Why should Web3 domains be free? 🌐

Let’s look at why domain renewal fees exist in the first place. This process was introduced in 1985, when the first domain, symbolics.com, was registered. 📅

Why do domain renewal fees exist? 💸

Managing the domain name system requires a complex technical infrastructure, including:
1. 🖥 Servers
2. 🏢 Data centers
3. 🛠 Network equipment and software
4. 🏢 Registrar offices
5. 💼 Employee salaries
6. 💳 Payment processors or gateways

Renewal fees help cover the costs of maintaining and upgrading this infrastructure. On top of that, they generate profit for everyone involved in the chain. 📈

But what about Web3 domains? 🤔

Let’s go through the same points in the context of Web3 domains:

1️⃣ Servers: We don’t need servers, because information about Web3 domains is stored in a smart contract rather than on centralized servers. We already pay a network fee, so charging extra for domain storage is unnecessary.
2️⃣ Data centers: We don’t need data centers, since we don’t have servers.
3️⃣ Network equipment and software: We have a smart contract that replaces the need for software and network equipment.
4️⃣ Registrar offices: They simply don’t exist in Web3. We eliminate intermediaries, just as we don’t need banks to send or store cryptocurrencies.
5️⃣ Employee salaries: There are no employees — all processes, including registration, renewal, transfer, and deletion of domains, are handled by the smart contract.
6️⃣ Payment processors or gateways: You send a transaction directly to the smart contract and register a domain yourself, so payment infrastructure and gateways are not needed.

The biggest scam in Web3 domains is ENS (Ethereum Name Service). Not only are you charged renewal fees, but you’re also told that they are necessary. 🤥 Look at the HNS (Handshake) blockchain, where there are no renewal fees: you only need to send a transaction once every two years to confirm that you still own the domain. 🕒

If someone claims that fees are needed to release domains after they expire, that’s a lie. 🚫 Blockchain was created to decentralize and eliminate intermediaries. We don’t need registration fees, offices, employees, or data centers to maintain a domain zone registry. We have the blockchain, smart contracts, and validators. 🔗✨

ENS turned .eth domains into its business and stole your Web3 freedom. You don’t own .eth domains — you rent them. The community asks to reduce prices for three- and four-character domains, but decisions are made by a single person (Nick), and no one can change anything. Is this a DAO? Is this decentralization? 🤷‍♂️

How could it be instead?
1. Domains would go through an auction where anyone could buy them.
2. The Ethereum received from auction winners would be burned, reducing the circulating supply of ETH.
3. Changes and decisions would be voted on by regular Ethereum validators (not the ENS DAO), who have no personal financial interest in extracting profit from the protocol or the community.
4. The smart contract would be maintained by regular Ethereum developers.
5. No renewal fees — only an annual confirmation that you still have access to the domain.

Isn’t this what a public good should look like?

Good examples of decentralized blockchain-based domain registries:
• HNS ✅
• TON ✅

How it should not be:
• ENS ❌
• UD ❌

Conclusion:
Web3 domains should be free, because managing them does not require the costs that exist in the traditional domain name system.

We talk a lot about web3 domains on this channel — usually in the context of
“human-readable names instead of 0x…”, branding, identity, aesthetics.

But right now domains are getting a new role, and that’s why the whole market suddenly feels alive again 👀
👉 domains are becoming identities not just for people, but for autonomous agents.

That’s why everyone is suddenly talking about agents, AI, automation —
and that’s exactly why ENS and domains like .ton end up right in the middle of the hype.

Let’s break it down calmly 👇

⸻

🤖 What is an agent in blockchain?

An agent is an autonomous software entity that:
• can make decisions (rule-based or AI-driven),
• acts on its own on-chain,
• signs transactions,
• interacts with smart contracts,
• and works 24/7 without a human.

In simple terms:

Agent = wallet + logic + the right to act independently

This is not a Telegram bot.
It’s a full-fledged participant of the blockchain.

⸻

⚙️ How it works (very simplified)
1. The agent has an address and keys
2. It has logic (scripts or an LLM)
3. It reads data → decides → sends transactions itself

Basically:

we gave a program money and allowed it to live its own economic life

⸻

🌐 And this is where domains come in

The problem:
agents are just addresses like 0x4fA9...

The solution:
they need identity

That’s where ENS comes in.

⸻

🧠 Why do agents need ENS?

For agents, ENS is not about “a pretty name”.
It’s an identity layer.
• trader.eth instead of 0xA3F9…
• readable identity for:
• other agents
• protocols
• DAOs
• ability to:
• attach reputation
• define roles
• issue subnames for tasks

👉 In essence:

ENS = a passport + a username for an agent

Without ENS, an agent is just a wallet.
With ENS, it’s a recognizable digital entity you can interact with.

⸻

🔵 What about .ton?

The same direction is starting to form inside the TON ecosystem.

