Cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption depends on making crypto peer-to-peer (P2P) payments easier for people to trust and understand. Unstoppable Domains is a blockchain-based protocol for registering and hosting domain names as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain domains like brad.crypto can be stored in cryptocurrency wallets, where they replace long, complicated addresses with simple, human-readable usernames that make it easy to identify who you’re transacting with.
Last year, Unstoppable Domains integrated Chainlink oracles so users could authenticate .crypto addresses by connecting their public Twitter profiles. Unstoppable Domains’ Co-founder Bradley Kam told Chainlink Today that the integration was the first of many ways Chainlink oracles can help move the entire crypto community toward an ecosystem of decentralized identities (DIDs) where users take ownership and control of their data back from big tech.
At this year’s SmartCon, Kam delivered a keynote speech detailing how Unstoppable Domains is building a future where crypto payments using Chainlink-verified DIDs is status quo for the world’s nearly five billion internet users.
Kam said that using a Chainlink oracle to verify blockchain domains with personal Twitter handles “is just a very tiny glimpse of the future” where people will be able to transact with each other and build reputation across a host of different contexts.
Another use case for blockchain domains is the ability to host verified content on decentralized websites. Kam explained how blockchain domains can be used to showcase and promote verified NFT art collections where potential buyers can be confident that a domain actually owns the NFTs displayed in its gallery.
Since its launch in 2019, Unstoppable Domains has registered over 1.2 million unique domains with the goal of onboarding countless new users to the decentralized web. “We’re trying to make it as easy as possible for people to use this tech,” Kam said.
Unstoppable Domains has created a decentralized domain registrar with many of the same tools used by traditional domain registrars and e-commerce stores so that even people with zero crypto experience can buy a decentralized domain and save it for the future. Users can create a login with Gmail if they don’t already have a MetaMask wallet and those who don’t yet own cryptocurrency can purchase domains via credit card or PayPal.
Unlike traditional domains that are rented and must be renewed at the risk of losing them or suddenly having to pay exponentially more, decentralized domains don’t come with any renewal fees because users own them forever. And there’s no risk of losing them – even, Kam explained, if Unstoppable Domains ceased to exist as a company.
Unstoppable Domains is, however, living up to its name. While the initial focus was catering to crypto-specific communities with .crypto, .nft and .dao TDLs, general purpose TDLs like .coin and .wallet will onboard new users to the crypto community, particularly those who are adopting crypto from the perspective of traditional finance.
“Getting a domain name is the first step in getting started with the decentralized web,” Kam said. He pointed to approximately 70 applications that are currently creating utility by interacting with blockchain domains and many more on the horizon. “There are so many things that need to be built and what we have is an excited community that has domain names that’s looking for things to do with them.”
The centralized internet, where corporations control people’s information, has always had full access to the world’s off-chain data. Kam underscored the importance of Chainlink oracles in making the same off-chain data accessible to the decentralized web.
“I think this world that Chainlink is helping us introduce around off-chain data being able to be verified and used by on-chain smart contracts – this is one of the most important unlocks for enabling crypto tech to be able to go and rebuild internet systems,” he said.
“I’m super excited about all the things that can be done related to this with Chainlink. I think you’re going to see a lot more from us and hopefully from the Chainlink community.”
To learn more about Unstoppable Domains, check out their Twitter, Telegram, YouTube and listen to The Unstoppable Podcast on Spotify and Apple.
Watch Bradley Kam’s full SmartCon keynote.
Explore other presentations from Smart Contract Summit #1’s playlist.