The UK relinquished sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory and transferred it to Mauritius. This historic moment marks the end of British colonialism in Africa and has sparked widespread discussions on the future of the highly-anticipated .io top-level domain.
What happened?
In the context of intensifying geopolitical competition, on October 3, the UK and Mauritius issued a joint statement, announcing a historic political protocol on sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. According to the terms of the treaty, the UK will agree to Mauritius' sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia (the military base of the US and UK). Although the protocol is pending finalization of the treaty, both parties have committed to completing the relevant procedures as soon as possible.
However, with the transfer of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands from the UK to Mauritius, the future of .io top-level domain names has also become uncertain. This change may have a profound impact on many websites that own .io domains. The .io ccTLD was originally allocated to the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and was registered by a private British company, the Internet Computer Bureau (ICB), which is currently owned by the US company Identity Digital.
The top-level domain name '.io' originates from the abbreviation of Indian Ocean, which is a word in British English for the British Indian Ocean Territory. '.io' is the country and regional top-level domain (ccTLD) of the British overseas territory in the Internet domain name system. The '.io' domain extension has been in existence since 1997, and the earliest registered '.io' domain name was levi.io registered by the clothing company Levi's in 1998. According to a report by the British newspaper The Independent in 2014, the British government received a portion of the profits from the sale of Internet domain names in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. According to the protocol terms reached with ICB, the British government can receive an undisclosed share of the £60 fee for each activated '.io' domain name. Paul Kane, the founder of ICB and an expert in Internet infrastructure, also confirmed that the British government received a portion of the fees paid for using the '.io' domain name.
In history, ccTLD domains have been excluded five times.
The future of .io is largely determined directly by ICANN, the Internet name and digital Address allocation agency. However, it should be noted that .io belongs to the country and regional top-level domain (ccTLD), where political considerations outweigh technical and commercial factors.
The ICANN referred to above is a nonprofit organization based in California, USA, established on September 30, 1998, to take over tasks related to the Internet, such as managing domain names and IP address allocation. According to Domain Incite's compilation, since ICANN was established in 1998, ccTLD has only been removed from the DNS root five times. In all cases except one, the triggering factor for removal was a change to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 list of international standard organizations.
'.yu' was originally the ccTLD owned by the former Yugoslavia in the Internet domain name system. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1992 due to civil war. However, with the dissolution of the remaining allied countries of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2006, '.yu' stopped accepting new registration applications in March 2008. It was not until 2010 that ICANN finally removed .yu from the DNS root.
'.tp' was originally the top-level domain (ccTLD) for Portuguese Timor, which was under Indonesian occupation when it was officially launched in 1997. After gaining independence in 2002 and being renamed to Timor-Leste, ISO allocated the new code TL for the country and removed TP from its list. However, it was not until February 2015 that '.tp' was completely removed from the DNS root.
'.zr' was originally the top-level domain (ccTLD) of the Zaire country code area. Due to Zaire's name being changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was later replaced with .cd. In 2001, '.zr' was officially discontinued. '.zr' was the first ccTLD to be removed by IANA.
'.an' was originally the ccTLD domain name assigned to the Dutch overseas territory of the Netherlands Antilles. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao used the '.cw' domain name, Sint Maarten used '.sx' domain name, and Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius were assigned the '.bq' domain name. AN was also removed from its list by ISO. In 2015, the '.an' domain name was completely discontinued.
'.um' is the ccTLD domain name for the United States Minor Outlying Islands, but it is not in use. In 2007, ICANN removed .um domain names from the domain main list.
It is worth noting, however, that ". su" is a special case and is assigned to ccTLDs in the former Soviet Union ". su" was launched on September 19, 1990, and although the Soviet Union has now collapsed, the domain name is still usable today.
Where will '.io' go in the future?
According to the ccTLD deactivation policy, the eligibility of ccTLD is determined by the relevant country or region allocated in the ISO 3166-1 standard. When a country or region is removed from this standard, its eligibility will expire and it needs to be discontinued after an orderly transition period. By default, the ccTLD will be deleted after five years. The ccTLD administrator can apply for an extension, but there needs to be a valid reason. The extension can only be extended for up to 5 years, so the longest possible period for formal removal is 10 years. Of course, the ccTLD administrator can decide to deactivate the domain names in advance.