.ton domains:
• provide readable names instead of raw addresses
• can represent:
• wallets
• services
• and potentially agents

TON is already:
• optimized for mass adoption
• fast and cheap
• deeply integrated with mini-apps and automation

The logical next step:

agents with .ton domains living directly inside the TON economy

Same concept:
domain = identity for autonomous software,
just in a different network with different UX.

⸻

🧩 Why this matters (beyond hype)

Agents with domains can:
• manage DeFi strategies
• vote in DAOs
• pay each other for services
• purchase APIs, data, compute
• act as “employees” without humans

The economy slowly shifts toward:

machine ↔ machine,
and the domain becomes the machine’s name.

⸻

🧠 One-line takeaway
• Agents are autonomous blockchain participants
• They need identity, not just addresses
• ENS and .ton are becoming:
• not a UX feature,
• but a core layer for the agent economy

We’re not just looking at domains anymore.
We’re looking at names for future digital entities.

💎 Tokens.com sold for $2.245M — pure domain deal

Realbotix Corp. officially announced the sale of the Tokens.com domain for $2,245,000.

📌 Key details:
— This is a domain-only sale, no operating business involved
— Bundle includes: Tokens.com, TokensArt.com, TokensGaming.com, TokensTrade.com, TokensTrading.com
— Buyer: Bed Bath & Beyond, Inc.
— Payments scheduled through January 2027

💡 Why this matters:
The domains were not on the company’s balance sheet, meaning the deal represents almost pure profit.

🚀 Takeaway for the TON & ENS ecosystem:
Strong single-word naming assets still command multi-million-dollar valuations — independent of hype cycles, chains, or narratives.

If Web2 domains sell for $2.2M,
premium .ton .eth names are clearly undervalued.

Digital identity is just getting started.

Punycode in .ton domains is something that can’t be undone

I initially wanted to write a short post about punycode in .ton domains. But as I thought it through, it became clear that without context it would be a conversation about nothing. In the end, I had to start from afar and look at the issue more broadly, because in reality a much more important crossroads is emerging right now — where TON DNS is actually heading.

Punycode hasn’t disappeared from this post; it’s here and discussed in detail. But this is no longer a post “only about punycode”. This is a post about strategy, about two possible development paths for TON DNS, and about how the choice of this path directly affects everything — including punycode.

Within the TON team and among key developers (🦝), there is no desire to support punycode. That’s understandable: the topic is inconvenient, controversial, and comes with many consequences. But at some point it becomes clear that the question is no longer whether punycode is liked or not. The real question is which path TON will choose.

In essence, TON DNS has two fundamentally different development scenarios, and it is this choice that directly determines the fate of punycode, emoji domains, and the entire .ton naming market.

First scenario — entering the global internet and obtaining the .ton domain via ICANN

If the TON Foundation decides to develop .ton as a full-fledged top-level domain and applies through ICANN:

Some argue that it would be better to spend the proceeds from the domain sale on registering the .ton zone with ICANN. This way, the sites would become available both at ton://dubai.ton and at http://dubai.ton.

TON DNS becomes part of the global DNS system. This means it will work in regular browsers, resolve at the internet level, and exist beyond Telegram and TON’s local interfaces.

In this scenario, the rules are no longer set by TON. The global internet operates under browser rules, and browsers — Safari, Chrome, Firefox — support punycode by default. If a domain is registered in punycode, is technically valid, and exists in DNS, it will open in a browser. This cannot be undone by a decision of “Tolya Enot”.

The cost of this path is also obvious. Under ICANN rules, punycode in new gTLDs is allowed, but only for national scripts. Emoji in punycode are prohibited from registration. This means that if .ton enters the global DNS, punycode will work, but only for national alphabets. Emoji domains will most likely be closed for registration in the ICANN version of the domain. What happens to already registered emoji domains remains unclear.

Punycode will work in all browsers, but the ecosystem will be forced to comply with global internet rules and all the consequences that come with them. One of these consequences is UDRP.

In short, UDRP is when a domain can be taken away if abuse of someone else’s trademark is proven.

In this scenario, punycode is not an option and not a bug, but an inevitable part of the architecture. You can’t “not support” it; you can only accept it as a given.

It’s also worth addressing emoji separately. There is often a sense that emoji domains are impossible in principle. That’s not true.

In the global internet, ccTLDs already exist — national domain zones where emoji are allowed and work via punycode. Since in national domains the registration rules are set by the local registry rather than ICANN, such domains have long existed and open in browsers. Examples include .to, .ws, .fm, .kz, and .uz. This once again shows that the issue is not technical, but regulatory.

Also, emoji domains exist even in the oldest domain zone, .com. There are only four such emoji domains, plus 29 single-character domains. They were registered before ICANN banned the registration of emoji domains in punycode for gTLDs. You can explore this topic in more detail here: http://www.♨️.com

Second scenario — remaining a local system

If the TON Foundation does not apply to ICANN and keeps .ton exclusively as a domain within the TON blockchain, Telegram, and proprietary browsers, the situation changes fundamentally. In this case, .ton remains a local identifier of the ecosystem rather than a part of the global internet.

