alert The fund can't be withdrawal from Epik.com via Masterbucks wallet

[enamebroker]

It happened on 23rd Aug 2022 and this matter lasted almost one month without any process. Masterbucks.com declined my fund withdrawal and disabled the button of fund withdrawal. And I contacted Epik.com and got no further action even if Rob Monster got involved in it for two weeks. All the time I was told in email by management review.

What is wrong with Epik.com? Do you think it is normal to disable fund withdrawal? How can I get back my fund from Epik.com? Thanks for your suggestion.

 

[jmcc]

Show attachment 231733

Epik has 638,057 .COM domain names from the latest October 2022 ICANN registry report. Not sure about that total in the image above.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Michele Dinoia]

what I can say is that in the last 15 days, only me I transferred almost 1500 domains, and I'M only 1 person

 

[jmcc]

$2B...

The amount of domains under management is clearly inflated.

To put it diplomatically, Epik may have been creative with the phrase "domains under management". It will have some ccTLDs and may be including domain names on its marketplace.

For reference purposes GoDaddy has a market cap of about $12B. They have 79M registrations vs 455K for Epik. They have more than 173x the registrations of Epik.

Epik is a pipsqueak compared to Godaddy. Most people looking at Godaddy only see its domaincontrol.com and cashparking operations. It also has taken over a number of registrars and hosting operations outside the US and is a very serious player in the ccTLD markets.

GoDaddy also has their own domain portfolio that they spent hundreds of millions acquiring.

Big players like Godaddy and Newfold Digital are like icebergs in that only a small part is immediately visible. When the registrars and businesses that they run (often each with their own distinct brand) are combined they are extremely large businesses.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

These are the 01 February 2023 figures for epik.com:
.com: 222,126
.net: 12,503
.org: 1,4858
.biz: 902
.info: 3,926
.mobi: 142
.asia: 64
new gTLDs: 47,148
.uk: 1,263

Most of its registrations are off-registrar hosted meaning that they don't use the registrars main nameservers. This would indicate that they are in use by their registrants for their businesses or are on domain name sales sites.

Regards...jmcc

 

[uaonline]

here are times a account registered a domain from 2010-06-25 to 2021-03-01, top 15 users.

574423 is rob's digitaltown account used by lots of peoples.

user id number	"register a domain" event
574423	80048
719674	59267
711364	52255
681334	31765
611581	29763
639844	24985
532827	7707
735403	7113
767823	6776
789253	6075
735033	5812
318989	5742
763043	5691
673561	5432
814513	5400

 

[jmcc]

here are times a account registered a domain from 2010-06-25 to 2021-03-01, top 15 users.

574423 is rob's digitaltown account used by lots of peoples.

Most of the Digital Town domain names in the new gTLDs were on Epik. Having built country level search engines and directories and understanding what is involved, the plans by Digital Town seemed remarkably devoid of a clue about the level of work involved. Most of the Digital Town domain names were dropped when the registries didn't continue the heavy discounting. In terms of usage, the Digital Town registrations were absolutely toxic to newly launched gTLDs in that most were never used and never had a chance of being developed.

Regards...jmcc

 

[bmugford]

here are times a account registered a domain from 2010-06-25 to 2021-03-01, top 15 users.

574423 is rob's digitaltown account used by lots of peoples.

user id number	"register a domain" event
574423	80048
719674	59267
711364	52255
681334	31765
611581	29763
639844	24985
532827	7707
735403	7113
767823	6776
789253	6075
735033	5812
318989	5742
763043	5691
673561	5432
814513	5400

I assume that would include all the crappy .city registrations that DigitalTown made, before Rob left and they went bankrupt. It was a terrible business model to start with.

Rob seems to have some spectacular timing when it comes to leaving a company right before they fall apart...must just be a coincidence.

DigitalTown Announces .CITY Domain Network – Buys 11,000 .City Domain Names​

https://onlinedomain.com/2016/06/25...-domain-network-buys-11000-city-domain-names/

Rob Monster exits DigitalTown, George Nagy takes over CEO role​

https://domainnamewire.com/2018/09/17/rob-monster-exits-digitaltown-george-nagy-takes-over-ceo-role/

DigitalTown files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy​

https://domainnamewire.com/2020/10/12/digitaltown-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/

DigitalTown owes a total of $3.5 million to creditors.

The company has tried many different business models over the years. Its latest initiative was a localized platform backed by a cryptocurrency. The company acquired 13,000 .city domain names to be used in conjunction with the local platform.

