So there’s a new domain name craze going on in the crypto world and it’s not .COM – it’s Y.at. If you’re scratching your head, I’m doing the same but I think I’m starting to understand it a bit more. Today on Twitter one of my fellow apes posted the following tweet, he was pretty jazzed about a Y.at domain he ended up with:
In this case, someone is actually buying a five emoji domain name and it’s not on a .COM, it’s actually a subdomain of Y.at. Now you might be really scratching your head and thinking, wait – if the person who owns Y.at ever decides to just ditch the domain or not renew, everyone that paid money for a Y.at domain, yup – poof gone.
If you want to have your mind blown a little more, I wrote an article about some very pricey Y.at domain sales, here are some highlights:
You are reading this right, the rocket ship emoji, followed by the moon subdomain of Y.at sold for $200,000, which is more than domains like Cluster.com, Limit.com, and blockbuster .IO sales like Metaverse.io. Something’s happening here and it’s hard to ignore – a marketing machine is in motion and it has captivated the crypto and NFT community.
So what the heck are people using these emoji Y.at domains for? Well Y.at has a pretty big vision, they want these domains to become your hub online – it’s how people connect with you, and pay you. Here’s the skinny from their website:
Yat lets you use emojis as your universal username and identity on the internet. Imagine being known as 🔥🐍 or 🤖👻👑 instead of coffeequeen98 or jake2456@emailxyz.com.
By owning a Yat – let’s say 🌊🔱🌴 – it’s yours forever. You are the ~only~ one on earth who owns these emojis.
The possibilities are endless with Yat. You can receive payments, use it on your socials, and eventually much more. Your Yat can be used as a link like this: https://y.at/🌊🔱🌴 (click it to see it!) and automatically redirect visitors to any website you want.(Source – emojis.y.at)
The thing I don’t exactly get is how they can guarantee that “it’s yours forever” – they own the domain name so it’s really theirs forever isn’t it? If you wanted to have something forever, wouldn’t you want to buy the same string of emojis but with a domain name behind it that you own?
Personally, I think this is a lot of marketing and hype, but sometimes that’s what it takes to push for a fundamental change in how people do things. But you guys know me, I’m not a believer in emoji domains whether it’s a Handshake emoji, Y.at emoji, or .COM emoji, I think the habit change isn’t going to happen. I could be wrong (it has happened before maybe once 😂 ) but I’m sticking with good old words.
What do you think about Y.at, is this the beginning of something big or just a big bubble? I want to hear from you, comment and let your voice be heard!
