--- id: "blockchain-domain" kind: "glossary-term" title: "blockchain domain" language: "en" category: "Alternative naming systems" updated: "2026-10-10T10:28:55Z" canonical: "https://tldlog.com/glossary/blockchain-domain/" translations: es: "https://tldlog.com/es/glosario/dominio-blockchain/" de: "https://tldlog.com/de/glossar/blockchain-domain/" fr: "https://tldlog.com/fr/glossaire/domaine-blockchain/" it: "https://tldlog.com/it/glossario/dominio-blockchain/" pt-BR: "https://tldlog.com/pt/glossario/dominio-blockchain/" ru: "https://tldlog.com/ru/glossariy/blokcheyn-domen/" zh-Hans: "https://tldlog.com/zh/cihui/qukuailian-yuming/" --- # blockchain domain A name recorded on a blockchain, a shared digital ledger, rather than in the 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. 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 names do not apply to it. ## What a blockchain domain is 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, coordinated through IANA. The Internet Architecture Board (IAB) wrote in RFC 2826 (May 2000) that "there is no getting away from the unique root of the public DNS". 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 either. - **Different rules.** OCTO-034 states that "ICANN policies do not apply to such systems", so the 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 gives an expired .eth name a 90-day 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**, one of the earliest, a fork of Bitcoin. Its names end in .bit. - **ENS**, on the Ethereum blockchain, with names under .eth. Its registrars are smart contracts, programs on the blockchain that set the allocation rules. - **Handshake**, with its own blockchain and coin (HNS). Its registrations 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 proof. - **Unstoppable Domains.** In December 2023 the 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. Any 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 DNS resolvers, 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. 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's Applicant Guidebook describes a 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, another 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 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, 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's answer is RFC 9476 (September 2023), which reserves .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. ## Sources - [Challenges with Alternative Name Systems (OCTO-034)](https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/octo-034-27apr22-en.pdf) - [Introduction to Blockchain Name System Technologies (OCTO-039)](https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/octo-039-17oct24-en.pdf) - [The .alt Special-Use Top-Level Domain (RFC 9476)](https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc9476.txt) ## related terms - [ENS](https://tldlog.com/glossary/ens/) - [Handshake](https://tldlog.com/glossary/handshake/) - [Unstoppable Domains](https://tldlog.com/glossary/unstoppable-domains/) - [alternative root](https://tldlog.com/glossary/alternative-root/) - [name collision](https://tldlog.com/glossary/name-collision/)