Why I’m Joining Unstoppable Domains

Just before sitting down to write this I stumbled across a brand new post by one of my favorite internet thinkers, Chris Dixon. In this post he says:

“The most common mistake people make when evaluating new technologies is to focus too much on the “doing old things better” category. For example, when evaluating the potential of blockchains, people sometimes focus on things like cheaper and faster global payments, which are important and necessary but only the beginning. What’s even more exciting are the new things you simply couldn’t create before…”

Unstoppable Domains is a decentralized domain registry and registrar.

In other words, Unstoppable creates and sells website URLs. Unlike our current options (GoDaddy, Google Domains, etc.) these domains are 100% user controlled. They can never be revoked, taken down, expired, or covered up. Furthermore, they’re the perfect aggregator for the scattered parts of our digital identities. Those two uses may be hard to wrap your head around, but that fuzziness is part of the beauty.

To lean on Chris Dixon once more…

“[Products like these] often start out looking toy-like, strange, unserious, expensive, and sometimes even dangerous. Over time, the products steadily improve and the world gradually embraces them.”

Decentralized domains are certainly toy-like, strange, and unserious. But much of that is because they’re fundamentally different from anything we’ve had before. And those differences open up a whole new world of possibilities.

If I stand on my tiptoes and squint, I can just barely see new forms of personal identity, free speech, and digital commerce looking back at me over the horizon. I believe that decentralized domains could be the key that unlocks them all.

I could be wrong. Those hazy visions I see on the horizon could be nothing more than a mirage. But at the same time, they could not be.

And that glimmer of possibility is something worth chasing. 🤘