It never made much money from the local platform. Much of the cash it generated in recent years was through bizarre “domain marketing development obligations”. Top level domain operators would pay DigitalTown cash up front that would be used to purchase the registry’s domain names at a later date.

Brad

 

[GoKaizen]

This is just nameserver records?

These are the 01 February 2023 figures for epik.com:
.com: 222,126
.net: 12,503
.org: 1,4858
.biz: 902
.info: 3,926
.mobi: 142
.asia: 64
new gTLDs: 47,148
.uk: 1,263

Most of its registrations are off-registrar hosted meaning that they don't use the registrars main nameservers. This would indicate that they are in use by their registrants for their businesses or are on domain name sales sites.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

This is just nameserver records?

Yep. The October 2022 ICANN data should be available in a while.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Derek Peterson]

I assume that would include all the crappy .city registrations that DigitalTown made, before Rob left and they went bankrupt. It was a terrible business model to start with.

Rob seems to have some spectacular timing when it comes to leaving a company right before they fall apart...must just be a coincidence.

DigitalTown Announces .CITY Domain Network – Buys 11,000 .City Domain Names​

https://onlinedomain.com/2016/06/25...-domain-network-buys-11000-city-domain-names/

Rob Monster exits DigitalTown, George Nagy takes over CEO role​

https://domainnamewire.com/2018/09/17/rob-monster-exits-digitaltown-george-nagy-takes-over-ceo-role/

DigitalTown files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy​

https://domainnamewire.com/2020/10/12/digitaltown-files-for-chapter-11-bankruptcy/

DigitalTown owes a total of $3.5 million to creditors.

The company has tried many different business models over the years. Its latest initiative was a localized platform backed by a cryptocurrency. The company acquired 13,000 .city domain names to be used in conjunction with the local platform.

It never made much money from the local platform. Much of the cash it generated in recent years was through bizarre “domain marketing development obligations”. Top level domain operators would pay DigitalTown cash up front that would be used to purchase the registry’s domain names at a later date.

Brad

Cashing out and leaving as they go under.

 

[jmcc]

Cashing out and leaving as they go under.

It was a kind of business model that wouldn't have been out of place in the DotCom Bubble of the late 1990s. In business, ideas are easy. Execution is hard.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Derek Peterson]

It was a kind of business model that wouldn't have been out of place in the DotCom Bubble of the late 1990s. In business, ideas are easy. Execution is hard.

Regards...jmcc

You're thinking like a business man driven by a desire to build things and/or hopefully help people and not a filthy lying sociopathic grifter. Monster executed perfectly on Digitaltown and Epik. I'm still hopeful this time he gets put down.

 

[Future Sensors]

Commenting on the future of Epik, Royce said his goal is to make it a top five registrar. “I’ve got it dialed in and I can’t wait to see this whole thing through,” he said.

Royce said Masterbucks is a big part of Epik’s future and he plans to turn Masterbucks into a Paypal competitor.

Source

 

[bmugford]

Commenting on the future of Epik, Royce said his goal is to make it a top five registrar. “I’ve got it dialed in and I can’t wait to see this whole thing through,” he said.

Royce said Masterbucks is a big part of Epik’s future and he plans to turn Masterbucks into a Paypal competitor.

Source

Sounds about right coming from a noob who knows nothing about the domain industry.
Epik only needs about another 9M registrations to be top 5.

Paypal has a market cap of around $100B. I am sure they are scared of some worthless internal currency.

Paypal already cut Epik off once because of Rob's tax avoidance comments involving Masterbucks.

Masterbucks and tax avoidance at center of Epik PayPal controversy​

https://domainnamewire.com/2020/10/...oidance-at-center-of-epik-paypal-controversy/

Then came the delusional response...

PayPal, Hunter Biden, Bloomberg News, and several Avengers were targeted in a series of unhinged open letters from Epik after PayPal terminated its account.

https://mashable.com/article/epik-domain-names-paypal-proud-boys

Brad

 

[jmcc]

You're thinking like a business man driven by a desire to build things and/or hopefully help people and not a filthy lying sociopathic grifter. Monster executed perfectly on Digitaltown and Epik. I'm still hopeful this time he gets put down.

Those new gTLDs would have been a lot better off without those Digital Town registrations. They just wasted a lot of domain names that people could have used to develop working websites. Epik has attracted a lot of attention from government (state and federal) agencies and that can't be good for Monster or Epik.