If it is determined that the eligibility of the ccTLD has changed, the ccTLD manager will be notified of the intention to issue a deactivation notice when the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) decides to deactivate it. The ccTLD manager will have the opportunity to designate an alternate contact person to handle the notices related to the deactivation.
As noted by Domain Incite, the core concerns for .io domain name registrants are whether the renamed British India Ocean Territory (BIOT) will continue to retain IO assignments on the ISO list and whether the archipelago will remain uniquely eligible for ccTLD status. If the BIOT exists only as part of Mauritius and is no longer considered an independent territory by the United Nations, the survival of the .io domain name will face serious challenges and may be scultled. Conversely, the situation would be further complicated if BIOT remained its independent territory and remained eligible for ccTLDs. Of course, there are also ". io" on the ". su" old way, but this probability is relatively small.
Which Crypto companies are using .io?
In the field of computer science, 'IO' is often used as an abbreviation for 'I/O' (Input/Output), which makes .io domain names naturally suitable for technology-related services. In addition to simplicity, this top-level domain is highly favored by technology startups and software companies, and is also used by many projects in the crypto field. Furthermore, .io domain names are the preferred choice for video game projects because 'io' represents browser-based multiplayer games in gaming terminology.
According to the Netease account 'Tech World', 'Glitch and GitHub Pages both use the .io domain name for users to create websites and applications, and the Itch.io game store also uses the domain name. The domain name has earned nearly 40 million dollars, which means that there may be more than one million .io domain names registered.' It is worth mentioning that in 2021, the domain name 'Metaverse.io' was sold for 1.14 million yuan, the highest publicly traded .io domain name at the moment.
And among the approximately 20,000 Web3 companies and projects listed in Foresight Wiki, nearly 16% of the companies use .io domain names, including but not limited to Matter Labs, ZKsync, Arbitrum, Optimism, Scroll, SEI, Damus, CoinFund, Scallop, MASK Network, TrueFi, Raydium, DODO, etc. It is worth mentioning that gate takes the name with the main domain name as the brand name.
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.io domain fate uncertain? 16% of Web3 companies are using .io
Author: Karen, Foresight News
The UK relinquished sovereignty over the Chagos Islands in the British Indian Ocean Territory and transferred it to Mauritius. This historic moment marks the end of British colonialism in Africa and has sparked widespread discussions on the future of the highly-anticipated .io top-level domain.
What happened?
In the context of intensifying geopolitical competition, on October 3, the UK and Mauritius issued a joint statement, announcing a historic political protocol on sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago. According to the terms of the treaty, the UK will agree to Mauritius' sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago, including Diego Garcia (the military base of the US and UK). Although the protocol is pending finalization of the treaty, both parties have committed to completing the relevant procedures as soon as possible.
However, with the transfer of sovereignty over the Chagos Islands from the UK to Mauritius, the future of .io top-level domain names has also become uncertain. This change may have a profound impact on many websites that own .io domains. The .io ccTLD was originally allocated to the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and was registered by a private British company, the Internet Computer Bureau (ICB), which is currently owned by the US company Identity Digital.
The top-level domain name '.io' originates from the abbreviation of Indian Ocean, which is a word in British English for the British Indian Ocean Territory. '.io' is the country and regional top-level domain (ccTLD) of the British overseas territory in the Internet domain name system. The '.io' domain extension has been in existence since 1997, and the earliest registered '.io' domain name was levi.io registered by the clothing company Levi's in 1998. According to a report by the British newspaper The Independent in 2014, the British government received a portion of the profits from the sale of Internet domain names in the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean. According to the protocol terms reached with ICB, the British government can receive an undisclosed share of the £60 fee for each activated '.io' domain name. Paul Kane, the founder of ICB and an expert in Internet infrastructure, also confirmed that the British government received a portion of the fees paid for using the '.io' domain name.
In history, ccTLD domains have been excluded five times.
The future of .io is largely determined directly by ICANN, the Internet name and digital Address allocation agency. However, it should be noted that .io belongs to the country and regional top-level domain (ccTLD), where political considerations outweigh technical and commercial factors.
The ICANN referred to above is a nonprofit organization based in California, USA, established on September 30, 1998, to take over tasks related to the Internet, such as managing domain names and IP address allocation. According to Domain Incite's compilation, since ICANN was established in 1998, ccTLD has only been removed from the DNS root five times. In all cases except one, the triggering factor for removal was a change to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 list of international standard organizations.
