I am a little late to this party but happy to add perspective on what is going on here.
There are 3 parts to the plan for making Alt Domains useful:
1.
Anonymize.com VPN and DNS resolver: This is free for anyone to download or use. It means that any domain in the Alt Domain zone will resolve just like any other domain. For sites that are concerned about censorship or surveillance, it is a blessing. You will not be able to track their traffic since all tracking code is also rooted out by the VPN. It's cool.
2.
Toki Network: For those not aware, Epik is rolling out a network of so-called Toki servers. It is a very cool low cost edge server network which includes cached copies of sites running locally on distributed servers. You can begin to experiment with it on a free service we are releasing at Websites.org. Entire websites can be downloaded, including sites from the dark web in addition to clear web. Again, it's cool.
3.
Browser partners: The long term goal is to align with browser partners or deploy/acquire a browser publisher that will integrate the proprietary DNS resolver.
Depending on what you think about the future of censorship and privacy, your enthusiasm for Epik's Alt domains will vary. The domains are all GA, i.e. we have not held back premiums, and the names are also really cheap.
In terms of status, Phase 1 is fully operational.
Phase 2 is coming online. If you have a Raspberry Pi server you can participate in the pilot that is coming online this month.
@Arpit131 is leading the pilot, not just in India. If you want to participate, contact him. We are also investigating whether we can do the same on flashed Android devices.
Phase 3 has no known timing but we know that Unstoppable Domains did a deal with Opera browser and they have invited a strategic cooperation with Epik. We decided prioritize phase 1 and 2 because we are concerned about decentralized resiliency.
Specific to Raspberry Pi, they cost about $50 fully kitted. There are more than 30 million of them in circulation. With the full weather-proof case and battery array, they cost about $85 and look like this:
In the meantime, if you want to see sites added to the Toki network, feel free to add them to the Websites.org archive here:
https://websites.org/
This is cool stuff.
Ultimately, I think we'll introduce a model where people can own Alt Domains FOREVER. I have pushed very hard for registries to go this route. They have declined. See here for context:
https://www.epik.com/blog/forever-domain-registrations.html
We are leading the way, regardless of ICANN.
As for people who buy these domains errantly, we are refunding. I have asked our designers to add prominent messaging to help people not to buy Alt Domains without understanding what they do.