Eth.link will be up for sale on Sept.5
Real estate is all about value. The more rare the land or home the more value it contains.This rings true for digital real estate as well. Before virtual land and web3 there were domain names. The more specific a domain name the more valuable it becomes.Nike.com would be more valuable than Nike.org or even Nikes.com as the name would be directly specific to that of the brand name.
This means that if one person owned the domain nike.com before the athletic company did, they could net a huge profit if the company decided they really needed the domain. There is big business in domain names, maybe not as much as before but still big profits can be made.
Recently a domain of a web3 domain naming service has seen its web address become endangered. The site’s domain contract has expired and needs to be renewed, but the developer is currently incarcerated.
The ENS DAO community will be greeted only by an empty page with a green domain expiration notice at the top. The latest tweet from the official twitter was on Aug.25 which was a thread addressing the issue and stating a potential for phishing if someone else purchases the domain with ill intent.
The one person that can save this situation is the developer that purchased the domain in the first place, Virgil Griffith. Griffith is currently serving a 63 month sentence for aiding North Koreans using cryptocurrencies to circumvent sanctions. The eth.link domain expired on GoDaddy this past July 26 and will be made readily available for sale by Sept. 5, this means anyone can take it and there are bound to be countless individuals ready to pounce on this opportunity.
This is a serious situation as the ENS DAO governs the Ethereum Name Service Protocol, the protocol that is behind the numerous .eth names. The names can then be tied to wallets making it easier to receive crypto. Mr. Griffith was an early contributor to the platform, he purchased the domain and built an application that resolves ENS domains. The DAO relied on the eth.link site as it provided all information on the various ENS names and currently all users of eth.link are being asked to move their information over to another site- eth.limo
ENS Executive Director Khorri Whittaker spoke on how GoDaddy decided to re-expire the domain after it was renewed by someone else, stating this showcased the power and control of the legacy system. “Anyone can support an ENS domain by paying for renewal or extending it “ he states.