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domains Is domaining on the downslide?

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equity78

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From posts and private conversations in the first two weeks I see some calling for domaining’s demise. I finally got hold of a long time friend in the business who told me he just got into NFT’s and could care less about domain names. I was surprised as they have had decent success, […]
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The views expressed on this page by users and staff are their own, not those of NamePros.
People will continue to lose money on domain name investments until they become better domainers. It's on domainers not on the domain name industry.
 
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From posts and private conversations in the first two weeks I see some calling for domaining’s demise. I finally got hold of a long time friend in the business who told me he just got into NFT’s and could care less about domain names. I was surprised as they have had decent success, […]
Continue Reading
This is funny, bcos even the Nfts needs a domain name to go online.

As long as the internet continue to exist, Domain names will continue to be relevant and even more important as people now wants virtually everything to be online.

If Nft bcoms the order of the day then WhereIsMyNFt.com (domain name will be selling for $xxxx 🤣🤣🤣
 
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People will continue to lose money on domain name investments until they become better domainers. It's on domainers not on the domain name industry.
Exactly, he should have narrow the scope
 
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People will continue to lose money on domain name investments until they become better domainers. It's on domainers not on the domain name industry.
I agree many do fine, It seems some think the practice of domain investing is done. I don't think domaining going extinct, I think it's less exciting than crypto and some of the new Web3 stuff but that excitement can be volatile and some have only experienced the highs and have not had any lows, yet.
 
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Exactly, he should have narrow the scope
Well it wasn't about the industry, it was about the practice of being a domain investor, I think some think it's done. The one thread is here, where a member declared domaining as dead.
 
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Most of my domaining friends are into NFTS. Not a one of them hasn’t been scammed, rug pulled, etc at least once or plain old lost money on an unsuccessful nft project. Its considered a rite of passage to lose money to some scam. A select few have made massive money.

Everyone else is just chasing a dream of easy money that may or may not happen. That part is no different than domaining.

You can’t go on CH, Twitter, Discord, WhatsApp, anywhere without nonstop nft talk. If there is going to be a mass exodus of domainers I just wish they would do it and get off my timeline. 🤷‍♂️

Got nothing against NFTS in general and I do keep track of whats going on in that world, but I am just weary of that being the only topic of conversation the last 7-8 months. I can imagine some investing are equally drained, weary etc.

They can create fomo and all that but I still think at this juncture domaining is a safer bet.
 
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I think people are mudding the water because there's too many reports of domain sales that are unverified which makes people invest in things that won't sell. This helps nobody. At least with NFTs, from what I can see, there is transparency on the public marketplaces so there is some degree of confidence that there was a sale for a certain price.

Domains however... it's all reports of sales that cannot be verified and many people lining up to perpetuate news of such sales that are just self reported/word of mouth.
 
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Start of 2022 with all the sales, i don't think demand for domains is declining and while there is demand there will always be investors trying to get there first.

I've always said that NFT's are bad for domains, we saw that 2 half of 2021 and a slight decline in sales due to high profile people in domains now spending a lot of time on NFT's.

I think what we are going to see in the next few months is a few of these people (ie Booth brothers/Rosener) go from a company/people that primarily focuses on domain names to a company/people that now focuses on 'digital assets'.

But at the same time, there is always someone to step into their place and dedicate their full time on domains, we are only 2 weeks into the new year and a new broker is making a name for herself in in May Chen, i never heard of her 2 weeks ago.

As a domain investor who owns a few ultra-premiums, i'm always watching who's taking their eye off the ball, I would never sign my assets over to a part-time domain broker.
 
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Here in Greece for example, my bank has blacklisted Kraken. It's not easy for me to buy ETH. Additionally, many poor people around the world look gas fees crazy.
Having said that, i mean that govs have put many hurdles for people who want to invest in cryptos/nft and all that crypto game is not for all.
Until the day it will be changed, i don't see how domain names will lose power.
 
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Domain names were never intended to be an investment. They were meant to be used for online publishing.

I have one local friend who also develops/invests in domain names, whereas about a quarter of my friends have some form of crypto. A handful have NFT's.

The average person just wants to invest their money for a quick tax free return.
 
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Domain names were never intended to be an investment. They were meant to be used for online publishing.

I have one local friend who also develops/invests in domain names, whereas about a quarter of my friends have some form of crypto. A handful have NFT's.

The average person just wants to invest their money for a quick tax free return.
When I first started out investing, it was VR thinking VR is the future (still believe that) and I wanted to get involved in it in some shape or form and make money from it.

