How to save Epik

[topdom]

(POLL ABOVE, PLAN BELOW)


There are 2 options about EPik now.
Kill it (legal methods/icann)
Save it.

Only Epik can save itself.

Maybe, they are not making big mistakes now, and just paying price of old stupid mistakes.
And everyone gets their share.

Here is a proposal to save Epik, since the problem is mostly about cash liquidity,
the solution is also about cash liquidity.

ADMISSION:
-They should admit (unofficially) that, due to unexpected circumstances/past mistakes, they have cash problem.
-They are willing to let everyone get their money, but they don't have enough at the moment.
SOLUTION:
Until the next notice,
Each user can
-Withdraw 1K per week
-or spend 10K , or 5 percent (which ever is max) per week
of their Masterbucks balance.
-When things improve, they are willing to pay more and faster..

I think, such a thing would make everyone happier than now.
And they can offer interest for delayed withdrawal.

Such a thing would
- encourage internal spending of Masterbucks money
via registration, renewal, aftermarket sales
-prevent too much cash out too quickly
-everyone would know that their money is safe, or things are working,..
because Epik will make money from its business to pay everyone eventually sooner or later

If this rule is announced, and strictly followed,
then we wouldn't see heart attacks and traffic jams so often.

And of course if someone is just stealing money
(instead of just having used users' money inappropriately in the past)
that person should be arrested and put in prison, his assets should be sold to cover current debt.

Any Epik victim against this plan?

 

[tonyk2000]

Does Epik itself want to be saved?

 

[Gorilla]

Does Epik itself want to be saved?

Nope, they want your money and/or domains for free.

 

[JB Lions]

There are 2 options about EPik now.
Kill it (legal methods/icann)
Save it.

Only Epik can save itself.

Maybe, they are not making big mistakes now, and just paying price of old stupid mistakes.
And everyone gets their share.

Here is a proposal to save Epik, since the problem is mostly about cash liquidity,
the solution is also about cash liquidity.

ADMISSION:
-They should admit (unofficially) that, due to unexpected circumstances/past mistakes, they have cash problem.
-They are willing to let everyone get their money, but they don't have enough at the moment.
SOLUTION:
Until the next notice,
Each user can
-Withdraw 1K per week
-or spend 10K , or 5 percent (which ever is max) per week
of their Masterbucks balance.
-When things improve, they are willing to pay more and faster..

I think, such a thing would make everyone happier than now.
And they can offer interest for delayed withdrawal.

Such a thing would
- encourage internal spending of Masterbucks money
via registration, renewal, aftermarket sales
-prevent too much cash out too quickly
-everyone would know that their money is safe, or things are working,..
because Epik will make money from its business to pay everyone eventually sooner or later

If this rule is announced, and strictly followed,
then we wouldn't see heart attacks and traffic jams so often.

And of course if someone is just stealing money
(instead of just having used users' money inappropriately in the past)
that person should be arrested and put in prison, his assets should be sold to cover current debt.

Any Epik victim against this plan?

Why would you want to save them? There isn't some shortage of registrars out there. Go find a good one. New CEO doesn't seem to be a fan of domainers and has some of the same leanings Rob has. And based of what I've seen, seems to be full of it as well.

 

[topdom]

Why save Epik, because people have money and domains stuck there. Also except things related to thefts and cash problem, it is/was a good registrar. If there is intentional theft, they or legal/police force should eliminate that thief (should not be so difficult, just follow the money).

Epik became evil after crypto crash. Before crypto crash, their only big problem, was trying to sell grace-expired domains of their users, and pretending to be actual owner while they didn't have overnership rights yet. Their customer service was great (24/7 chat), their marketplace is/was ok, and better than other registrar marketplaces.
Selling forever registrations was evil or stupid also, but you could easily avoid it.

 

[Crypto2020]

I for one will be glad if Epik survives its current crisis and thrives (conditioned of-course on making whole all of its current outstanding dues to its customers first, whether outright or in installments)

So why would I like Epic to survive?

All of its past and present misfires aside, Epik has been the only innovative registrar in the past 4-5 yrs. Whether be its Nameliquidate platorm for domainers, best-in-the-industry Domain Tasting offering for domainers, Domain Equity loans for domainers to tide over short term cash-flow issues, best-in-class UI for domain management, and so on.

