28:08):
.
So now, on the contrast toeverything that I've said about
brands not needing a eth, do Istill think that eth has a
relevance in the space?
Well, obviously, like a millionplus people have gotten one.
I think that there is stillgoing to be a big culture here
in Web 3.4, and, as Web 3.0grows, there's still going to be
a need, a desire and a marketfor them.
(28:30):
That same thing exists forevery single one of our TLDs as
well, and that's the other pointthat I want to make, too.
Any one of us who owns anyother TLD that is in this space,
that is natively in this space.
Look at the eth playbook.
Build a community based aroundthe value that you're able to
offer Web3.
And you're able to generate asizable revenue and a sizable
(28:53):
community as well.
And then, of course, if you'resitting on any brand names, you
can use those to bring brands tothe space and also convey that
value to them.
So again, we're very fastheading to a world where more
people are coming on chain.
As people come on chain,they're going to be dealing with
wallet addresses, they're goingto be dealing with smart
contracts, they're going to bedealing with assets, and all of
(29:16):
these things need to be named.
All of these things are thingsthat our Web3 identity and our
digital identity are here tosolve, and in this space, this
is where every single brand isgoing to need a way to keep
track, to label, to manage thiscommunity, to incentivize this
community, and the path to doingso, again, I think, is by
(29:36):
owning your own namespace,issuing your own namespace
undiluted, and, again, for that,most brands aren't going to
need a e.
Hopefully, I did a good job ofconveying that message without
being too harsh on ENS.
Again, I have a pretty good,sizable portfolio of it for
individuals that are coming inthe space and looking for
(29:57):
something easy to use and don'thave that much going on.
Again, wonderful names to use.
I mean, there's a million otherTODs to choose from.
But brands, when we're talkingabout how to bring them into
space, how to convey value, it'sreally good to understand what
is most likely to be somethingthat they'll be receptive to.
So that they're receptive to it.
If you keep trying to pitchthem a particular extension
(30:21):
we're trying to pitch them a ethin this case and you see them
rejecting it, then maybe you'vegot to look at it and see that
the reason why they may berejecting it is because it
doesn't connect, and to figureout a better way to get them to
connect, because, at the end ofthe day, it doesn't matter how
any of them come into the space.
As long as more people comeinto the space and more people
start adopting the space,they're eventually also going to
(30:44):
run into things that need aname, or they're going to run
into a situation where they'regoing to need to name something
themselves and eventually we'reall going to win.
So, yeah, once again, I do wantto thank you guys for tuning in
live to this Tech Talk.
Also, for anyone who is goingto be listening to this after
again, we are going to publishthis on our podcast in the next
(31:07):
couple of days.
Hope you take a lot from it aswell and take this consideration
in your investing journey.
And there's a lot of differentways that you can enter the
space.
You know you can enter thespace.
You know you can enter thespace flipping.
You know single SLDs ondifferent name services, all the
way down to owning thesenamespaces yourself and creating
and building your owncommunities.
And, again, to understand wherethese things will fit, to
(31:28):
understand how likely it is thatcertain brands or certain
entities, certain individualswill receive this tech will make
it a lot easier for you tocommunicate it.
We do this every single Friday.
Again, I've been running thesetech talks for over three years.
Thank you, guys all for tuningin.
We'll talk to you guys nextFriday.
Have a great weekend and, again, focus on your mission and not
(31:49):
your condition.
Actually, no, before I close,we actually got ECW that wants
to pop up, I'm gonna add.
Speaker 3 (32:02):
I just wanted to ask, let you know one thing I was
taking a look at while you werementioning the reasons for a
brand or I'll even use it at themore minor level a local
business in any city or that hasany sort of competition in
Google.
One thing that we could do topossibly help is that, from the
SEO side of things, which theydo understand, their rankings.
(32:23):
Currently, the dot eth again,is the only web3 domain when
appended with dot limo or dotlink.
So the url is, you know extra,you know when airdrop dot
ethlimo or dot link, whatever itwould be.
Uh, the amount of power thatthat double extension has in the
search engines is surprisinglymore powerful than most people
(32:46):
realize.
Even though it is a subdomain.
It's rooted on that ethlimo orethlink where everything in the
SEO tool, ahrefs, which is oneof the tools some people use,
SEMrush or some of the others,it's a 76, which is pretty
powerful and authoritative.
So, in essence, if someonecreates a basic HTML page and I
(33:08):
was just looking at one righthere something like in defense
of electricity markets orsomething, with the exception of
one image, it's an ugly blogaesthetically.
