4 ms·

$185k is the price for your own TLD? That sounds super cheap. I would have expected millions.

nashashmi 8y ago
Back then it was expensive especially compared to just setting up a domain. Plus there are other rules too like having a support staff. The rules force applicants to effectively act like a registry company. Just to limit the number of applicants they put all sorts of annoying rules in the books. However companies with too much money in their hands did that and more. Google registered different names just for fun.
baby 8y ago
On the cryptocurrency equivalent: https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/blob/master/docs/blockstack_naming_service.md https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/blob/master/do... > It cost Blockstack PBC 40 BTC to create the .id namespace in 2015 (in transaction
icebraining 8y ago
$185, plus the infrastructure and know-how to run it.
- dannypgh 8y ago
  I think the ability to setup BIND is easier to acquire than $185,000.
  - mcpherrinm 8y ago
    185,000 is cheaper than the cost of two full time employees, which is the minimum for 24/7/365 oncall. I assume nobody is going to pay $185k for a hobby project.
    - matte_black 8y ago
      Can’t you just get two Indians employed full time for cheap?
    - labster 8y ago
      I wouldn't be too sure about that. America's Cup and Formula One racing exist, so there are definitely expensive hobbies.
    - Kostic 8y ago
      It really depends where your techs live. 185k is enough money to pay a 4 person team of highly skilled techs in south-eastern Europe for over one year, for example.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    There's a lot more to running a TLD than just running DNS. That's only a small portion of it. Running a TLD is non-trivial and there's a reason most gTLDs are run by big players or hosted by contract by same.
- foepys 8y ago
  Aren't most gTLDs hosted by only a few ISPs that also host some of the smaller ccTLDs? I'd imagine that the actual hosting costs are quite small if you don't have millions of domains with billions of DNS requests per second.
- lucb1e 8y ago
  I'll run your TLD for $10 a month and make you a site to do registrations for $1000. This is sufficient up until a few thousand domains. Of course that's not the common case, but the "plus infra and expertise" part is negligible compared to the ICANN fee if you just want a private gTLD.
duskwuff 8y ago
In retrospect, it was probably far too little. ICANN didn't predict the demand for gTLD registrations; it's taken them six years to work through all the applications they received when the program opened in 2012.
puranjay 8y ago
That's the initial registration cost. If there are multiple applicants for it, it will go to auction. For a popular gTLD, the auction can go into several million dollars. .shop, for instance, closed at $41.5M [1] 1. http://domainincite.com/19886-shop-gtld-sells-for-record-41-5-million http://domainincite.com/19886-shop-gtld-sells-for-record-41-...
- skrebbel 8y ago
  Wow, where does that money go to? I thought ICANN was a non-profit? Is it the usual "yeah but we really needed $5000 meeting room chairs and our CEO needs a competitive $10m salary otherwise we can't keep him on"?
  - rhaps0dy 8y ago
    Maybe they're just hoarding it for now, and eventually will give it to internet nonprofits
  - ValentineC 8y ago
    > Wow, where does that money go to? There was a comment thread about how the bidding process worked in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086
otterpro 8y ago
$185k is only for submission of application. Once you have the TLD, there's also mandatory recurring fee of approximately $25k/year + $0.25/domain transaction fee + setup and maintenance of infrastructure. My guess is that it would cost $50k-$100k/year to run it overall. https://serverfault.com/questions/243316/can-i-create-a-top-level-tld-michael-for-instance https://serverfault.com/questions/243316/can-i-create-a-top-...

Back then it was expensive especially compared to just setting up a domain. Plus there are other rules too like having a support staff. The rules force applicants to effectively act like a registry company. Just to limit the number of applicants they put all sorts of annoying rules in the books. However companies with too much money in their hands did that and more. Google registered different names just for fun.

baby 8y ago

On the cryptocurrency equivalent: https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/blob/master/docs/blockstack_naming_service.md https://github.com/blockstack/blockstack-core/blob/master/do... > It cost Blockstack PBC 40 BTC to create the .id namespace in 2015 (in transaction

icebraining 8y ago

$185, plus the infrastructure and know-how to run it.

dannypgh 8y ago
I think the ability to setup BIND is easier to acquire than $185,000.
- mcpherrinm 8y ago
  185,000 is cheaper than the cost of two full time employees, which is the minimum for 24/7/365 oncall. I assume nobody is going to pay $185k for a hobby project.
  - matte_black 8y ago
    Can’t you just get two Indians employed full time for cheap?
  - labster 8y ago
    I wouldn't be too sure about that. America's Cup and Formula One racing exist, so there are definitely expensive hobbies.
  - Kostic 8y ago
    It really depends where your techs live. 185k is enough money to pay a 4 person team of highly skilled techs in south-eastern Europe for over one year, for example.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  There's a lot more to running a TLD than just running DNS. That's only a small portion of it. Running a TLD is non-trivial and there's a reason most gTLDs are run by big players or hosted by contract by same.
foepys 8y ago
Aren't most gTLDs hosted by only a few ISPs that also host some of the smaller ccTLDs? I'd imagine that the actual hosting costs are quite small if you don't have millions of domains with billions of DNS requests per second.
lucb1e 8y ago
I'll run your TLD for $10 a month and make you a site to do registrations for $1000. This is sufficient up until a few thousand domains. Of course that's not the common case, but the "plus infra and expertise" part is negligible compared to the ICANN fee if you just want a private gTLD.

duskwuff 8y ago

In retrospect, it was probably far too little. ICANN didn't predict the demand for gTLD registrations; it's taken them six years to work through all the applications they received when the program opened in 2012.

puranjay 8y ago

That's the initial registration cost. If there are multiple applicants for it, it will go to auction. For a popular gTLD, the auction can go into several million dollars. .shop, for instance, closed at $41.5M [1] 1. http://domainincite.com/19886-shop-gtld-sells-for-record-41-5-million http://domainincite.com/19886-shop-gtld-sells-for-record-41-...

skrebbel 8y ago
Wow, where does that money go to? I thought ICANN was a non-profit? Is it the usual "yeah but we really needed $5000 meeting room chairs and our CEO needs a competitive $10m salary otherwise we can't keep him on"?
- rhaps0dy 8y ago
  Maybe they're just hoarding it for now, and eventually will give it to internet nonprofits
- ValentineC 8y ago
  > Wow, where does that money go to? There was a comment thread about how the bidding process worked in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11686086

otterpro 8y ago

$185k is only for submission of application. Once you have the TLD, there's also mandatory recurring fee of approximately $25k/year + $0.25/domain transaction fee + setup and maintenance of infrastructure. My guess is that it would cost $50k-$100k/year to run it overall. https://serverfault.com/questions/243316/can-i-create-a-top-level-tld-michael-for-instance https://serverfault.com/questions/243316/can-i-create-a-top-...