Tell me which other registrar has even one innovation under its belt in the last 3-5 years. This industry (i.e. registrars) has seen zero innovation and none seem to have any interest in it. They serve domainers primarily as bulk of their business is all about renewals and aftermarket sales (both driven primarily by domainers) but not one of them innovates to help the domainers. Unless and until one of the incumbents wakes up from their deep slumber and starts innovating or a new innovative entrant enters, Epik is/was the only game in town.

However, Epik has been striking self-goals repeatedly in the past few years, so for Epik to survive, it should start taking its business seriously and handle it much more professionally. Do away with unnecessary political drama. Do away with short-term gain mentality. Concentrate on its core strength of innovation and top it up with un-matched professionalism and dedication to providing a reliable, domainer-friendly and innovative registrar services. Its a tall ask, but if it can do away with its short-sightedness and multitude of other unnecessary fluff businesses and really concentrate on becoming an un-matched, innovative, reliable and professional registrar, yes, I am in full support of it surviving and thriving in years to come.

But it needs to make the start of its survival and revival firstly by making whole on all of its past dues (specially to its Masterbucks customers) and secondly by stopping the mentality of stealing money/domains from its customers.

Cheers!

 

[bmugford]

Only Epik can save themselves. It is their poor decisions that lead to this.
Starting with the data breach, using some stupid internal token, commingling funds, etc.

Now you have reportedly millions owed in customer debt, renewals are not being applied, customers are losing domains.

There are questionable transfers of ownership like with Patterns.com and other domains.

They have basically terminated almost all the employees.

The company is now being run by a domain noob that clearly has no idea what he is doing.

While all this is going on Rob (still chairman and majority shareholder) and Brian CEO are nowhere to be found.

The way to save Epik is not for more customers to get screwed over.

Epik reportedly just sold off a large portfolio of domains. Have they paid off any customer debts?
None have been reported that I am aware of.

Brad

 

[branding]

Also except things related to thefts and cash problem, it is/was a good registrar

Well, those are some serious issues. No matter how good they are, if they steal your domains and deal with cash issues, that's no place to hold your domains. Keeping your domains safe and secure is the core business of a registrar.

Epik has been the only innovative registrar in the past 4-5 yrs.

Maybe. But look closer. Most service they offered were only possibly by cutting corners and shady business.

Guess that's why most registrars move slower. They want to follow regulation and abide by the law.

 

[Bohdan]

Let them liquidate themselves

 

[jmcc]

Epik has a substantial number of domain names according to the latest (September 2022) ICANN registry reports. They tend to renew at the approximate rate for most retail US registrars. Epik has targeted a part of the market (domainers) that is highly mobile and can shift registrars quite easily. This makes it somewhat different from a typical retail hoster that does not have its own domain name market place, in-store credit pseudo-currencies or other such things.

It, Epik, was never going to be another Godaddy. It has a set of registrations that keep renewing and these are its main source of repeating revenue. Any company looking at Epik would probably consider them and those customers to be Epik's main asset. The hard problem for any such company would be splitting Epik's existing debt from this asset. Epik may also be running out of time.

ICANN Compliance surely must have received enough complaints about non-renewed and stolen domain names. It is very slow to move. The ultimate sanction is the termination of Epik's registrar accreditation. On the main thread, there are posts about FBI investigating some of the domain name thefts. Other government and state agencies may also have started to pay attention. The commingling of funds could be a very serious issue in terms of accounting. The important thing for any investigation into that would be identifying when it started. ICANN Compliance moves slower than most glaciers but it can eventually move. The last thing it wants is the negative publicity of another RegisterFly or Alpnames event. The termination of Epik's ICANN accreditation and the appointment of a successor registrar is what Epik, as a business, needs to avoid.

It needs to keep paying for renewals and registrations and completing them promptly. The renewals can be helped with the 0 to 45 day renewal grace period that can be set by the registrar. Extending this can offset some of the renewals and allow Epik to focus funds on paying for new registrations. The problem with this is that in focusing on the domaining market, the new registrations are often time-sensitive because domainers are competing with other domainers. If a domainer using Epik is competing with a domainer using another registrar for the same domain name, the domainer using the other registrar may be able to register the domain name first if Epik is slower to register new domain names.