Regards...jmcc

 

[jmcc]

Commenting on the future of Epik, Royce said his goal is to make it a top five registrar. “I’ve got it dialed in and I can’t wait to see this whole thing through,” he said.

Royce said Masterbucks is a big part of Epik’s future and he plans to turn Masterbucks into a Paypal competitor.

Source

If Royce doesn't understand that nobody measures the industry by distinct registrars these days then he has a lot to learn. Due to consolidations and acquisitions, the top players are actually registrar portfolio operators with multiple registrar accreditations. Hoping to be in the top five registrars might have been fine for the early 2000s but it is a very different business now.

Regards...jmcc

 

[bmugford]

If Royce doesn't understand that nobody measures the industry by distinct registrars these days then he has a lot to learn. Due to consolidations and acquisitions, the top players are actually registrar portfolio operators with multiple registrar accreditations. Hoping to be in the top five registrars might have been fine for the early 2000s but it is a very different business now.

Regards...jmcc

Brian doesn't even seem to understand that taking $100K in payment for a domain as an unlicensed "escrow" company, transferring ownership of the customer's domain, then sticking her with $91K in worthless magic beans (Masterbucks) is a bad idea.

If he doesn't understand something that basic, I can't imagine him understanding any advanced concepts about domains.

We will see what the FBI thinks of that though.

I have a feeling they will care about a customer getting stiffed out of $91K via interstate commerce using electronic payments.

Brad

 

[gotaheadrush]

Alright, its been 3 weeks since these idiots put my money in Masterfu**, sent a few emails, and no response, does anyone have the Epik CEO's email or phone?

 

[bmugford]

Alright, its been 3 weeks since these idiots put my money in Masterfu**, sent a few emails, and no response, does anyone have the Epik CEO's email or phone?

It is unlikely to help.

Epik reportedly owes millions in customer debt. People have been waiting in line for 4-5 months now for payment.

I am not aware of many, if any, recent payouts.

His email is [email protected] I believe.

Here he is on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Brianmroyce

Brad

 

[jmcc]

Brian doesn't even seem to understand that taking $100K in payment for a domain as an unlicensed "escrow" company, transferring ownership of the customer's domain, then sticking her with $91K in worthless magic beans (Masterbucks) is a bad idea.

If he doesn't understand something that basic, I can't imagine him understanding any advanced concepts about domains.

We will see what the FBI thinks of that though.

I have a feeling they will care about a customer getting stiffed out of $91K via interstate commerce using electronic payments.

Hopefully the attention from the FBI will encourage Epik to pay all those people they've tried to avoid paying, Brad,
It really is despicable how Epik has treated its customers.

The thing about the industry is that it really isn't hard to understand its concentration. ICANN has just under 2,600 registrars. It sounds impressive but in reality most of those are drop catchers. The number of retail and brand protection registrars is closer to 800. Now, some of them are operated by the same portfolio operator so the concentration at the top of the market is far greater than it appears from simply looking at registrar counts. It is just understanding the market in which Epik operates.

Regards...jmcc

 

[Igor Gabrielan]

Did you comment on this tweet here?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621027278347182081

 

[bmugford]

Did you comment on this tweet here?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621027278347182081

I did. Brian Royce is so out of his league as CEO of a registrar. I have no idea how this noob got the job.
In this (5) months as CEO things have only got much worse.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621039440557920256

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621043707964440578

 

[jmcc]

I did. Brian Royce is so out of his league as CEO of a registrar. I have no idea how this noob got the job.
In this (5) months as CEO things have only got much worse.

Could he have been one of the investors in Epik?

Regards...jmcc

 

[Future Sensors]

Did you comment on this tweet here?

https://twitter.com/x/status/1621027278347182081

 

[bmugford]

Could he have been one of the investors in Epik?

Regards...jmcc

Maybe a proxy for one of the investors.

Regardless, he is clearly not qualified for this job.

It is still confusing how Brian has control but Rob, still Chairman and reported 70%+ shareholder, has basically gone into public hiding.

Brian has been in control for (5) months now. The list of victims appears to be growing when it comes to new people getting stuck with Masterbucks, domains not being renewed in a timely manner which has reportedly lead to the loss of domains, Patterns.com, other domains missing, etc.

I just noticed this post earlier today -

https://www.namepros.com/threads/epik-removed-70-domains-from-our-account.1292099/

Brad