September 2015, I remember reading the VR thread, seeing people saying their new freshly handreg domain was going to be worth 6 figures 1 day and a lot of people agreeing with it, so I wanted in.

I think most people who invest in domains are from different walks of life, some not have a lot of money, but have the same way of thinking, in that their new hand reg for $8.99 may be that winning lottery ticket for them and their family. That’s why I don’t like to shoot people down doing that, I know some people like to do on here (enjoy telling others their domain is rubbish) and ripping apart hopes in the process.

After 6+ years of investing, I know a new handreg is probably not that winning lottery ticket, although ‘meta’ ripped the rule book up on that last year.

But I think it’s that ‘hope’ that a lot of people start investing in domains for initially more so than a quick flip, especially in tech.
 
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I agree...domaining is dead and owning digital art, nft, crypto, etc. is the way to go. Sure, domaining had its place but lets be real...let those names drop and put that money elsewhere. Especially drop the exact match names, 4L domains...even let those 3L dot coms go too...worthless things at this point.


(I crack me up)
 
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Let Swetha know domaining is dead lol
Its forums that are dying
 
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Thanks for starting the discussion and the article, @equity78. I agree with the points you made in the article.

I think right now we are seeing some rather negative on domain investing but others seem very optimistic. Even though we just ended a great year, the vast majority who responded in this poll thought 2022 will be even better.

I might just be uneducated, but while I see the 'club' aspect of owning one, and see how some like them as one form of art, and understand that some have traded for large increases, but I don't truly understand why so many high profile domain investors who I respect have gone so enthusiastically into NFT and seem to endlessly promote them on social media. If the bubble breaks, I am afraid it may drag domaining by association.

I prefer assets that have a clear economic contribution. For example, a great domain name can serve as the global address, entry point, and advertising hub for a business, it can save marketing and increase reach and literally be the business location in the way that a physical shop can be.

How exactly can a NFT do that? I see the business model for creators, artists or musicians, that use NFT to validate ownership rights. I get that. But to the person or business who buys that NFT, it seems to me that the utility is a stretch. Yes, you could build promotion around an NFT character, but beyond that.

Back to domains, I think the market is changing, and will change more. I suspect some who have lost interest have somewhat not wanted to change their approach.

As you noted in the article, compared to buying some cryptocurrency, or probably NFT, domaining is harder work and requires more patience. Cryptocurrency has had a big run. But it is essentially a commodity/currency, rather than an asset such as a stock in a growing company. It seems to me that long term the recent increases are not sustainable. That is not to say cryptocurrencies will not be more and more important in global commerce.

Bob

PS In the poll I set I chose the middle option, I think 2022 may be about as good as 2021 overall, but I don't think we will see another big increase. It seems most NamePros voters were more optimistic than me.
 
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Well it wasn't about the industry, it was about the practice of being a domain investor, I think some think it's done. The one thread is here, where a member declared domaining as dead.
I think it was my thread how NFT impacts on domain industry. the thread was probably deleted I can not find it.

tbh valuable domains still have the value because everyone wants a great dotcom for their company, website or brand.

Regarding nft how secure they are, read this

Most people think of images and digital art when they think of NFTs, but NFTs generally do not store that data on-chain. For most NFTs of most images, that would be much too expensive.

Instead of storing the data on-chain, NFTs instead contain a URL that points to the data. What surprised me about the standards was that there’s no hash commitment for the data located at the URL. Looking at many of the NFTs on popular marketplaces being sold for tens, hundreds, or millions of dollars, that URL often just points to some VPS running Apache somewhere. Anyone with access to that machine, anyone who buys that domain name in the future, or anyone who compromises that machine can change the image, title, description, etc for the NFT to whatever they’d like at any time (regardless of whether or not they “own” the token). There’s nothing in the NFT spec that tells you what the image “should” be, or even allows you to confirm whether something is the “correct” image
Source
Moxie is CEO of Signal messenger. https://moxie.org/2022/01/07/web3-first-impressions.html
 
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Most of my domaining friends are into NFTS. Not a one of them hasn’t been scammed, rug pulled, etc at least once or plain old lost money on an unsuccessful nft project. Its considered a rite of passage to lose money to some scam. A select few have made massive money.

Everyone else is just chasing a dream of easy money that may or may not happen. That part is no different than domaining.

You can’t go on CH, Twitter, Discord, WhatsApp, anywhere without nonstop nft talk. If there is going to be a mass exodus of domainers I just wish they would do it and get off my timeline. 🤷‍♂️

Got nothing against NFTS in general and I do keep track of whats going on in that world, but I am just weary of that being the only topic of conversation the last 7-8 months. I can imagine some investing are equally drained, weary etc.

