{"id":10477,"date":"2026-08-14T08:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?p=10477"},"modified":"2026-08-14T06:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T10:16:10","slug":"icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/","title":{"rendered":"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.icann.org\/en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">ICANN<\/a> spent the summer wrestling with a question it had avoided for years: can a blockchain naming system share a name with the actual Domain Name System that runs the internet, and should the organization let that happen? A draft answer landed on August 10, opened for public comment the next day, right as ICANN&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icanns-new-domain-ending-window-closes-august-12-with-227k-entry-fee\/\">application window<\/a> for new top-level domains closed on August 12. It&#8217;s the first such window since 2012, and the timing wasn&#8217;t a coincidence. Several Web3 naming projects have operated their own address systems outside the DNS for years, and this round is where some of them are trying to come inside.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">The Technical Study Group&#8217;s conclusion turned out more permissive than a lot of early coverage suggested. Integration is possible, the group found, but only under a strict condition: the exact same string of characters has to stay under the exact same party&#8217;s control in both systems simultaneously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">Every name has to at least be a candidate in the DNS. Suspensions have to apply across both systems at once. And the report flags a genuine gap, too. Where a name exists only in the alternative system with no registrant contact info on file, nobody&#8217;s quite sure how existing dispute and takedown policies would even function.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">That rule is fairly easy for a brand launching fresh. It&#8217;s brutal for an established <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/namecheap-shuts-down-handshake-domain-sales-as-web3-naming-experiment-quietly-ends\/\">Web3 registry<\/a> that&#8217;s already sold thousands of names to pseudonymous holders, since every one of those names would need a matching DNS reservation tied to the same owner.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">Ethereum Name Service picked the more practical route instead. On August 11, ENS tokenholders approved turning the project&#8217;s foundation into a fully operational body, on-chain, specifically so it could apply to ICANN at all. Rather than trying to reconcile its existing .eth namespace, ENS is going after .ens as a closed brand domain. The .eth string was never eligible anyway. It&#8217;s Ethiopia&#8217;s ISO country code, which ICANN treats as off-limits for generic use.<\/p>\n<p class=\"font-claude-response-body break-words whitespace-normal\" dir=\"ltr\">The earliest any of these new strings could actually go live is 2028. <a href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann86-seville-puts-domain-abuse-rules-ai-threats-on-the-table\/\">ICANN<\/a>&#8216;s message, in effect, is that the door is open, just narrow enough that walking through it takes years and a fair amount of restructuring first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ICANN spent the summer wrestling with a question it had avoided for years: can a blockchain naming system share a name with the actual Domain Name System that runs the internet, and should the organization let that happen? A draft answer landed on August 10, opened for public comment the next day, right as ICANN&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20624,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[7727,7726,7728,285,7725,7729],"class_list":["post-10477","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","tag-dns-blockchain-integration","tag-ens-icann-application","tag-ethereum-name-service","tag-icann","tag-new-gtld-2026","tag-web3-domain-naming"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet - Web Hosting News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet - Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"ICANN spent the summer wrestling with a question it had avoided for years: can a blockchain naming system share a name with the actual Domain Name System that runs the internet, and should the organization let that happen? A draft answer landed on August 10, opened for public comment the next day, right as ICANN&#8217;s [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Web Hosting News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T12:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-08-14T10:16:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Justine Juyad\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/\",\"name\":\"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet - Web Hosting News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-14T12:45:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-08-14T10:16:10+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Web Hosting News\",\"description\":\"Cloud and web hosting industry daily news\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/3a1732732b90f8c57c2a0ec68d3c49e3\",\"name\":\"Justine Juyad\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/96df33d01870f85226adf8492251fbefe00bc349b10bb7679b094f3fa086999c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Justine Juyad\"},\"description\":\"HostingDiscussion.com senior reporter\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/author\/justine-juyad\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet - Web Hosting News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/hostingdiscussion.com\/news\/icann-opens-narrow-door-for-blockchain-names-to-join-the-real-internet\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"ICANN opens narrow door for blockchain names to join the real internet - Web Hosting News","og_description":"ICANN spent the summer wrestling with a question it had avoided for years: can a blockchain naming system share a name with the actual Domain Name System that runs the internet, and should the organization let that happen? 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