What Is Unstoppable Domains?

Unstoppable Domains is the name of a San-Francisco based company that provides blockchain-based domain names to users — most popularly, .crypto and .zil. The latter stands for the Zilliqa blockchain, one of the blockchains used to power the system.

These domain names can also be minted as a non-fungible token (NFT) on the Ethereum blockchain. In contrast to traditional domain names, ownership of a blockchain-based domain name is permanent and does not require yearly registration fees to renew the domain. In addition to conferring full ownership and control to users, a key advantage is that a blockchain-based domain is fully censorship-resistant.

Blockchain-based domain names can point to content hosted on the internet, on InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), or to cryptocurrency addresses. In the latter case, the domain owner can link their Bitcoin, Ether or other crypto wallet address to the domain and ask others to send crypto to the domain instead of to a complex alphanumeric wallet address. 

The main goal of Unstoppable Domains is to help build a decentralized web, achieve censorship-resistance, distribute power to users and ensure that information and value transfers are efficient and accessible. To enable this, the company uses both the Ethereum and Zilliqa blockchains, rather than a centralized platform.