Punk Domains allows you to register a domain name attached to your account address.
Why would anyone need that?
Well, your crypto address is hard to remember. It starts with 0x, but then continues with 40 random characters (digits from 0 to 9 and letters from a to f).
If you want someone to send you tokens, sure you could send them your address and they could copy-paste it into their wallet. But wouldn’t it be great if they could just enter a domain name, like techie.wagmi, instead of the whole address?
This is what they can do on punk.domains (on the Send Tokens page).
Another usecase is to have a domain name as your username in various web3 dApps, games and upcoming social networks. Instead of your username being 0xb29…45D, it could be simply techie.wagmi.
An additional feature that Punk Domains provides is a browser extension that takes you to a designated URL address if you type a domain name into browser URL bar.
But isn’t all that what ENS is doing already?
Yes, but they only do it on Ethereum L1 and (for now) only with .eth. Punk Domains allows many different top-level domains (TLDs), such as .wagmi, .gnosis, .ape, .op etc. And it runs on multiple chains.
Punk Domains enables anyone to create a TLD, operate it and earn revenue from it. For example, a DeFi protocol like Agave could create a TLD named .agave, and the revenue from each domain purchase would go to Agave treasury.
Punk Domains architecture is very flexible and it allows for various domain business models. The first one is a one-time domain purchase (no renewals), but new ones will be added in the future (like time-restricted domain ownership).
Not just about domains
Punk Domains is not just about domains (in the web2 sense of the word). It’s about identity in the web3 world. Domain name gives you a digital identity, and data attached to this identity strengthen it.
Another thing that Punk Domains cherishes is full decentralization. The contracts are non-upgradable and don’t need any keepers (or similar outside software) to properly operate. The only thing not decentralized yet is the main factory contract ownership (the one that decides a new TLD price) - but stay tuned… 😉