NNS Mainnet Review and the Value of Names

NNS Mainnet Review

It have been 3 days since the Neo Name Service Mainnet launch. I just got my firsts Neo names as I bid early on.

You can view the platform here:
https://wallet.nel.group/#/login
(If you encounter errors, try clearing your browser's cache first.)

The interface is neat and easy to follow. Honestly i haven't even read any tutorial or even try the testnet but i find it easy to use. There are some problems though that occurred, like "missing" auctions / balances but they have been fixed.

For me, it was a success. The platform garnered 7,000 names for auctions within the first 3 days. The highest bids namely "crypto.neo" and "wallet.neo", are amounting to 1000 GAS each. That is about $5000 for a single name as i write this article.

It's good that the team change the minimum characters from 6 to 2 on the first day of launch.

There is no fee on opening a name for auction, but you need to bid at least 0.1 if you want to have the name.

Just some tips

Hurry! Bid on the first week, because for every GAS you spent on a name you win you will get 70 NNC after the domain mining period. This will be 50 NNCs on the next week. You will receive NNC even if you just spent 0.1 gas, of which will be equal to 7 NNCs. Said NNCs will be distributed at the end of mining period.

Acquiring a name in the first 2 weeks is I can say almost risk-free. You only pay 10% if you lose a bid.

In the NNS Events explorer you will see a summary of Names for auction, of which you can order them by the highest bid or time the auction was opened. You can also see the CGAS pool of which if you do the math, can somehow estimate the dividend you will receive if you hold NNC, which are distributed every month.

Because NEO blockchain is public, I usually check the highest bidder's address on the explorer to see if he has enough GAS to outbid me. This does not always work as they can top up the wallet anytime, but I'm taking chances.

Notabe facts

You can map many domain name to your address, but obviously you cannot map many address to a single name.

You can map a name to an address you don't even own. Yes, this is the best part of it. You can assign code names you prefer to different addresses to simplify your NEO blockchain experience.

Another advantage of having an alias for an address is security. Recently, there have been clipboard malware spreading programmed to change the Bitcoin address you are sending to. Because traditional addresses are hard to remember, hackers have successfully hijacked millions of addresses. With NEO and NNS, this will be unlikely to happen. With aliases, you can easily identify to what address you are really transacting with.

NNS Going Ahead

O3, Math Wallet and SEA Wallet already committed to support Neo Names.

NNC will soon be tradable on exchanges after the mining period.

Also, by the end of October, NNS team will be releasing a mobile version of NNS auction. Though even now, NNS bidding is already supported by Math Wallet.

The secondary market is planned to be released early next year. This will be like the "Name Bazaar" of Neo Names. But unlike Ethereum Names, fees collected will also be distributed to NNC holders.

Holding NNC will also give you proportional amount of tokens for the Ontology Naming Service when it launch.

The Value of a Name

The value of NNS is not just to further blockchain mainstream adoption.

Branding has also become valuable asset, that companies are willing to pay millions to get a name they want. Just in recent times, companies pays millions of dollars just to acquire a name.

In 2010, the domain name "Insurance.com" was sold for $35.6 million, yet the most expensive is "Cars.com" sold for $872 million but not just publicly reported. You can read more here: https://www.godaddy.com/garage/the-top-20-most-expensive-domain-names/

Just this year, domain name, "crypto.com" owned by a college professor by the name of Matt Blaze back in 1993 who openly tweet that the domain name is not for sale, finally gave it to Monaco. The amount was undisclosed but speculators suggest that it must have been sold for 5-10 millions of dollars. You can read more here: https://toshitimes.com/crypto-com-domain-bought-by-monaco-for-millions-of-dollars/

Also, last year Amazon has acquired crypto-related domain names. There have been speculations that Amazon will soon accept cryptocurrencies, but Amazon Pay VP told CNBC that "Amazon may simply be protecting its brand name".

That is why you can see many bidding for names such as "Amazon.neo" or "Google.neo", on NNS. Though only base on speculation, these could be sold for higher prices in the near future.

"Well, these are domain names where you can identify a website. So what is the deal with this blockchain naming service?"

These names can be mapped to any blockchain identifier or resource such as contract hash, content hash, public key, and so fort. Neo blockchain allows cross-chain interoperability, and as blockchain is advancing mainstream adoption, we will soon see multitude of DApps used by masses because they are more secure. Instead of web browsers, we will have then blockchain browsers to explore the Decentralized Ecosystem. Neo Name Service provides simplicity to developers and users alike that will help NEO prime this blockchain era. In my estimate, within 3-5 years we will soon see the "real value" of these domain names.

NNS Telegram: https://t.me/forneonameservice
Neo Name Service Website: https://neons.name/index_En.html
Whitepaper: http://doc.neons.name/en/latest/
NNS Twitter: https://twitter.com/NeoNameService