web3, ens and trademarks

Trademarks + Web3. 1/🧵 // @vrypan→

Web3 will bring new identity systems, like @domains_ens. Your ENS domain will be the way for others to verify it's you, it will probably be the way social networks will verify the identity of your brand, it will be the address where your clients will use to pay you. 2/ // @vrypan→

The thing is that Web3 is decentralised and to a large extent, anonymous. Which means that your trademark will be really hard to claim.

What can you do against the ETH address that holds your companyname.eth? Sue them? Good luck. 3/ // @vrypan→

Maybe ask ENS to take the domain away?

"[...] the root key holders have locked control of the .eth registrar contract, which means that even keyholders cannot affect the ownership of .eth domains." docs.ens.domains/frequently-as... 4/ // @vrypan→

So, here's the obvious advise: make sure you claim your brand-related .eth domains now, before someone else does. Smart companies already did.

Or buy them if someone else claimed them already: Most probably it will cost you less now than in the future. 5/5 // @vrypan→

Of course, all this may make no sense to you. ENS, .eth, web3, wtf are they?

Remember: Domain names made no sense to you or the people that were in your shoes back in the 90s, when the web was starting. But a couple of decades later, we got to this: The top 25 most expensive domain names.

So, find someone who knows about these things and pay them to handle it for you.

There's one thing you can be sure of: When all this is common sense, when your kids will have their own .eth address, then your brand/corporate .eth domain will cost much much more to buy back. And this time, it won't take decades to get there.