What Brand Owners Need to Know Amid a Rise in Blockchain Domains

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Among the digital items and crypto collectibles that users can bid for and/or buy outright on non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces like Opensea and Rarible are a sweeping array of blockchain domain names. If you search for Chanel or Herms on OpenSea, for instance, you will find NFTs tied to domains bearing the brands famous names up for offer.Chanel.ethcurrently boasts a price tag of 300 ETH ($924,794), while hermes.eth can be bought for 250 ETH ($788,435.00). The same goes for domains bearing the trademarks of Gucci, Prada, Dior, Balenciaga, Rolex, and other similarly situated brands, along with companies ranging from sportswear titan Nike to Italian automaker Ferrari.

Ethereum Name Service (ENS)domains(i.e., those that end in .eth)represent unique addresses on the Ethereum blockchain, which can be used to easilyreceive any type of cryptocurrency and/or token, including NFTs, to a crypto wallet. These ENS domains and other decentralized domainsdo not function entirely differently than their .com counterparts in that,like the traditional DNS system, they act ashuman-readablenames for less straightforward addresses.

There are, however, some distinctions between DNS and blockchain-based domains from where the addresses point (typically to crypto wallets for crypto domains, but alsowebsites that reside on a decentralized internet) to how governance is handled. Unlike DNS domains, for instance,blockchain-based web domains are not governed by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and thus, are not subject to its procedures, such astheUniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy and the Uniform Rapid Suspension System.

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