They can create fomo and all that but I still think at this juncture domaining is a safer bet.
All digital asset investments are more or less the same from domains to crypto to NFTs.

During the hype phase, we hear of the few that make money and not of the millions who don't. Only for you to get involved and realize that you need to grind just like in everything else that gives value.

There's no El Dorado without effort. But people somehow want to believe otherwise.
 
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Domaining and domain investing is ALIVE and WELL.

Those that have given up have done so because they no longer want to work at it. Next easy money, please. Domain investing is getting more difficult because of the evolution of the domain name into new gTLDs and Web3. It is also extremely crowded in the legacy world. Stick with quality names, and everything else falls into place.

People leave, but they'll be back. Shiny objects lose their luster after a while.

Back to domains, I think the market is changing, and will change more. I suspect some who have lost interest have somewhat not wanted to change their approach.
Excellent way to put it. Changing an approach to refuel a core domain business or rekindle a passion for names can be daunting as investors because over time we get used to seeing things a certain way.

I think also though we can diversify our interests and still keep to core approach to domains without having to say one or the other is on a "downslide" just because it's not as exciting as it used to be for us. Imagine those just entering the domaining arena, and the seemingly unlimited possibilities with naming and investing.

To me, domains don't dry up. I like their longevity. They certainly aren't the digital flavour of the week, if that's what folks are looking for.
 
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This is may be the most silly question of the day, but i am just curious. Will be ever possible for ''traditional names'' to be minted like UD and be part of blockchain?
 
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I agree many do fine, It seems some think the practice of domain investing is done. I don't think domaining going extinct, I think it's less exciting than crypto and some of the new Web3 stuff but that excitement can be volatile and some have only experienced the highs and have not had any lows, yet.

Certainly not the guaranteed success of buying domains in 1998 or even 2003.
 
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The one thread is here, where a member declared domaining as dead.
Hi Ray
whenever anybody, makes a statement about the demise of any aspect of domaining,
then the credibility, tenure and experience of that person has to be taken into account before giving it any weight or merit.

just like some folks be saying parking is dead, when in fact, it's still kicking out payments every month.

imo...
 
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Hi Ray
whenever anybody, makes a statement about the demise of any aspect of domaining,
then the credibility, tenure and experience of that person has to be taken into account before giving it any weight or merit.

just like some folks be saying parking is dead, when in fact, it's still kicking out payments every month.

imo...

Parking payouts have shrank, the effort and money involved in getting started is prohibitive.

Owning a decent Dot com portfolio is also expensive but the limited supply of good names make it a good investment, for now and the immediate future.

The next generation is making their fortunes in crypto, nft and web3. Hard to imagine dot com not being relevant in the future but it could happen.
 
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Thanks for starting the discussion and the article, @equity78. I agree with the points you made in the article.

I think right now we are seeing some rather negative on domain investing but others seem very optimistic. Even though we just ended a great year, the vast majority who responded in this poll thought 2022 will be even better.

I might just be uneducated, but while I see the 'club' aspect of owning one, and see how some like them as one form of art, and understand that some have traded for large increases, but I don't truly understand why so many high profile domain investors who I respect have gone so enthusiastically into NFT and seem to endlessly promote them on social media. If the bubble breaks, I am afraid it may drag domaining by association.

I prefer assets that have a clear economic contribution. For example, a great domain name can serve as the global address, entry point, and advertising hub for a business, it can save marketing and increase reach and literally be the business location in the way that a physical shop can be.

How exactly can a NFT do that? I see the business model for creators, artists or musicians, that use NFT to validate ownership rights. I get that. But to the person or business who buys that NFT, it seems to me that the utility is a stretch. Yes, you could build promotion around an NFT character, but beyond that.

Back to domains, I think the market is changing, and will change more. I suspect some who have lost interest have somewhat not wanted to change their approach.

As you noted in the article, compared to buying some cryptocurrency, or probably NFT, domaining is harder work and requires more patience. Cryptocurrency has had a big run. But it is essentially a commodity/currency, rather than an asset such as a stock in a growing company. It seems to me that long term the recent increases are not sustainable. That is not to say cryptocurrencies will not be more and more important in global commerce.

Bob

PS In the poll I set I chose the middle option, I think 2022 may be about as good as 2021 overall, but I don't think we will see another big increase. It seems most NamePros voters were more optimistic than me.
My sentiments exactly. I could not have said it better.
 
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