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Alibaba files blockchain domain name patent application

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Company is latest to propose domain name technology connected to blockchains.

Image with the word "Blockchain"

Chinese internet giant Alibaba has filed a U.S. patent application (pdf) for a domain name system connected to blockchain networks.

It’s a bit tricky to disect, but it seems that the idea is to give each blockchain instance a domain name. The abstract states:

Implementations of the present disclosure include obtaining, by a computing system, a unified blockchain domain name (a UBCDN) message of a blockchain instance, wherein the UBCDN message includes a UBCDN of the blockchain instance, a digital signature of an owner of the UBCDN of the blockchain instance (a UBCDN owner) on the UBCDN, and a domain certificate of the UBCDN; verifying whether the domain certificate of the UBCDN is issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) using a public key of the CA; and verifying whether the UBCDN is issued by the UBCDN owner using a public key of the UBCDN owner. The UBCDN message includes a blockchain domain name and a chain identifier of the blockchain instance uniquely corresponding to the blockchain domain name.

Several companies are trying to marry blockchain technology with the concept of domain names. You can listen to one idea, run by Unstoppable Domains, on DNW Podcast #224.

Alibaba owns HiChina, a large domain name registrar.

Sedo adds COO to its executive ranks

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Company hires Michael Robrock for new executive position.

Headshot of Michael Robrock, new COO of SEdo

Michael Robrock

Sedo has hired Michael Robrock for its newly created Chief Operating Officer role.

Robrock will oversee all customer-facing departments at the domain marketplace, including sales and operations.

He has been involved with digital marketing or the past twenty years as a consultant, and also as CEO of mixcon AG Trengdroup GmbH.

Sedo says that he has been involved in the domain industry during this time; he is active in domain investor networks and attended domain investor events.

Matthias Conrad, who joined Sedo as its new CEO at the beginning of this year, is on the DNW Podcast this week.

Donuts moves back to Bellevue

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Registry for hundreds of top level domains returns to its original building.

Donuts domain name registry logoTop level domain name registry Donuts has returned to its former home in Bellevue, Washington.

The company had been located down the street in Kirkland, Washington, where Rightside was located. Donuts acquired Rightside in 2017 and left its original office in Bellevue to use the Rightside office. Now the company has returned to its former building in Bellevue.

For a couple of years, Donuts, Tucows and GoDaddy all had offices within steps of each other of the shores of Lake Washington in Kirkland. Tucows’ office is in the same building that Donuts occupied after Tucows acquired the Enom business from Rightside. GoDaddy’s is right down the street.

GoDaddy recently hired Aman Bhutani, who currently resides in Seattle, as its new CEO. It will be interesting to see if it expands its operations in the Seattle area.

Of course, the biggest headquarters change announcement in the area is that Domain Name Wire is now based in the region.

NamesCon shifts dates, location detail for Austin show

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A slight change in dates, location for domain name conference.

Austin, Texas skyline

NamesCon has pushed back the start date for its event in Austin this coming January by three days, and made a slight change to the location.

The event will now run January 29-February 1, 2020. It was originally scheduled for January 26-29.

Additionally, it will shift from The Capital Factory to the Omni Hotel, which are both located in the same building. The building is half office space, half hotel.

While organizers may still hold some events at Capital Factory, it is focusing the event around the Omni.

Changing the dates will allow the show to have a special event on Saturday at the conclusion of the conference.

Show organizers have arranged discounted hotel rooms at the Omni starting at $229, at least $100 less than I can find online at the hotel on those same dates.

Early bird registration end on August 4. Tickets and hotel information is on the NamesCon website.

Verisign .com/.net domain base increases by 1.34 million

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More cash in the coffers for .com registry Verisign.

Verisign (NASDAQ: VRSN) reported earnings for Q2 2019 yesterday.

The company had $306 million in revenue and $148 in net income. The operating margin was 65.9%, up from 63.8% in the same quarter last year.

.Com and .net domains increased by 1.34 million during the quarter, bringing the combined domain base to 156.1 million. 10.3 million new .com/.net domains were registered during the quarter, up from 9.6 million in the same quarter of 2018.

Renewal rates are trending slightly down, however.

Verisign narrowed its guidance for the year by shaving off the low end of its previous guidance.

On the investor conference call yesterday, analysts inquired about three things:

1. The status of .web – Afilias’ Independent Review continues to work through the process, and Verisign would like to participate despite not being a party to it. Verisign won .web in an auction through a deal with one of the applicants. Afilias was the runner-up.

2. .Com price increases – Verisign continues to negotiate with ICANN to try to incorporate the price increases the U.S. government granted into its existing .com contract.

3. .Org price increases – This was an interesting one. An analyst asked if ICANN’s approach to lifting price caps signals that it might relieve pricing controls further on Verisign. Verisign CEO Bidzos noted that he can’t speculate on what this means when .net comes up for renewal. He also noted that .com is a different animal because of the Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. government.