Someone is letting blockchain domains drop and they’re selling like hot cakes

[Nametree]

I was looking through tomorrow’s Godaddy Auctions and noticed a domain that stood out but fit the pattern of sales in the crypto/blockchain space -
BlockchainRegistry.com currently around $6k with 12ish hours to go. Then I noticed another - BlockchainNetwork, sitting at $10k with 12 hours to go.

Ran a quick whois check and it seems like they’re both being dropped by the same person... who is dropping several of these in the next few days. BlockchainCompany, BlockchainIt ($8,100 and going) and a cool dozen others going at least in the hundreds tomorrow ALONE.

With the new Godaddy expiry policy, does this person have any recourse to get these domains back at this point? What might cause someone to drop these gems, is this a simple mistake or cluelessness?

 

[equity78]

Many might not have seen this, Jane's daughter left this comment on TheDomains last month

I am Jane Pantalone’s daughter. The loss of my Mother was a huge loss to the world. She helped so many people throughout her life, and as stated, was very ahead of her time. The smartest woman I’ll ever know. I’m so very lucky to call her Mom.

Things are not as they seem.. and it’s time I got this off my chest and reveal the truth of how GoDaddy ‘handled’ this unfortunate situation.

She did, in fact, have a plan in place in the event of her death. Her executor, the Estate Administrator, (another family member, not my brother) contacted GoDaddy with the necessary info that she left him. He completed the steps and procedures, and supplied all documents that were required and requested by GoDaddy to gain access and transfer ownership.

GoDaddy denied him access.

DAYS later, they auctioned off her domains and made over $150,000.

GoDaddy rep, Paul Nicks (VP & GM), then proceeded to contact my brother (via NamePros) informing him that they’d be making a $16,000 donation to the NYPD in her honor (an effort close to her heart, as she set up a 9/11 relief fund for the disaster victims and raised over $1 million in donations and provisions).

If that wasn’t a blatant attempt at pacification for their wrong doing, I do not know what is.
In the thread on NamePros (https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...op-and-theyre-selling-like-hot-cakes.1060298/), Paul claims to have not known of my mother’s death (could be true for him personally, but not GoDaddy) and that they unsuccessfully attempted reaching out to us. This is FALSE. Her executor was in contact with and followed GoDaddy’s procedures to transfer the account. He was DENIED access after completing all requirements.

I’m not upset at the potential loss of any money. My Mom isn’t here to enjoy it herself so it doesn’t matter.
What upsets and disgusts, me is that my mother worked so hard, came SO far, was so intelligent, and GoDaddy blatantly, greedily, and unlawfully reaped the rewards of her hard work.

I’ve waited a long time to write this, and no one may even care, but I had to get it off my chest.

Thank you.

https://www.thedomains.com/2018/01/22/lady-responsible-blockchain-names-idea-godaddy/#comment-231424

 

[LarryDomain]

This sucks! I hope they give all the profits back to the daughter. It's quite devious to steal her domains.

Many might not have seen this, Jane's daughter left this comment on TheDomains last month

I am Jane Pantalone’s daughter. The loss of my Mother was a huge loss to the world. She helped so many people throughout her life, and as stated, was very ahead of her time. The smartest woman I’ll ever know. I’m so very lucky to call her Mom.

Things are not as they seem.. and it’s time I got this off my chest and reveal the truth of how GoDaddy ‘handled’ this unfortunate situation.

She did, in fact, have a plan in place in the event of her death. Her executor, the Estate Administrator, (another family member, not my brother) contacted GoDaddy with the necessary info that she left him. He completed the steps and procedures, and supplied all documents that were required and requested by GoDaddy to gain access and transfer ownership.

GoDaddy denied him access.

DAYS later, they auctioned off her domains and made over $150,000.

GoDaddy rep, Paul Nicks (VP & GM), then proceeded to contact my brother (via NamePros) informing him that they’d be making a $16,000 donation to the NYPD in her honor (an effort close to her heart, as she set up a 9/11 relief fund for the disaster victims and raised over $1 million in donations and provisions).

