Do Blockchain Domain Names Have Advantages Over Traditional Ones?

As blockchain technologies advance, they are being actively implemented in the diverse spheres of our lives. And it’s no great surprise that the Web is about to be altered as well to become a more secure and transparent place. For this very reason, we see some businesses and individuals switch from traditional domains to decentralized ones. But is this concept well-tested? Can blockchain domains become a new industry standard? Let’s figure it out.

Blockchain domains: What’s so special about them?

As you might have guessed, the important distinction of these domains is that they are built on blockchain. If you see the extensions like .eth or .zil — they are indicators of blockchain domains. Although there is a limited number of them, we believe it’s just a matter of time until tech companies make them more popular. For example, Unstoppable Domains work on developing .zil domains powered by the Zilliqa network, and expanding the existing .eth domains of the Ethereum blockchain.

What is exceptional about blockchain domains though? They are a new asset belonging only to the owner and nobody else. Just like with cryptocurrencies, you have a private key to your domain, and it’s completely under your control. It’s hard to find them within Google, and they need special software to be run and work properly. You may ask: “If so, why were they created?”

For financial purposes 

First of all, they are believed to provide a smoother way of making transactions. So, they are an alternative to blockchain wallets. Most likely, you will agree that it’s quite difficult to memorize 35 characters of a traditional blockchain wallet address. Thus, it’s very easy to make a mistake that will cost you a pretty penny. With a blockchain domain, you will only need to enter the domain name and transfer cryptocurrencies to it. For these purposes, .zil domains were created. They should replace bulky wallet addresses with comprehensible human-readable names like those of traditional web domains. By the way, .eth domains can perform this function as well.

Additionally, blockchain domains will eliminate the need for using transaction processors like Visa/MasterCard, or PayPal. They will allow moving your funds freely within the Internet. 

Free from third-party influence

One more thing is that there are agencies like ICANN, who bring new domains to the market. They have power to monitor the domains they create. They can easily block them and even revoke them. There are cases when a domain registrar simply takes down or suspends the domain which is believed to perform suspicious activity on the Internet.  A bright example is GoDaddy’s case. In April 2019, they took down over 15,000 subdomains. Although in most cases such domains do turn out to be malicious, sometimes the algorithms that the domain registrar uses to check sites fail.

Blockchain domains are immune to such interactions or intrusions, as you are the only person who has full control over your domain. Nobody else has a private key to your asset, and no central authority is capable of limiting your Internet freedom. Moreover, with their help, you’ll be able to share your content with others and be sure that nobody will delete it or steal it from you.

The new form of Internet

An interesting fact that the new Internet is being developed now. It’s called the Swarm network. It acts as a decentralized file storage and recovery database, and doesn’t host any content on a central server. It ensures data delivery even when your nodes are offline. There’s also an alternative to it — IPFS, but it’s not so popular. It uses cryptographic hashes to define the content that can be found and requested from any node in the network. Since it has been around for a little while, it doesn’t support blockchain domains yet.

As we mentioned earlier, the new type of domains can now be found only within Ethereum and Zilliqa. Moreover, the company behind Zilliqa is now looking to develop .crypto extensions on top of Ethereum. So, it’s safe to say that in the near future we may witness the emergence of the new Web — free from boundaries, open and accessible to everyone.

Conclusion

To sum the whole thing up, it is easy to see that the emerging blockchain domains have numerous advantages over the traditional ones. Although they are still in their infancy, it is very likely that they will change the digital world that we know now. And we believe that even though some people are still skeptical about such state-of-the-art solutions, blockchain domains can still contribute to the rise of the new decentralized Internet.