Crypto firm Blockchain.com will let its users claim free “.blockchain” domain names supported by Unstoppable Domains, the company announced on Friday. The new option came as a potential challenge to Ethereum Name Service.
Readable Crypto Addresses
According to the crypto exchange’s official blog post, the newly unveiled feature will allow 82 million registered users to own a .blockchain domain through the partnership with Unstoppable Domains. The latter is an NFT domain name provider and digital identity platform working on domains tied to readable crypto addresses.
These new features can allow users to transact cryptocurrencies through crypto addresses with readable names. In the coming weeks, each Blockchain.com wallet user can claim a free customized domain associated with their wallet. The .blockchain domain is an easy-to-remember crypto address that lets users transfer assets without being implicated with a string of complex mix of characters and digits.
“Instead of having to copy-and-paste long complex wallet addresses like bc1qw508d6qejxtdg4y5r3zarvary0c5xw7kv8f3t4, you can simply type in an easy-to-remember domain like john.blockchain.”
The news arrived as a step further from the firm’s prior announcement, supporting a variety of domain endings, including .x, .nft, .wallet, .coin, .bitcoin, .dao, and more. The new feature has positioned the crypto firm as “the first company to have a branded top-level domain with Unstoppable Domains.”
Unstoppable Domains’ website indicates that each domain name is an NFT minted on Polygon, meaning that it is unique and fully documented on the blockchain. It’s also worth noting that some popular domain endings are on sale for $100,000 on the site.
An Alternative to ens. eth
By using the popular Ethereum Name Service (ENS), users also get to customize the domain names for their crypto addresses. On top of Ethereum addresses, ENS also offers domains for crypto wallets, websites, content, and hashes, with the capability of connecting one’s online metadata and addresses under one nickname.
Due to the uniqueness of each ENS domain, crypto natives tended to bid for the popular names – similar to people who fought for DNS names during the early days of the Internet. Besides, ENS users must pay a $5 yearly fee for names longer than 5 characters on ENS Apps.
Blockchain.com’s latest move offers users an alternative to ENS – the largest domain service in the industry now with more than a million active accounts – as the company viewed that a readable address can further introduce crypto-related services to a broader population.