If that wasn’t a blatant attempt at pacification for their wrong doing, I do not know what is.
In the thread on NamePros (https://www.namepros.com/threads/so...op-and-theyre-selling-like-hot-cakes.1060298/), Paul claims to have not known of my mother’s death (could be true for him personally, but not GoDaddy) and that they unsuccessfully attempted reaching out to us. This is FALSE. Her executor was in contact with and followed GoDaddy’s procedures to transfer the account. He was DENIED access after completing all requirements.

I’m not upset at the potential loss of any money. My Mom isn’t here to enjoy it herself so it doesn’t matter.
What upsets and disgusts, me is that my mother worked so hard, came SO far, was so intelligent, and GoDaddy blatantly, greedily, and unlawfully reaped the rewards of her hard work.

I’ve waited a long time to write this, and no one may even care, but I had to get it off my chest.

Thank you.

https://www.thedomains.com/2018/01/22/lady-responsible-blockchain-names-idea-godaddy/#comment-231424

 

[wwwweb]

I remember new auctions rules were implemented just prior to these names going into auction, so I wonder if he was denied transfer based on the fact the names had already started in the auction process? I would think during the course of something so extreme if they had been contacted prior to the auctions starting, and given paperwork processing takes time they could peel back the auctions. The auctions did raise a lot of money I still remember some of the names that went up like blockchainit.com, blockchainescrow.com, blockchainfinance.com just these three names went for a total of $25K total, the $150K total is probably accurate.

I remember reading the bio two years back, she was a very smart lady, who did a lot of good charitable work.

 

[wwwweb]

https://www.namepros.com/posts/6533503/

It looks like her son was able to access the account, but since the domains had gone into auction he wasn't able to recover them, and I guess Godaddy would not retract the auctions on his behalf at that time either.

So looks like they donated 10% of the auction proceeds to charity on her behalf from what the daughter stated.

 

[equity78]

https://www.namepros.com/posts/6533503/

It looks like her son was able to access the account, but since the domains had gone into auction he wasn't able to recover them, and I guess Godaddy would not retract the auctions on his behalf at that time either.

So looks like they donated 10% of the auction proceeds to charity on her behalf from what the daughter stated.

Right and that's why I tweeted that at Paul on Tuesday, he made this quote

He tweeted at me this first,

Not sure how many days post expiry it is, but if its after 30, then not without extenuating circumstances.

So I asked what would extenuating circumstances be for after 30 days?

He replied:

Cant enumerate all possible issues that could come up (death or other hardships as an example). I'm not a fan of zero-tolerance policies; there should always be room for nuance.

So I said I am sure the lady's daughter would be interested in that.

 

[Bob Hawkes]

If the situation is as portrayed, I find this highly disconcerting.

Any auctions about to happen or in place should have been frozen when the properly accredited executor approached GoDaddy.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention and giving voice to her daughter's concerns through your blog and this thread @equity78.

Bob

 

[cooljub]

https://www.namepros.com/posts/6533503/

It looks like her son was able to access the account, but since the domains had gone into auction he wasn't able to recover them, and I guess Godaddy would not retract the auctions on his behalf at that time either.

So looks like they donated 10% of the auction proceeds to charity on her behalf from what the daughter stated.

Regarding this from another thread in June of last year:

We did not know she had passed away. When we found out we stopped the auctions that were still live and renewed some of the expired domains in order to give the family time to deal with it.
I also personally reached out to the family to try and help several times without response.
We did not make a big deal about this publicly but we not only stopped some of the auctions we were still able to, we also gave the lion's share of the profit we made to a charity the person who lost the domains had an interest in and we made the donation in her name. Again this was after trying unsuccessfully to contact the family. I also tried to contact the son who posted in the thread via namepros unsuccessfully.
I have seen and been a part of many free renewals for customers of valuable domains when we know they have passed away, are in the hospital etc and cannot otherwise normally manage their domains. We routinely help people with free time on products when there is a disaster such as the hurricanes last year. We just do not make a big deal about it publicly. We do not do it for PR we do it because it is the right thing to do.

 

[karmaco]

I believe her daughter. GD did not give the “lion’s share” of the profit to charity but supposedly 10%. This one incident alone should make it crystal clear that GoDaddy doesn’t care about domainers, alive or deceased. Anybody keeping super valuable names there is playing with fire.