The future of domain names

[Siusaidh]

I'm curious about how people view the future of domain names. Will changes in technology render them unnecessary? And how soon might that happen?

Do people think, in an age of instant search, advances in/towards AI of various kinds, and simple use of social media and links, that the whole 'domain name' protocol will die out?

Don't get me wrong: I think domain names are brilliant and intuitive - far easier than strings of numbers for personally remembering them. But people here are acutely involved with domain names, so what do you think will or may happen?

Alternatively, and I guess we may sometimes dream of this, might domain names provide the basic structure and protocol for some next gen technology (and people here all become fabulously wealthy)? Advisory: I think that is very unlikely.

How long before all the investment in domain names becomes valueless? And could it happen very quickly?

I 'get' that many people here may not be in the game for long-term investment of their money, and are in it to sell and make shorter term profit. But will domains be a dying commodity, and if so, how soon.

Admittedly, I don't have a pony in this race, because I only buy domains for fun and possible development myself. But I do like the practicality of domains as a concept, and I think they've served many people well around the world, providing easily-memorable words in place of strings of numbers.

What do you think is the short-term (1-2 years), medium-term (3-6 years), and long-term (7-15 years) future of all these domains we try hard to acquire or lease or sell?

 

[James]

You’re on to something, I would say. It’s just taking rather longer than I expected. I felt similarly back in 2007 or so and remember discussing it with a few of the old guard. It was one of the reasons I sold off most of my decent quality domains back then. Fortunately for me, it was probably the peak of the market.

Ive got a hunch that with the advent of DLT there will be sufficient technological paradigm shift to speed this process up. I’m not sure what shape that will take yet. Just a gut feeling.

I imagine that for a period of time, domain names - at least as we know them today - will remain integrated with a new DLT-based internet. But ultimately they will give way to more convenient and relatively frictionless systems.

People take time to be convinced and adapt of course, so if I had to take another stab at things I’d say that whatever remains of the legacy domain name system will breathe its last breath within 15 years.

 

[dee]

I imagine that for a period of time, domain names - at least as we know them today - will remain integrated with a new DLT-based internet. But ultimately they will give way to more convenient and relatively frictionless systems.

People take time to be convinced and adapt of course, so if I had to take another stab at things I’d say that whatever remains of the legacy domain name system will breathe its last breath within 15 years.

You'll still need a way of directing an individual to the information they are looking for. Even a blockchain based distributed web will need an addressing system

 

[James]

You'll still need a way of directing an individual to the information they are looking for. Even a blockchain based distributed web will need an addressing system

Yes... some way of directing someone to the information they are looking for will be needed. We can’t really imagine how the future will look until it arrives I guess. Just a gut feeling that *domain names* won’t survive in their current form.

 

[dee]

Yes... some way of directing someone to the information they are looking for will be needed. We can’t really imagine how the future will look until it arrives I guess. Just a gut feeling that *domain names* won’t survive in their current form.

Yep. There'll be another landrush for something.

 

[martin-s]

Postcodes, street names, house numbers, phone numbers, domain names, lat/lng, what 3 words - address systems are integral to everyday life.

Other than hub-sites like Facebook, apps are the closest might have replaced the internet. But they haven't. QR codes perform a useful little function too, but aren't exactly memorable

I'd love to hear what science fiction writers and imagineers think might happen next, but it's hard to look past some sort of address system.

 

[Siusaidh]

Yeah, things are usually driven by the opportunity to print money, though sometimes in the course of history advances in technology overturn the whole table.

Who'd have thought all the blacksmiths and farriers and horse-driven transport systems would get usurped by cars.

 

[Kaleido]

I'm seeing some early hype about blockchain domains in the crypto space with new extensions such as .eth launching on decentralized blockchain networks like Ethereum. This article is a nice primer.

Language, in my opinion, is the greatest human invention. Domains are an inherently human and elegantly efficient method of digital navigation. As Martin said, postcodes and phone numbers were invented centuries ago but still play an integral part in the vast network of human communication, and I can't see domains being any different.

 

[Jiblob]

You have got to be kidding about "blockchain domains". What a load of cobblers. If you think that businesses will be happy to put their entire business on something that is gone the moment they lose their "private key" then you're having a laugh! The current system might not be perfect, but the answer isn't always 'the blockchain'. The system as it stands now works for a lot of people's interests in a positive way. Having a human custodian of the internet naming system instead of a computer is the answer and that's what we have now imho.

