Unstoppable Domains chooses integration over competition with ENS

Unstoppable Domains, which integrated the sale of Ethereum Name Service domain names on its platform Monday, will not be marking up .eth names. The company said it will be selling them at cost, plus gas fees. 

In fact, ENS founder Nick Johnson told Blockworks all sales of .eth names go directly to the ENS DAO.

Unstoppable is marketing the move by saying it’s expanding the Web3 community in “creating a one-stop shop for Web3 domains.” Users can now buy .eth, .nft, .crypto, .polygon and other domains all in one place. 

When the company was asked if integrating .eth names on Unstoppable represents a consolidation, a spokesperson said no. She did admit that Unstoppable and the Ethereum Name Service have been competitors in the past. 

“Ultimately we want to support the most important naming systems and blockchains in Web3, including .eth,” Unstoppable’s head of communications Nora Chan told Blockworks via email.

Chan also clarified that there isn’t any sort of active collaboration between ENS and Unstoppable.

“While ENS was informed of our plans, this isn’t a partnership,” Chan wrote. “We’re simply integrating .eth into Unstoppable Domains, expanding their functionalities, and enabling users to buy and, eventually, manage these domains to purchase via the platform.”

Johnson also confirmed that there wasn’t direct involvement from ENS with Unstoppable’s decision to integrate his organization’s native domain names. 

Johnson pointed out that as more .eth names are sold, it means more money for the ENS DAO, which ultimately “allows ENS to do more and be more.”

“ENS is a permissionless protocol, meaning anyone can integrate it directly without needing our involvement. We’re not surprised that Unstoppable Domains has elected this approach,” Johnson told Blockworks.

However, just because Unstoppable isn’t directly profiting off the sale of .eth names, it doesn’t mean the company is doing this entirely for free. 

Unstoppable can make money off this integration through its auto renewal service. Just like a normal Web2 website, you have to renew your claim to your Web3 domain name every so often. 

Unstoppable is charging $4 per renewal period for .eth user names, according to a statement. 

The company could also profit off individuals who decide to buy multiple domains, Chan told Blockworks. This means if someone bought an .eth, .nft and .crypto usernames in a bundle, Unstoppable would see cash flow. 

Additionally, Unstoppable is offering customers a way to secure their domain names through a vault product. It’s managed by Unstoppable, but users retain full ownership of their domains, according to the company. Prices for a vault range from $4 a year for a domain worth less than $100, all the way up to $99 a year for unlimited domain storage.

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