Epik and its shareholders want to save Epik but it will be ICANN, or various government agencies, that will decide if it will be saved in its current format. Other registrars will also be looking at Epik in terms of what assets (customers and domain names) could be transferred. Epik's management does seem to be trying to save what can be saved while ending ventures that weren't making enough money to justify their existence, while keeping the registrar business running. The portfolio sales (which appear to contain domain names that Epik may not have owned) would indicate a move away from business based on a speculative market to a core business of domain name registrations which has more predictable revenue.

At this stage, I think that Epik saving itself is no longer just up to Epik.

Regards...jmcc

 

[wangtou]

I have been in arrears with $26144 for several months, and I have lost hope. I only hope that those who break the law will be punished by law

 

[Michele Dinoia]

Why save Epik, because people have money and domains stuck there. Also except things related to thefts and cash problem, it is/was a good registrar. If there is intentional theft, they or legal/police force should eliminate that thief (should not be so difficult, just follow the money).

Epik became evil after crypto crash. Before crypto crash, their only big problem, was trying to sell grace-expired domains of their users, and pretending to be actual owner while they didn't have overnership rights yet. Their customer service was great (24/7 chat), their marketplace is/was ok, and better than other registrar marketplaces.
Selling forever registrations was evil or stupid also, but you could easily avoid it.

"their only big problem, was trying to sell grace-expired domains of their users, and pretending to be actual owner while they didn't have overnership rights yet." exactly, that is what they do with thousands of my domains, I have all the evidences.

 

[marijuanadomain]

Their reputation is already being ruined, there is nothing that can be saved!
Put them in jail for stealing.

 

[franka46]

They are not going to last ,unless somebody buys the joint and get rid of
@sarahfrank
@SufyanAlani
@robmonster
@bryanroyce
@Jesus
@God
@prayerroom

 

[wangtou]

Their reputation is already being ruined, there is nothing that can be saved!
Put them in jail for stealing.

Crime of misappropriating funds

Crime of fraud

 

[marijuanadomain]

Crime of misappropriating funds

Crime of fraud

It is a crime of stolen funds
Clearly, they sold money from the customers
When an employee steals money from the company cash registers. the employee is prosecuted and goes to jail- no questions about it BUT
when a company steals money from the employees( Amazon "stole" tip money from their drivers, they did not pay them or wage thefts), the company just admit no wrong doing, pay a small fine, donate money to some charities and life goes on and no CEOs go to jail but they get big bonuses for being "competent"

 

[wangtou]

For the crime of fraud, I suspect that they contact and buy domain names themselves, and then sell the domain names without paying.

 

[wangtou]

It is a crime of stolen funds
Clearly, they sold money from the customers
When an employee steals money from the company cash registers. the employee is prosecuted and goes to jail- no questions about it BUT
when a company steals money from the employees( Amazon "stole" tip money from their drivers, they did not pay them or wage thefts), the company just admit no wrong doing, pay a small fine, donate money to some charities and life goes on and no CEOs go to jail.

For the crime of fraud, they contact and buy my domain name by themselves, and then sell my domain name without paying me.

 

[ReallyBigIdea.com]

Deleted sorry. Login issue was fixed.

 

[ReallyBigIdea.com]

Deleted sorry

 

[Ferqn]

l joined at Epik newly in order to sell domains

 

[Digital Kush]

Deleted sorry. Login issue was fixed.

Still not able to login. How to get domains back?

 

[Igor Mironyuk]

Maybe. But look closer. Most service they offered were only possibly by cutting corners and shady business.

Epik have cool bargain domains marketplace and cool parking opportunity.

 

[Igor Mironyuk]

They are not going to last ,unless somebody buys the joint and get rid of
@sarahfrank
@SufyanAlani
@robmonster
@bryanroyce
@Jesus
@God
@prayerroom

You connected with Epik?

 

[branding]

You connected with Epik?

@God and @Jesus abandoned them. @morningstar joined their support team.