The past 48 hours have been very exciting for .xyz. As we have expected, our tremendous success has been accompanied with a number of questions. I intend to field more advanced questions in the future, but I want to set up this Q&A series with the fundamentals. I will summarize key points that all registrants should understand about domain names in general, along with .xyz in particular.

What is a Registrant?
A Domain Registrant is the individual or organization that has registered a domain name. For example, if Bob is the owner of onemillion.xyz, he is the Registrant of the domain name onemillion.xyz, which he purchased from the Registrar (i.e. Uniregistry). Any questions that a registrant may have regarding a particular domain name or set of domain names should be addressed to the Registrar.

What is a Registrar?
A Domain Registrar is an organization that enables Registrants to register domain names in various top level and second level domain extensions. The Domain Registrar also manages the reservation, transfer, and renewal of domain names. As a result of the shared registration system created in 1999, Domain Registrars must be ICANN-accredited. Also, in order for a Domain Registrar to carry a specific gTLD or ccTLD, the Domain Registrar must be accredited by each associated registry.

What is a Registry Operator?
A Domain Registry Operator, like .xyz, is responsible for the operation of a particular domain extension (gTLD or ccTLD). Such responsibilities include administering the data of the top level domain, generating zone files, maintaining the whois database, and providing equal operational access to all Registrars. It is up to the registrars to determine how they would like to drive registrations.

What is ICANN?
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (or ICANN) is a nonprofit organization that administers the global domain name system, which includes the entire naming system and all domain extensions. As the registry operator of the generic top level domain domain .xyz, we work within the rules and structures put forward by ICANN.
source: (https://www.icann.org/resources/pages/welcome-2012-02-25-en)

Why does .xyz have so many registrations?
This is the result of two years of hard work from the team behind .xyz. Through extensive media outreach and persistence in working with registrars of all sizes, we have created a distribution network of 200+ registrars, plus their reseller networks. Our distribution network has been educating registrants about the value of .xyz and pricing .xyz domain names as low as $8.88. As a result, we have generated a vast amount of registrations from individuals, investors, startups, and established organizations.

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Keep in mind that .com wasn’t built in a day. Anyone that has already bought a .xyz is a founder, and you have made a wise investment. There will be many more sales like Deals.xyz, which was brokered for $8,113, in the aftermarket. In fact, there are already a number of .xyz domain listings on Flippa and active auctions on GoDaddy for .xyz domain names. Rather than creating a Founder’s program and charging thousands of dollars for premium domain names, I have provided equal footing for investors from all income brackets and countries to invest in .xyz.

As we get closer to our goal of one million registrations, I am sure there will be many more questions. This site is here to provide relevant answers. I will soon be releasing tips to help investors buy and sell .xyz domain names.

Best Regards,

D

*NOTE TO COMMENTERS* Please note that I am the CEO, and I do not read blogs or blog comments very frequently. I had originally only planned to post on this blog once a month, but I do intend to address my commenters with responses to educated questions.