I'm not saying the content isbad, just the aesthetics, with
all text with links.
Those links are not onlyvisible in any browser Safari,
chrome, whatever people woulduse but the link juice is
(33:30):
getting recognized by Ahrefs,which is our best indication if
Google's picking up those linksas well.
So, in essence, for and Ibelieve eth on, wherever they're
sold, at about $5 a year, pluswhatever it costs for the
hosting, which hopefully isn'tmuch, you can get some free,
low-cost HTML Web3 storage.
So for basically $7, $8 a year,you can have almost I won't say
(33:55):
an unlimited, but an X numberof pages that could each have
different links pointing out,and it can actually be a very,
very cheap alternative to someof the more costly SEO link
networks, delivering the sameamount of power to the website,
thereby freeing up money forthem to do something else more
money into ads.
They can keep it in theirwallet, you know whatever they
want to do.
So I just wanted to let you knowthat might be the only reason
(34:16):
why, if there's hesitancy aboutbringing any sort of local brand
, local business, whatever youwant, into the eth or the Web3
ecosystem, this one right nowand I just double checked the
stats might be the hybridbetween the thing that they do
understand their SEO rankingsand I have to run a test to see
if the links move spots, one ortwo or three spots up in Google.
(34:38):
But if they do, I'll let youknow and that might be a selling
point to get them into Web3.
And then ultimately, oncethey're in, they can then get
more involved if they so choose.
I just want to bring that toyour attention.
That might be the one reasonwhy it could work, because it's
something they alreadyunderstand.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, and as you were saying that and I appreciate
you saying that and this is agreat final thought to kind of
leave with but, as you weresaying that, like the
realization came over me.
So, like fads, right, or thingsthat are just like trends, they
typically fade away prettyquickly and even the best of
(35:15):
them will fade away in like afew years.
But, but things that have likelegs, things that that will like
again, that that we think willeventually become like standard
technology, I think we canpretty much say that Web3, or
blockchain, is one of thosethings, right, that I mean
blockchain has been around forquite some time and, with that
(35:36):
being said, I'm just, I'mtransporting myself back in the
days when you know DNS or domainnames or internet as it was
first introduced to me.
Like it was first introduced tome, I think, when I was in what
was it like eighth grade orsomething like that.
I think it was the first time Ireally paid attention to the
internet and it's just crazy,like back then.
(35:56):
I wonder how many people thoughtabout any of this.
I wonder how many people evenknew what an SEO was.
I wonder how many peoplethought how that would translate
into the value for theirbusiness.
I wonder how any of thoseconcepts that we understand and
that people are out here everysingle day usually convert and
sell 10 million, 5 million, 1million, whatever million dollar
(36:17):
domains to people on acontinuous basis.
I'm wondering if any of thatstuff connected or was even
thought of then.
And then I just want if youcould put yourself then and then
now obviously understand youknow where that space has gone.
It's really easy to then now seeyourself here and again it's
(36:39):
we've, we're kind of past the.
Is this a fad thing, right?
So I think by now we allrecognize that we're in the
middle of a movement, right,we're in the middle of a
technological movement, thatwe've chosen our horse to ride
in this technological movement,meaning these domains, and as
you're speaking about whatbusinesses will eventually use
these for, or how youcommunicate this to a small
(36:59):
business, again I'm justthinking like man.
They just don't know, and evenwe don't know, how big these
things are, how monumental thesethings may be or useful these
things may be to a business in20 years, because we can
communicate even this utilitynow and we're still again, many
(37:20):
years removed from the best ofthese.
And if people can't imaginethat again, I take you back to
when you first learned about theinternet.
If you can't imagine that, again, I take you back to when you
first learned about the internet.
If you could have imagined thatdomain names would be sold and
bagged in the way that they arenow, based on what they do for
business, and so, even though ifI were to explain this to a
small business owner I mightconfuse them with that analogy I
would hopefully bring them backto get it while it's cheap,
(37:42):
because you don't know whatit'll do in years from now, when
there's a whole lot moreutilities.
And I'm even smart enough toexplain to you why not own it
once, own it forever, and thenyou can build with it and do
something with it or not dosomething with it.
But at the end of the day, weknow that technology is always
going to change you.
Outgrow our belief, so investin technology.
That's how I want to end thisspace.
(38:04):
Thank you again for bringingthat up, sir, and again look
forward to speaking to you guysnext week on our next Tech Talk.
Focus on your mission, not yourcondition.
Happy domaining, thank you.
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