blockchain domain
A name recorded on a blockchain, a shared digital ledger, rather than in the DNS Domain Name System The internet's directory that links domain names to computer addresses. Full definition of DNS. It is often used to link a wallet address or content. Blockchain domains are not part of the DNS root, so standard internet software cannot reach them without extra tools.
- category
- Alternative naming systems
A blockchain domain is a name, for example one ending in .eth, that is recorded on a blockchain, a shared digital ledger, instead of in the DNS. It mostly gives a long cryptocurrency wallet address a name people can remember. It looks like a web address, but ordinary browsers cannot open it without extra software, and the rules for normal domain name A readable internet name made of labels separated by dots. Full definition of domain name do not apply to it.
What a blockchain domain is
ICANN Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers The nonprofit that coordinates the global DNS and gTLD policy. Full definition of ICANN’s Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO), its technical office, describes a blockchain name system as one “that has some visible similarities to the global DNS but that is somehow associated with a blockchain”. ICANN says these OCTO papers are neutral and contain no ICANN policy. News reports also call such names Web3 or crypto domains.
They exist because blockchain items are identified by long strings of letters and digits that are hard to remember. The main use is naming wallets, and also non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and content on the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS).
How it differs from a DNS domain
- One root. The DNS has a single root zone The top of the DNS, listing every TLD and its name servers. Full definition of root zone, coordinated through IANA Internet Assigned Numbers Authority The functions that coordinate the root zone, IP addresses and protocol numbers. Full definition of IANA. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) wrote in RFC Request for Comments A numbered document in the series recording the internet's technical standards and practices. Full definition of RFC 2826 (May 2000) that “there is no getting away from the unique root of the public DNS resolver A DNS resolver open for anyone on the internet to use. Full definition of public DNS resolver”. Blockchain endings such as .eth and .bit are not in it, and as of October 2026 none is in IANA’s Special-Use Domain Names registry The central database and system of a top-level domain, or loosely the organization that runs it. Full definition of registry either.
- Different rules. OCTO-034 ICANN's 2022 technical paper on naming systems outside the DNS. Full definition of OCTO-034 states that “ICANN policies do not apply to such systems”, so the UDRP Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy ICANN's out-of-court process for trademark disputes over domain names. Full definition of UDRP and ICANN’s transfer rules do not cover these names.
- Different reach. Without specific software or settings, a user who follows such a link sees an error saying the domain cannot be found.
- Different life cycle. Each system sets its own rules for creating, renewing, transferring and deleting names, and its own payment, in cryptocurrency or ordinary money. As of October 2026, ENS Ethereum Name Service A naming system on Ethereum, outside the DNS root. Full definition of ENS gives an expired .eth name a 90-day grace period A window after a registry action when it can be reversed, usually with a credit to the registrar. Full definition of grace period, then a 21-day auction in which the price falls.
Main systems: ENS, Handshake and others
OCTO-034 (April 2022) names four systems:
- Namecoin The first blockchain naming system, with names ending in .bit. Full definition of Namecoin, one of the earliest, a fork of Bitcoin. Its names end in .bit.
- ENS, on the Ethereum blockchain, with names under .eth. Its registrar A company that registers domain names for customers with the registry. Full definition of registrar are smart contracts, programs on the blockchain that set the allocation rules.
- Handshake A blockchain project running its own TLD root outside the DNS. Full definition of Handshake, with its own blockchain and coin (HNS). Its registration Obtaining the right to use a domain name for a set period. Full definition of registration are top-level names, won in sealed-bid auctions. Existing root zone names and popular domains were reserved; their DNS holders can claim them with a DNSSEC Domain Name System Security Extensions Digital signatures that prove DNS answers are genuine and unchanged. Full definition of DNSSEC proof.