 

[BG]

In the future i envisage a blockchain platform that will act much like that of app ecosystem e.g. It will keep users within that environment and have its own naming rules which will not require domain names, just keywords or a complete new naming string which purely works within said platform.

Thinking out the box > Most people these days use their mobile phones / tables and have various apps which they use daily for tasks e.g. If I'm looking for a property i simply fire up the 'RightMove' app... And if I'm wanting to search the web i jump into my Google App (People rarely leave the app environment).

Now imagine if Google created it's own platform based on blockchain technology (which it will at some point)... and every search you do within Google, be it via mobile or desktop keeps you within its own ecosystem, effectively Google becomes its own web! Now imagine if Google created an algorithm which converts your domain (their side) into another string which people start to adopt over time e.g. breaks.com becomes just 'breaks' #breaks - Or imagine if websites how we perceive them now simply become 'Apps' and we flit between a new google platform / an applestore type environment

I 100% believe that over the next 10 years the internet as we know it is going to change massively!! including the naming rules and how we navigate to various destinations.. The internet needs to become more transparent, which overtime i believe it will be e.g. Users will be able to control every aspect of their privacy, whilst at the same time being able to view 'all data' logs and information gathered or connect to them whilst being a member of that site e.g. Facebook will be within its own blockchain and you'll be able to see a chain of advertisers who tried to target you, what the cost was? what the % was and where monies ended up and so on..

Just my thoughts..

 

[Jiblob]

Page 6 of this PDF from Google talks to your point about people not leaving apps:
https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/_qs/documents/6758/pwas-the-future-of-the-mobile-web.pdf

But they think the future is PWAs and lots of others do too:

https://qz.com/253618/most-smartphone-users-download-zero-apps-per-month/
https://medium.com/swlh/browsers-not-apps-are-the-future-of-mobile-c552752ff75
https://dev.to/stefandorresteijn/pwas-are-our-future-5591

PWAs are the future, not some blockchain crap imho.

 

[martin-s]

You have got to be kidding about "blockchain domains". What a load of cobblers.

Why? You can't see that you could be paid via acorndomains.eth rather than handing over a sort code and account number? It'd potentially be payment method agnostic and could be very clever.

 

[BG]

If PWA is the future then i'd be 'extremely' surprised if they don't create a PWA Blockchain as it makes sense to do so imo.

 

[Siusaidh]

Do you think the navigation to PWAs will in time dispense with domain names? I mean, at present I find what I'm looking for by search, or maybe just by keying in a possible domain name. And if I have customers, a domain name can be easily remembered so they can revisit you any time. I'm trying to get my head round whether domains will have a legacy usefulness, or whether there will be a new paradigm for addressing/navigation. I'm not techy, so I'm just asking.

 

[RobM]

The internet needs to become more transparent

So how would locking someone in to google's 'internet' make the internet more transparent? God forbid they ever get that kind of control.

 

[BG]

So how would locking someone in to google's 'internet' make the internet more transparent? God forbid they ever get that kind of control.

I'm thinking more from a blockchain perspective as you'd be able to monitor and control every aspect of user data and anything which interacts with that user too.

 

[Jiblob]

Why? You can't see that you could be paid via acorndomains.eth rather than handing over a sort code and account number? It'd potentially be payment method agnostic and could be very clever.

Definitely for that purpose (for geekoids only, of course), but not for actual domains for websites. No business is going to go for that and the average person surfing the internet won't go out of their way to surf the "blockchain internet".

The cobblers is when someone says that a domain name system "on the blockchain" will be better than the one we have now because of: censorship, non-decentralisation.

If PWA is the future then i'd be 'extremely' surprised if they don't create a PWA Blockchain as it makes sense to do so imo.

I would like to know what sense it makes to do it.

I'm thinking more from a blockchain perspective as you'd be able to monitor and control every aspect of user data and anything which interacts with that user too.

But you can, with a database or any other storage technologies.

 

[RobM]

'Blockchain. Suggesting increasingly bloated solutions to non-problems since 1992.'

 

[Jiblob]

I'm not completely against blockchain. I personally think that what Dan.com have done with "blockchain technology" seems quite sensible and innovative. It's something that can be public, needs to be crypographically verifiable so as not to be tampered with (contracts, domain ownership etc) and lives outside of the domain name system, automated and scalable. https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/dan-com

 

[RobM]

Why?