'.yu' was originally the ccTLD owned by the former Yugoslavia in the Internet domain name system. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia disintegrated in 1992 due to civil war. However, with the dissolution of the remaining allied countries of Yugoslavia, Serbia and Montenegro, in 2006, '.yu' stopped accepting new registration applications in March 2008. It was not until 2010 that ICANN finally removed .yu from the DNS root.
'.tp' was originally the top-level domain (ccTLD) for Portuguese Timor, which was under Indonesian occupation when it was officially launched in 1997. After gaining independence in 2002 and being renamed to Timor-Leste, ISO allocated the new code TL for the country and removed TP from its list. However, it was not until February 2015 that '.tp' was completely removed from the DNS root.
'.zr' was originally the top-level domain (ccTLD) of the Zaire country code area. Due to Zaire's name being changed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, it was later replaced with .cd. In 2001, '.zr' was officially discontinued. '.zr' was the first ccTLD to be removed by IANA.
'.an' was originally the ccTLD domain name assigned to the Dutch overseas territory of the Netherlands Antilles. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao used the '.cw' domain name, Sint Maarten used '.sx' domain name, and Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius were assigned the '.bq' domain name. AN was also removed from its list by ISO. In 2015, the '.an' domain name was completely discontinued.
'.um' is the ccTLD domain name for the United States Minor Outlying Islands, but it is not in use. In 2007, ICANN removed .um domain names from the domain main list.
It is worth noting, however, that ". su" is a special case and is assigned to ccTLDs in the former Soviet Union ". su" was launched on September 19, 1990, and although the Soviet Union has now collapsed, the domain name is still usable today.
Where will '.io' go in the future?
According to the ccTLD deactivation policy, the eligibility of ccTLD is determined by the relevant country or region allocated in the ISO 3166-1 standard. When a country or region is removed from this standard, its eligibility will expire and it needs to be discontinued after an orderly transition period. By default, the ccTLD will be deleted after five years. The ccTLD administrator can apply for an extension, but there needs to be a valid reason. The extension can only be extended for up to 5 years, so the longest possible period for formal removal is 10 years. Of course, the ccTLD administrator can decide to deactivate the domain names in advance.
If it is determined that the eligibility of the ccTLD has changed, the ccTLD manager will be notified of the intention to issue a deactivation notice when the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) decides to deactivate it. The ccTLD manager will have the opportunity to designate an alternate contact person to handle the notices related to the deactivation.
As noted by Domain Incite, the core concerns for .io domain name registrants are whether the renamed British India Ocean Territory (BIOT) will continue to retain IO assignments on the ISO list and whether the archipelago will remain uniquely eligible for ccTLD status. If the BIOT exists only as part of Mauritius and is no longer considered an independent territory by the United Nations, the survival of the .io domain name will face serious challenges and may be scultled. Conversely, the situation would be further complicated if BIOT remained its independent territory and remained eligible for ccTLDs. Of course, there are also ". io" on the ". su" old way, but this probability is relatively small.
Which Crypto companies are using .io?
In the field of computer science, 'IO' is often used as an abbreviation for 'I/O' (Input/Output), which makes .io domain names naturally suitable for technology-related services. In addition to simplicity, this top-level domain is highly favored by technology startups and software companies, and is also used by many projects in the crypto field. Furthermore, .io domain names are the preferred choice for video game projects because 'io' represents browser-based multiplayer games in gaming terminology.
According to the Netease account 'Tech World', 'Glitch and GitHub Pages both use the .io domain name for users to create websites and applications, and the Itch.io game store also uses the domain name. The domain name has earned nearly 40 million dollars, which means that there may be more than one million .io domain names registered.' It is worth mentioning that in 2021, the domain name 'Metaverse.io' was sold for 1.14 million yuan, the highest publicly traded .io domain name at the moment.
And among the approximately 20,000 Web3 companies and projects listed in Foresight Wiki, nearly 16% of the companies use .io domain names, including but not limited to Matter Labs, ZKsync, Arbitrum, Optimism, Scroll, SEI, Damus, CoinFund, Scallop, MASK Network, TrueFi, Raydium, DODO, etc. It is worth mentioning that gate takes the name with the main domain name as the brand name.