Stacks gTLD Proposal

[jordanreger]

1. Overview

Blockchain domains are human-readable addresses for not as friendly blockchain addresses. There are many use cases, such as:

1. wallet addresses:

   { your ID }.id.stacks = { wallet address }

   This would increase the user-friendliness of exchanging money/crypto. (In this situation, id is the second-level domain, stacks obviously being the top-level domain, and then the id of the person is the subdomain/third-level domain.)

2. Dapp links:

   email.stacks = email dapp
   home.stacks = landing page for ecosystem
   domains.stacks = registrar for .stacks domains
   etc.

3. Gaia hubs would be extremely easy to handle:

   { your ID }.hub.stacks = Gaia hub for { your ID }

4. The list continues. There are many more possibilities, such as:

   { contract ID }.contract.stacks
   health.stacks = health of blockchain
   testnet.stacks
   node.stacks
   etc.

2. Dapp domains

As a developer of user-related apps, I buy many domains to maintain a good look of whatever I'm building. I think what would need to happen to eliminate domain squatters is give out/allow purchasing of domains on a quarterly basis (or just some time-based system) to dapps. Dapps would need to be registered and up-to-date to ensure that high-quality domains are providing high-quality dapps. If not, the domain would be given to some other related dapp, or given as a prize for a hackathon to whoever has the best dapp in the category related to the domain (like my example, email.stacks - email.stacks would be given to whichever email-related dapp has the highest quality and the highest consistency of updating).

3. User-related domains

Another use case is user-related domains. This would provide easy access to user-related data (only for the user and for dapps that would happen to need user-related data). Some examples:

id.stacks
hub.stacks
code.stacks = (on a code hosting service) a user's page, like https://github.com/{user}

4. Articles to read for more information:

• https://community.unstoppabledomains.com/t/blockchain-domains-starter-guide-what-are-blockchain-domains/109
• https://hackernoon.com/blockchain-domains-what-are-they-and-how-are-they-implemented-hi2b30hu

5. Cons

The cons of buying a dedicated domain are the price, the possibility of limiting creativity, and the possibility of (like I mentioned) domain squatters. Any FAQs about registering TLDs can be found here: https://newgtlds.icann.org/en/applicants/global-support/faqs/faqs-en

Disclaimer: I am not entirely sure this is completely possible, but it's worth looking into. If there's anything I missed, or any other ideas to add, put it below. Thanks!

[muneeb-ali]

Would you prefer .stacks or .stx or some other shorter TLD?

Previously, we've also seen interest around a .app TLD for apps.

[jordanreger]

Would you prefer .stacks or .stx or some other shorter TLD?

Previously, we've also seen interest around a .app TLD for apps.

I think .stx would be perfect, it's short and sweet. Unfortunately, shorter TLDs are not possible unless you create a new country. The .app TLD is totally possible and I think it would be great to show that it's an app, not a feature of Stacks such as hub.stx, etc.

[dantrevino]

Why wouldn't this functionality begin with .id and/or .id.blockstack? Starting here gives all existing users an immediate benefit.

[jordanreger]

Why wouldn't this functionality begin with .id and/or .id.blockstack? Starting here gives all existing users an immediate benefit.

.id.stx would work for that. subdomains would be very easy to create and maintain

[whoabuddy]

From the FAQ .stx may be possible:

2.12 Can a New gTLD name be 2 letters?
Applied-for gTLD strings in ASCII must be composed of three or more visually distinct characters. Two-character ASCII strings are not permitted, to avoid conflicting with current and future country-codes based on the ISO 3166-1 standard.

This may be a blocker though, are they still processing applications?

2.2 How do I apply for a new gTLD?
The application window is expected to open on 12 January 2012 and close on 12 April 2012.

@dantrevino I think the problem with .id is that DNS recognizes it as the ccTLD for Indonesia, so it wouldn't resolve without the exclusive use of BNS, and could lead to some confusion for launching a site like https://dant.id.

id.blockstack would be possible but I'm not sure it makes sense with the rebranding efforts. I would be curious about how to migrate and maintain the integrity of those names though as they represent both early adopters and paid accounts.

[jordanreger]

@whoabuddy, @muneeb-ali: @dantrevino pointed out to me that .crypto is not an ICANN TLD. That means we should just use a browser extension or something along those lines until we can get support, possibly with https://unstoppabledomains.com

On the topic of .id, I already tried it out with https://reger.id, and I just ended up making it my static site.

[dantrevino]

Ok, I didnt realize .id was a country specific tld. So .id is out.

[fluidvoice]

Would you prefer .stacks or .stx or some other shorter TLD?

Previously, we've also seen interest around a .app TLD for apps.

.stx is the asset ticker symbol while .stacks is the name of the chain. The less specific choice "stacks" is better as you can have sub-domains that make sense... stx.stacks othertoken.stacks hello-world.app.stacks brad.user.stacks

[jordanreger]

@fluidvoice I think having support for both would be ideal, if it ends up being free through unstoppable; for now, I'm building a browser extension to deal with searches under .stx and .stacks

[friedger]

.stx is the asset ticker symbol while .stacks is the name of the chain.

We can make it that .stx is the asset ticker symbol and the symbol of the chain.

Then we can have token.stx, chain.stx, other-token.stx

I am not sure about helloword.app.stx. helloworld.app makes more sense to me.

[fluidvoice]

.stx is the asset ticker symbol while .stacks is the name of the chain.

We can make it that .stx is the asset ticker symbol and the symbol of the chain.

Then we can have token.stx, chain.stx, other-token.stx

I am not sure about helloword.app.stx. helloworld.app makes more sense to me.

What is the main appeal of .stx, is it just that it's 3 letters like Ethereum .eth or .ens domain names?

helloworld.app is more likely to have name collisions and is less explicit than say helloworld.app.stx (versus eg helloworld.app.algo).

[jordanreger]

.stx is the asset ticker symbol while .stacks is the name of the chain.

We can make it that .stx is the asset ticker symbol and the symbol of the chain.

Then we can have token.stx, chain.stx, other-token.stx

I am not sure about helloword.app.stx. helloworld.app makes more sense to me.

What is the main appeal of .stx, is it just that it's 3 letters like Ethereum .eth or .ens domain names?

helloworld.app is more likely to have name collisions and is less explicit than say helloworld.app.stx.
Also creating another base domain .app will have extra cost, if that's important, maybe not.

I think what should happen is "Stacks partner apps" can receive higher prestige domains such as email.stx / email.stacks. Then, for other apps, we can do { app name }.app.stx or even just keep conventional naming processes (naming it something completely different, like Sigle) such as sigle.stx /sigle.stacks

[friedger]

What is the main appeal of .stx, is it just that it's 3 letters like Ethereum .eth or .ens domain names?

The shorter the better.

I don't necessarily want to have a .stx name for my Stacks app, in the same way I don't want helloworld.app.usdollar or helloworld.app.oauth

[friedger]

Let's start with stacks.org and create the corresponding subdomains:

1. friedger.id.id.stacks.org => ?
   friedger.id.blockstack.id.stacks.org => ?

2. email.stacks.org => ?
   surveys.stacks.org => blocksurvey.io

3. friedger.id.hub.stacks.org => gaia.blockstack.org

4. ..?

[whoabuddy]

Closing this issue due to lack of activity. If anyone is interested in continuing the discussion, feel free to comment or reopen!