4 ms·

A fairly simple approach for all is to up the price based on contention. Regularly auction out the lease f.ex Allowing “ownership” of such resources just leads

A fairly simple approach for all is to up the price based on contention. Regularly auction out the lease f.ex Allowing “ownership” of such resources just leads to rent-seeking.

Macha 5y ago
But then you make it easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to "steal" active names from hobbyists. I own <my name>.com and have used it for over a decade to run my personal site, resume and personal services. There's a more publicly known and wealthy individual who shares my name and has expressed interest in it with an offer of like $100, which I declined. Why should he have more right to it, or my renewal costs go to $100/yr? I could afford that now, since I'm a software engineer, but when I was a broke teenager? This type of behavior exists for many of the new TLDs and for a lot of the blockchain proposals and is one of my big reasons for avoiding both.
- CuriousSkeptic 5y ago
  Presumably those willing to pay more have found a more valuable use of the resource. In theory at least. In practice I think you are correct in it being a problem. I do think the solution to that lies elsewhere though. It’s a more general issue about wealth and power.
  - Macha 5y ago
    Sure, the famous person who shares my name might generate more economic activity from use of the domain name than I will. Why is that a reason why it would be preferable to reassign it to him? I don't think the domain name system exists to maximise economic activity, nor should it.
    - CuriousSkeptic 5y ago
      I guess it depends on your ideological bend, but the argument would go like so - market economies optimise allocation of scare resources for maximum utility - domain names are a scarce resource - we want to maximise the utility of domain names Not saying I’m convinced all of that is true, bto answer the why.

4 ms·

A fairly simple approach for all is to up the price based on contention. Regularly auction out the lease f.ex Allowing “ownership” of such resources just leads

by CuriousSkeptic 5y ago

A fairly simple approach for all is to up the price based on contention. Regularly auction out the lease f.ex Allowing “ownership” of such resources just leads to rent-seeking.

Macha 5y ago
But then you make it easier for corporations and wealthy individuals to "steal" active names from hobbyists. I own <my name>.com and have used it for over a decade to run my personal site, resume and personal services. There's a more publicly known and wealthy individual who shares my name and has expressed interest in it with an offer of like $100, which I declined. Why should he have more right to it, or my renewal costs go to $100/yr? I could afford that now, since I'm a software engineer, but when I was a broke teenager? This type of behavior exists for many of the new TLDs and for a lot of the blockchain proposals and is one of my big reasons for avoiding both.
- CuriousSkeptic 5y ago
  Presumably those willing to pay more have found a more valuable use of the resource. In theory at least. In practice I think you are correct in it being a problem. I do think the solution to that lies elsewhere though. It’s a more general issue about wealth and power.
  - Macha 5y ago
    Sure, the famous person who shares my name might generate more economic activity from use of the domain name than I will. Why is that a reason why it would be preferable to reassign it to him? I don't think the domain name system exists to maximise economic activity, nor should it.
    - CuriousSkeptic 5y ago
      I guess it depends on your ideological bend, but the argument would go like so - market economies optimise allocation of scare resources for maximum utility - domain names are a scarce resource - we want to maximise the utility of domain names Not saying I’m convinced all of that is true, bto answer the why.