Unstoppable Domains, a San Francisco-based tech startup building domains on blockchains, has launched additional $1 million to help wallets, browsers and decentralized applications integrate blockchain domains. Back in May, the startup raised $4 million from Draper Associates and Boost VC to launch .Zil and .Crypto domains on Ethereum. Unstoppable Domains then connects the new .zip and crypto domains to users’ public cryptocurrency address, allowing cryptocurrency users to easily send funds. To date, the startup has sold more than 150,000 domains.
With blockchain domain, users can now use their blockchain domain for payments in wallets such as Coinomi and Trust Wallet. The goal of the $1,000,000 grant program is to accelerate blockchain domain adoption across all types of applications, including browsers and decentralized applications.
Unlike traditional .com, domains, blockchain domains are domain asset on a blockchain that replaces cryptocurrency addresses with human-readable names. It enables users to use their .zil and .crypto domain name when receiving crypto payments while improving their overall user experience.
For example, if you want to pay someone using Bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency, you ask for the person’s cryptocurrency address (for example, a bitcoin address will look something like “1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2”), you then go into your wallet and copy an address and paste it into an email, and send to the payer, who then opens the email, copy/paste the address into your wallet, and complete the payment. Blockchain domain eliminates this problem in favor of a more memorable and less mistake-prone domain.
In addition to simplifying cryptocurrency payment, blockchain domains can also be used to build censorship resistant websites. Traditional domain assets are stored on your behalf by custodians like Godaddy and Google Domains. But a blockchain domain is stored in your cryptocurrency wallet and controlled by you so no company or court order can take it.
“The cryptocurrency community is quickly adopting blockchain domains, but we want to make it even easier for apps to integrate blockchain domains. This grant program can help wallets, browsers and other apps embrace them sooner. The more apps that support blockchain domains, the more useful they are to users.” – CEO, Matt Gould
Unstoppable Domains $1 Million Grant Program follows on the heels of its recent $250,000 allocation. Recent grantees include Atomic Wallet, imToken, Guarda Wallet.
Founded in 2018 by Bogdan Gusiev, Brad Kam, Braden Pezeshki, and Matthew Gould, Unstoppable Domains launches domains secured by blockchains and builds uncensorable websites. With Unstoppable Domains, users can register for the .zil domain extension, enabling them to create websites that leverage the decentralized storage network, InterPlanetary File System, for data storage. Unstoppable Domains is backed by Draper Associates and Boost VC and has received grants from the Ethereum Foundation and the Zilliqa Foundation.
Below is a video overview of Blockchain domain.
