Crypto Domains are an exciting new development in the decentralized WEB3 world. The domains are not part of a traditional DNS managed by ICANN, but are stored decentrally on the blockchain and are part of an alternative DNS.
Crypto domains can therefore not be accessed in the browser as easily as .com domains, for example. Nevertheless, there are already many browsers that natively support Crypto Domains or can access them via a browser setting. Let's take a look at what advantages a blockchain domain has.
Also interesting are .eth domains from the Ethereum Name Service.
What Crypto Domains can be used for.
- Universal username between apps and websites.
- Webpage URL
- Simplified and bundled payment addresses for multiple cryptocurrencies in wallets.
So blockchain domains have more functions than traditional domains that only serve as website URLs. So different cryptocurrency addresses can be centrally bundled under one blockchain domain. The ability to use one readable blockchain domain for many of one's cryptocurrency addresses makes life much easier. Typos could thus become a thing of the past.
If you now enter your blockchain domain in a collaborating wallet, the corresponding crypto address stored on the blockchain is automatically mapped in the background. The "matching" of crypto addresses with the domain is already supported by many wallets (tendency increasing). A list of all supported wallets and apps is available here.
Access blockchain domains in the browser
Of course, "real" websites can also be accessed with them. To do this, you need an alternate DNS resolver so that the browser knows to query an alternate DNS. Opera and Brave already have this feature natively built in, so blockchain domains from Unstoppable Domains are also easily recognized by the browser.
However, through Browser Extensions, browsers like Chrome or Firefox can also access the alternate domains.
For the resolver to know which files to load for the accessed domain, an IPFS hash must be stored at Unstoppable Domain and then written to the blockchain.
What blockchain domains does Unstoppable Domains offer?
Unstoppable Domains started with Crypto and .Zil. Through partnerships, the possible domain extensions have expanded. Available are:
- Crypto (Ethereum blockchain).
- Zil (Zilliqa blockchain)
- Coin (Ethereum blockchain)
- Wallet (Ethereum blockchain)
- Bitcoin (Ethereum blockchain)
- X (Ethereum blockchain)
- 888 (Ethereum Blockchain)
- NFT (Ethereum Blockchain)
- DAO (Ethereum Blockchain)
- Blockchain (Ethereum Blockchain)
Crypto Domains Price
Blockchain Domains from Unstoppable Domains usually cost between $10 and $40. These are one-time costs and there are no renewal fees on the part of UD (such as with traditional domains or the .eth domain). Particularly popular or short domain names (e.g. name.crypto) are sometimes significantly more expensive. Some domain names, especially protected brand names, are blocked by UD and cannot be purchased.
After purchasing the blockchain domain on UD, you should plan for other costs necessary to write the domain to the blockchain. Changes also cost a fee in ETH each time. The amount of the fees depends heavily on the load on the Ethereum blockchain.
Trading Crypto Domains
Technically, a blockchain domain is an NFT stored on a blockchain. And so, these types of NFTs can be bought or sold. Trading NFTs can also be an exciting use case, especially if you can secure popular domain names early on. One marketplace for this is Opensea, which trades assets on the Ethereum blockchain.
