Ready to fight Unstoppable Domains — Namecheap appears

Namecheap’s CEO appears to throw weight behind .wallet and defending the Handshake blockchain domain system.

Logo for Handshake domains includes a stylized H and the word handshake

For a day, it appeared that blockchain domain firm Unstoppable Domains picked the right fight to argue its first-to-offer-a-blockchain-TLD-gets-exclusive-rights argument.

The firm sued Gateway.io, a registry/registrar technology provider for Handshake domains, following Gateway.io started offering .wallet addresses. Unstoppable Domains also offers .wallet domains.

Gateway seemed to shutter its operations quickly in the face of the lawsuit.

But now Namecheap, the second largest retail operator, appears ready to take on Unstoppable. In a tweet yesterday, Namecheap CEO Richard Kirkendall stated he was going to help protect .wallet and the Handshake system against Unstoppable Domains:

#stoppabledomains

— Richard Kirkendall (@NamecheapCEO) August 2, 2022

Namecheap is a big supporter of the Handshake system. It owns Namebase, which competes with Gateway.io. It also registered many Handshake top level domains and is the largest registrar to offer second level Handshake registrations to clients.

Unstoppable Domains didn’t sue the registrant of the .wallet Handshake registration. Although I haven’t been able to confirm this, it’s conceivable that second level .wallet registrations will now be available through Namebase. Namecheap could also offer the domain to its millions of clients. (It by now sells Handshake addresses ending in .ewallet.)

And Kirkendall is not one to stand down in a fight. He spent years and significant funds fighting back against Facebook (Meta Platforms) over disclosing the identity of domain registrants.

Grab the popcorn. This is going to be one to watch.

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