The second phase of the new gTLD program is slowly but surely approaching. And now there is no doubt that .BLOCKCHAIN will be one of the most popular among applicants. The race for the right to manage it can be considered to have started: last week, the company Unstoppable Domains officially announced that it would submit an application for this domain. Unstoppable Domains manages several blockchain domains, including, in fact, .BLOCKCHAIN. But these domains serve mainly for the convenience of cryptocurrency transactions, replacing the addresses of cryptocurrency wallets: sites created on them cannot be viewed from most of the most popular browsers.
Unstoppable Domains has long had plans to integrate Web2 (traditional top-level domains included in the DNS root zone) and Web3 (blockchain domains) projects. And obtaining management rights to the new generic top-level domain .BLOCKCHAIN will certainly bring the company closer to realizing these plans. The domain application will be submitted by Unstoppable Domains in conjunction with Blockchain.com, which calls itself "the world's leading crypto finance house." As Unstoppable Domains said in a statement, “This collaboration with Blockchain.com is a strategic move to prepare for the application and ensure we are ready to offer a robust, integrated solution when the time comes.” In general, the company's ambitions look impressive, in the same statement, for example, it is said: “The .blockchain domain would join the ranks of iconic ICANN-registered generic top-level domains (gTLDs) like .com, .net, .org, .biz, and .info.”
The Domain Name Wire, reporting this news, notes that other contenders for .BLOCKCHAIN are unlikely to keep themselves waiting. And if ICANN ends up delegating the domain to some other company other than Unstoppable Domains, that could be a problem. Using the .BLOCKCHAIN as a traditional DNS domain for websites and email addresses by one operator and the blockchain domain .BLOCKCHAIN as a domain for crypto wallets by others will likely lead to various technical difficulties.