- Unstoppable Domains A company known for blockchain names that is now also an ICANN-accredited domain registrar. Full definition of Unstoppable Domains. In December 2023 the SSAC Security and Stability Advisory Committee ICANN's expert committee on security and stability of naming and addressing. Full definition of SSAC described it as a company that registers names only through its own interface and listed its endings as .888, .bitcoin, .blockchain, .coin, .crypto, .dao, .nft, .wallet, .x and .zil. As of October 2026, it has also been an ICANN-accredited registrar of DNS domains since 15 August 2024.
ENS can also carry ordinary DNS names. Since 2021, the holder of a DNS name can use it in ENS by enabling DNSSEC and adding a TXT record Text record A DNS record holding text, often for domain verification and email security. Full definition of TXT record. Any TLD top-level domain The last part of a domain name, after the final dot. Full definition of TLD that supports DNSSEC works, and the name stays a DNS domain.
How names are resolved
Resolution, finding the data behind a name, is not standardized for blockchain names. Systems use web services, their own protocols or modified resolver The DNS server that looks up domain names on behalf of users. Full definition of resolver, and the usual answer is a single wallet address. OCTO-034 describes several ways to bridge to ordinary software (web gateways, browsers, extensions, resolvers), all with drawbacks: single points of failure, software that is not kept up to date, or names that work on one Wi-Fi network and not another.
Modified DNS resolvers cannot check blockchain answers with DNSSEC, because those names have no link to the root zone’s chain of trust The linked DNSSEC signatures from the root zone down to a domain. Full definition of chain of trust. And a blockchain name is not needed to name a wallet: since 2024 the DNS has a WALLET record type for publishing one.
Collisions with real TLDs
The 2026 Round ICANN's second round of applications for new generic top-level domains. Full definition of 2026 Round’s Applicant Guidebook The rulebook for applying for a new gTLD in an ICANN round. Full definition of Applicant Guidebook describes a name collision When a private network name clashes with a public DNS name. Full definition of name collision as a name “intended to be resolved in one naming system” being “inadvertently resolved in a different naming system”. Blockchain systems choose endings without asking anyone, and only some of them have informal, nonbinding agreements. OCTO-034 concludes that collisions with the DNS “will necessarily occur”.
In SAC130 (July 2025) the SSAC gave a hypothetical example: a user who learns mywallet.example in a blockchain app and types it into a browser queries the DNS; if .example were a gTLD generic top-level domain A top-level domain not tied to a country, run under ICANN contracts. Full definition of gTLD, another registrant The person or organization that holds a domain name registration. Full definition of registrant could send the user to a fraudulent site (.example is reserved and will never be delegated).
SAC130 asked that the 2026 collision review be allowed to consider “known, widely used alternative naming systems”. As of October 2026, the final Guidebook applies ICANN’s Name Collision Risk Management framework to collisions “between the global DNS and other naming systems”: every applied-for string The characters an applicant asks ICANN to approve as a new top-level domain. Full definition of applied-for string gets an Initial Assessment overseen by the Technical Review Team (TRT), and high-risk strings go on a Collision String List.
As of Reveal Day The day ICANN publishes who applied for which new gTLD strings. Full definition of Reveal Day, 7 October 2026, .bit had 11 competing applications. Strings matching endings the SSAC attributed to Unstoppable Domains in 2023 had some too: .crypto 5, .wallet 4, .dao 4, .coin 3, .nft 2 and .bitcoin 2. The evaluation outcome is not known.
The IETF Internet Engineering Task Force The open body that writes internet standards such as DNS, EPP and RDAP. Full definition of IETF’s answer is RFC 9476 (September 2023), which reserves .alt A reserved ending for names used outside the DNS. Full definition of .alt for names outside the DNS. Existing projects are recommended, not required, to move to it.
Risks and limits
- The same name can belong to one person in a blockchain system and another in the DNS, with “no logical tie” between them, as OCTO-039 puts it.
- Lost keys mean lost control. For ENS, the SSAC notes there is “nothing like a registrar” to turn to.