DomainIncite

ICANN’s board of directors is apparently worried about the rise of blockchain-based alt-roots. Its Board Technical Committee voted in May to make blockchain a permanent agenda item going forward, according to just-published minutes. “After discussion, the Committee decided to have a standing topic on the agenda to address Blockchain Names,” …

The .gdn gTLD registry, Navigation-information systems, is facing more trouble from ICANN Compliance, but this time it’s because its largest registrar has got itself suspended for non-payment of fees. ICANN has suspended the accreditation of Dubai-based registrar Intracom for failing to cure an April breach notice demanding money, not implementing …

The next round of new gTLDs is getting real. ICANN has selected a communications firm to promote the next round ahead of its launch, and authorized a wedge of cash to pay for it, according to a resolution of the board of directors. The resolution does not name the firm …

What is it with domain name companies and their terrible brands? Donuts is now Identity Digital Inc, the company said today, with the Donuts and Afilias brands being retired. The new name was chosen “to reflect better the commitment to helping customers find, grow and protect their authentic digital identities” …

The CEO of domain broker VPN.com is threatening to sue an online safety advocacy group after a report was published alleging the company trades in names that could be used for illegal activity. Michael Gargiulo said he will take action against the Digital Citizens Alliance unless it removes a report …

Alt-root provider Unstoppable Domains has inked another partnership with a city that already has its own gTLD in the authoritative root. The blockchain domains company said it has linked up with the City of Miami’s Venture Miami project, which encourages tech investment in Miami, to offer $50 in Unstoppable’s alternative …

Dynadot took the drastic move of turning off its own web site last week after noticing an apparent security breach. The registrar also reset all of its customers’ passwords, acknowledging the pair of moves were “extremely inconvenient”. It’s not clear from the company’s statement whether there really had been an …

Last Monday saw the 10th anniversary of Reveal Day, the event in London where ICANN officially revealed the 1,930 new gTLD applications submitted earlier in 2012 to a crowd of excited applicants and media. Dozens of those applications were for closed generics — where the registry operator is the sole …

Two more former UNR top-level domains have formally changed hands following the company’s fire sale over a year ago. The ICANN contracts governing .llp and .help have been reassigned, the former to Intercap Registry and the latter to a new-to-the-industry Seychelles-based company called Innovation service Ltd, ICANN records show. Intercap …

Has community participation in ICANN meetings rebounded now that in-person meetings have returned? That’s one possible interpretation of data released by the Org today. ICANN said that ICANN 74, which concluded yesterday, had 1,817 attendees, of whom 917 showed up in The Hague in person, their first opportunity to travel …

Afilias and Verisign are at odds over a further delay to the resolution of the .web gTLD dispute. Afilias, aka Altanovo Domains, says its lawyers are too busy to meet ICANN’s deadline for arguments about whether either company broke the rules in the 2016 auction of .web, but Verisign thinks …

Better late than never? ICANN has picked Hamburg for its 25th annual general meeting, due to be held in October next year. The ICANN board of directors made the selection at its meeting this weekend, just-published resolutions show. The choice is hardly surprising. Hamburg had been the venue for the …

Governments in South America are refusing to play nicely with Amazon over its controversial .amazon dot-brand. Speaking at ICANN 74 in The Hague this morning, Brazil’s representative on the Governmental Advisory Committee said that ICANN’s decision to delegate .amazon to the retail giant a couple of years ago contravenes the …

People attending ICANN 74 in The Hague this week are being encouraged to outwardly express their social distancing preferences with their choice of meeting lanyards. The Org has made lanyards with straps in four colors available to those who have shown up to ICANN’s first face-to-face public meeting in over …

The DNS Abuse Institute has gone live with its new clearinghouse for DNS abuse reports, NetBeacon. The service allows anyone to report any domain for four types of abuse — malware, phishing, botnets and spam — and any registry or registrar can sign up to receive the reports in a …

When I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I speculated a couple of weeks ago that it was likely that ICANN had laid on enough meeting-room capacity to meet demand at next week’s ICANN 74 public meeting, but it turns out most sessions are already over-subscribed. It’s the first in-person full meeting for …