The domain aftermarket has a big problem - Domain Name Wire | Domain Name News
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Domain aftermarkets need to clean up their inventory. Let me start this rant with some good news. This month, I sold a domain name for $6,500 that I found through Domain Academy’s Afternic advanced search tool. I bought the domain for less than $100. Now for the bad news: I spent a lot of time […]

Here’s my take:

The domain aftermarket has a big problem… it exists. This market shouldn’t ever be allowed to exist in the first place. ICANN should’ve blocked this bullshit a long time ago and forced registrars to just let domains expire and free the space. Also add a few provisions about unused domain names and about selling them.

  • JustinEnglish
    -1•8 months ago

    I’m not an economics major, but maybe something like a blind auction every year, and if you owned the domain last year, you also have the option of matching the highest bidder to keep the domain.

    The biggest flaw with a system like that is that it would still discourage trying to buy an already owned domain, since you could pay for it, but not actually get it if the owner exercises their matching right. But it would definitely discourage domain squatting since the more other people want your domain, the more you have to pay to keep it.

    • ElectricMachmanEnglish
      14•8 months ago

      That sounds ripe for abuse. Say someone has a problem with me - if they wait long enough, they can now pay over the odds and effectively take over my website. Or get their friends to enter a bidding war and potentially cost me a lot of money.

    • @[email protected]English
      14•8 months ago

      This would turn the Internet into a hell scape if only because corporations could throw huge amounts of money around.

      There would be incentive for the Pizza Huts and the Walmarts of the world to just assume control of the websites for any local competitors.

    • Encrypt-KeeperEnglish
      3•8 months ago

      So your solution to capitalism running its dirty fingers into the domain name system is… enabling corporate style hostile domain takeovers? Good lord no.