Here, TON gains freedom. It can allow or prohibit punycode, support emoji or, on the contrary, close them off, and experiment with display rules, registration logic, and market mechanics. All of this becomes a matter of internal decisions rather than requirements imposed by external infrastructure.

However, this path has a ceiling. A local domain, no matter how convenient or functional it may be, does not become part of the global internet. It remains an identifier within TON — important and valuable, but limited to the boundaries of a single ecosystem.

It is important to understand that neither of these scenarios is “good” or “bad.” They are simply different. And each of them affects the future of TON DNS and the fate of punycode in its own way.

Against this background, ENS is often mentioned, but Ethereum Name Service is a special case. ENS cannot obtain .eth in the global DNS because this domain is already reserved for Ethiopia. ENS remains a blockchain domain not by choice, but by limitation. TON does not have such a limitation — and that is precisely why the choice is so acute.

Conclusion

TON DNS is currently at a unique point. It can either remain a flexible and experimental system within the blockchain, or enter the global internet with all the consequences that such a step entails. And it is this choice that will determine whether punycode becomes a manageable feature of a local ecosystem or something that can no longer be undone.

So the question is not really only about punycode.

It is a question of strategy.

How do you think TON should proceed?

Should it obtain the .ton domain via ICANN and become part of the global internet?

Or should .ton remain a local domain of the TON ecosystem, with its own logic and rules?

This decision will determine how TON DNS develops going forward.

Your wallet / nickname is your identity in Web3.
Your finances, gifts, identification, accounts, property rights, and more will all be tied to a single name on the blockchain.

Your wallet can be name.t.me (a Web2 domain issued by ICANN) or name.ton (a Web3 domain that cannot be censored or taken away).

Your wallet cannot be 8888.t.me, but it can be 8888.ton.

Numbers are the holy grail. We already see sales of usernames like y666 and x888 for serious money — and they are bought specifically because they include numbers.
And luckily for us collectors, Telegram rules forbid a username from starting with a number.

The 10k and 100k clubs have a long road ahead, but when their time comes, they will explode very fast.

We’ve added a valuable digital asset to our portfolio — 1️⃣6️⃣8️⃣.eth.

The acquisition was completed at $450.
Short numeric .eth names have limited supply, are globally neutral, and maintain strong liquidity within the Web3 ecosystem.

The domain has been renewed for 10 years at just $5 per year ($50 total), reinforcing our long-term investment horizon and conviction in the asset.

With this addition, our portfolio now holds 4️⃣0️⃣3️⃣ digital domains from the emoji999 collection, representing approximately 40% of the total supply.

Strategic accumulation. Limited issuance. Digital scarcity.🚀🚀🚀

Why .ton Domains Are Fundamental — Not Just Another Asset

When people look at TON, many still see it mainly through the lens of Telegram.

But if you zoom out and think long-term, TON is not just an extension of a messenger.
It is a full blockchain infrastructure.

And infrastructure always outlives interfaces.

Telegram may be the entry point.
But TON is:
• finance
• payments
• DeFi
• NFTs
• digital identity
• smart contracts
• marketplaces
• DAOs
• investment instruments
• tokenization of assets

It is an ecosystem.

And every ecosystem has a base layer.
Something without which everything else cannot function.

⸻

Addressing Is the Foundation of Any Network

The internet cannot exist without DNS.
A blockchain cannot exist without addresses.

Addressing is the foundation.

.ton domains are not “just a picture”, not a temporary trend, and not merely a collectible.

They are the addressing technology of the blockchain itself.

Every transaction.
Every wallet.
Every service.
Every smart contract.

Everything ultimately depends on an identifier.

And the simpler and clearer that identifier is — the higher its value.
Hi @club10k 👋

⸻

Why This Is Bigger Than It Looks

Gifts, NFTs, collections — these are the cultural layer.
They matter. They create momentum.

But domains are the base layer.

They are:
• a readable address instead of a long hash
• identity within the network
• an entry point into Web3
• a universal identifier

If TON grows as a financial and technological ecosystem,
addressing will always be required.

Always.

⸻

The Long-Term Perspective

Globally speaking:

Telegram is an application.
TON is infrastructure.

Applications can change.
Infrastructure remains.

If TON evolves into a large-scale financial and digital system,
.ton domains become its “digital land”.

Not a trend.
Not hype.
But foundational ownership inside the network.

⸻

Why This Is an Asset

Because:
1. It is a finite resource.
2. It is a mandatory element of the ecosystem.
3. It represents digital ownership.
4. It is identity.
5. It simplifies transactions.
6. It signals status within a growing network.

The bigger the network becomes — the more valuable its addresses are.

That’s how the internet works.
That’s how blockchains work.

⸻

The Bottom Line

.ton domains are not just another product.
They are a fundamental layer of TON.

And if you look years ahead,
addressing is what remains — even when trends, interfaces, and formats change.

We are not competing with other assets inside TON.
We are talking about the base.

The foundation.

Ownership in infrastructure.

And that is why .ton domains are not just a technology —
they are a long-term digital asset.