Ethereum name service launches .ETH domains auction, and domains like usfederalgovernment.eth are priced at $1.8M

The Ethereum name service has a pretty logical idea. Rather than sending and receiving money at long meaningless addresses like this:

they are promoting the .ETH domain extension. It’s a lot like the move from IP addresses to domain names. Just like domain names helped with adoption of the world wide web, they could now help with the adoption of more consumer use of the Ethereum blockchain.

Here’s the details:

Over the weekend, the Ethereum Name Service launched an auction for short .eth domain names on the OpenSea decentralized marketplace. All three to six-character-long domain names that were not among the 194 approved during the reservation period that closed in mid-August are now up for grabs, and can be bid upon using ETH cryptocurrency.

The idea, if it catches on, is to help facilitate greater consumer adoption by enabling the use of easily recognizable names—such as “satoshi.eth” (currently going for 1,500 ETH at auction)—to receive tokens and perform transactions on the Ethereum blockchain.(Source – Decrypt.co)

Of course, there’s really nothing stopping anyone from using any domain name in any extension from doing the same thing but .ETH certainly seems like the most logical choice. At the same time, the prices for these domains seem pretty steep – okay in some cases they’re absolutely ridiculous, like usfederalgovernment.eth which is priced at over $1.8M, or antifascistaction.eth…also priced over $1.8M.

While I’m guessing some of these names will sell, I think a lot of them are wildly overpriced. All that being said, I can see .ETH taking off, it does make sense – if I’m going to send money to someone having a word or even a string of easy to remember numbers is a heck of a lot easier than a crazy long string of letters and numbers.

What do you think? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!

Morgan Linton

Morgan Linton