How much is a name worth?
15th November 2021 |
I am not the only Sam in the world.
Through some deep Google searching I’ve found there are about 168,000 people called Sam in the United States. Also, there are about 384 more “popular” names than mine. In Sweden, there are about 7,000 people going by the first name Sam.
It is not unique, nor rare.
I don’t know how many Sam’s are in the world but I’m guessing a lot. So, there is undoubtedly a high supply of the name Sam in the world. Typically, something with high supply carries less value… until you balance it out with the demand for that thing.
For example, let’s say, worldwide there are one million “Sam” people. Now everyone is free to use their name as they so choose. So inherently the name has little financial value.
But what if only one Sam out of all the one million, had the rights to the commercial use of Sam? Thereby if anyone else called Sam wanted to use that name for commercial purposes… well, they couldn’t.
Then the name Sam would be worth an incredible amount (probably).
This is an interesting thought exercise, the point of which I’ll be getting to… so stick with me.
Now run this idea for a name like John, or Sarah, or Tom, or Mary… or Jesus!
We all know we can’t own a name. But, what if we could? How much would you pay for it? What would it be worth?
This idea of owning names – for anything – has become a valuable commodity in the digital world. The birth and boom of the internet ended up in the explosion of domain names placing a value of a name in the digital world.
It’s estimated that primary domain name registrations today are an $8 billion per year industry with an additional $2 billion a year on secondary sales. That’s a pretty big market for what is just a bunch of names that mark a site online.
However, the internet as we know it is changing. The idea of “Web3” – the next iteration of global online networking and connection – is fast becoming the buzz word of the 2020s. It’s most typically tied to the explosion of decentralised, distributed networks, crypto networks and the layers of protocols and applications now built on these networks.
Personally, I think that Web3 is a garbage term, a way for newcomers to crypto from the traditional finance (TradFi) world – the noobs – to justify their lateness to the party.
Nonetheless, you’re going to hear “Web3” bandied about a lot.
It encompasses a lot of the things we’re talking to you about here in Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network.
But the most recent, eye-popping thing that Web3 encompasses is the idea of domain names within crypto networks.
Imagine owning sam.eth on the Ethereum network.
There’s not really much point in that if your name is Bob. But, for me, owning sam.eth would be quite something. No one else could own it: it would be mine to do with as I please.
Or maybe I want to own pets.eth (a throwback to the pets.com posterchild for the 90s tech bubble, as some of you will know). Just like good old internet domain name purchases, I could go and buy pets.eth if I wanted.
This can then be tied to an Ethereum wallet on the Ethereum blockchain. This whole set up, issuing and registering of domain names on Ethereum, has this last week become something of a financial boom.
Owning Ethereum domain names, has been around for a few years. Anyone previously could go and buy something.eth and then tie it to an ethereum wallet. It cost a bit of ETH and some ETH in gas fees to confirm the transactions.
That was no big deal, and it did not exactly create a sprawling economy within Ethereum’s network.
However…
… this last week, Ethereum Name Services (ENS), the platform behind the issuing and registration of ENS domains, went and airdropped ENS tokens out to all ENS registrants, right into their wallets.
Now you can put value on a name… in crypto… and that turns out is quite a lot. The airdropped price of ENS tokens started at $33 and went as high as $84 within a few days. That gave a fully diluted market cap of ENS tokens at around $4 billion.
Now, if you consider that crypto networks could form the very foundations of Web3, then what is the value of a token inherently tied to identification on that network? What is the value of a domain on what’s one of the biggest and most decentralised crypto networks?
Should you get yourself an ENS domain? Or perhaps ENS tokens? At this point, I’m not sure. The domain name identifier probably isn’t a bad idea; it is, after all, an easier way to identify wallets in the Ethereum ecosystem. And if you’ve got a long-time horizon on Ethereum, maybe it is worth considering.
The ENS token? I haven’t looked deep enough at it yet. Some even suggest that ENS domains are actually NFTs (non-fungible tokens). The more that I think about this, it seems to be a pretty decent idea – or, in fact, just a correct idea.
What it does also suggest, though, is a shift in focus. Projects and platforms that have built robust applications, as ENS has done, may now be starting to look to add economic value to their communities and ecosystems.
Already it’s started a bit of a thread in the crypto world about who will be next to airdrop tokens? We saw a huge token airdrop when Uniswap did it last year. ENS has provided another hugely value creating airdrop.
Who or what is next? MetaMask? Discord? Signal? Telegram?
Who knows?
But the facts that you know about these things, can start to use them, interact with them, and with sheer luck get a reward from the endeavour, provide compelling reasons to investigate all that the crypto world has on offer.
The deeper you dive, and the more you test and try, I find the more rewarding it becomes.
Crypto to Know
Below is our “Crypto to Know” list where you’ll find several cryptos that we think you should be taking the time to learn and understand.
They each form an important part of the burgeoning crypto ecosystem.
Several of these cryptos are doing very different things to others.
What’s key is to learn that every crypto has its own use cases, its own guiding principles, and its own particular potential.
Each crypto is to be judged and assessed on its own merits.
Our aim here is to help you understand these cryptos and the wider crypto world.
These aren’t specific recommendations but a guide to help you learn and build your confidence in operating in this space.
We will add more names to this list over time. However, if you’re new to the world of crypto, these are the names where we think you should start your education and learning.
We’ve also added links to each one.
The links are to what we believe, in each case, is the best resource for learning about that crypto.
“Crypto to Know” watchlist
- Bitcoin –it/wiki/Main_Page
- Ethereum – ethereum.org/en/what-is-ethereum
- IOTA – docs.iota.org
- Tezos – https://tezos.com/learn/getting-started/
- Filecoin – docs.filecoin.io
- Cosmos – v1.cosmos.network/intro
- Binance – binance.com/en/about & research.binance.com/en/projects/bnb
- FTX – ftx.com & help.ftx.com/hc/en-us
- Solana – https://docs.solana.com/introduction
- Secret Network – https://scrt.network/about/about-secret-network
Sam Volkering
Editor, Sam Volkering’s Crypto Network
