How To Search For Decentralised Domains

Creating a decentralised website has gotten a lot easier thanks to the help of blockchain and dApps. Finally, the ability to have ownership of a digital asset is a reality and having a domain name no one can take away from you and is uncensorable, and no need to renew is something everyone can get on board with, especially those who have had a website in the past.

Web 2.0 was effectively a rental agreement, you are renting your domain name from the provider, you rent space on social media or search engines, and you rent space on servers to store your data. You do not control all these areas of the internet; you are merely granted access to them for a fee. The information can be removed in a split second, and that is why having a backup is so important.

Web 3.0 is here, and while it's still complicated and clunky, the use case and the idea is solid, in a world of Google's and Facebook, digital ownership of your data is a must. Your information is valuable to these companies, so why give it away for free, this is how the new web 3.0 economy will be built.

Why decentralised domains cannot be found

Decentralised domains like .eth, .zil and .crypto were not essential to be used for domain names but were a secondary use case for the service. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum all make use of an alphanumeric public key or wallet address, which is not the most user- friendly experience but does help protect your identity.

To remedy this, the Ethereum naming service was launched to allow users to create their unique wallet handle to send and receive cryptocurrency and redirect it and from wallets via this individual readable address. To essential tokenisation of a handle and the launch of non-fungible tokens were all the building blocks to allow users to create decentralised web addresses.

Finding decentralise sites

Now that you understand the history, you need to know that search engines like Google, do not support these new TLD extensions, so finding them is a tough ask for the average user. As a decentralised website owner, you either need to link your social pages or centralised website to refer to your decentralised site, or you won't get any organic visitors.

There are also forums, link lists and directories that support decentralised domains, just like the early days of the internet. Yes believe it or not, but there was a life before Google and people still managed to find their way around the web.

Searching for decentralised domains

Since all the data is stored on the Ethreum blockchain, it was only a matter of time before the collected data could be placed into an indexable database for search, which is what the guys at Blockscan are doing. Blockscan is the first search engine for decentralised domains, brought to you by the same people that created Etherscan, Ethereums most popular block explorer.

How to add your site to Blockscan

Blockscan does not automatically index sites it finds like specific search engines, and you will manually have to submit your site for indexing. Navigate to the bottom of the page click submit. You will then be sent to a submission form where you have to add the following information.

• Enter IPFS Hash * (required)
• Enter domain
• Complete captcha form
• Click submit

The decentralised internet is coming together

As you can tell the space is still very much in its formative stage, and while it may lack the user base, it is very much a sign of where the internet will be heading towards in a few years. If you want to be ahead of the curve, reserve a cool domain or start backing up your site in a place that no one can touch but you, then its time to get a decentralised site. 

Ready to go decentralised?

Get your decentralised domain If you're keen on getting a decentralised domain for your brand name or yourself and messing around with a new part of the internet, you can do so at unstoppable domains or reach out to us directly, and we can secure your desired domain and migrate ownership rights to you. Remember you don't have to go all-in and migrate over, but you can use these services as a backup should anything happen to your site. It's also a great way to support decentralisation and to drive adoption of these new tools and be part of web 3.0

Contact us

If you're having trouble getting started with a purchasing the right domain or set up a decentralised blog then feel free to contact us and let's see how we can help you get a domain to get started.

Are you looking to promote your business?

South African Business owners can create your free business listing on nichemarket. The more information you provide about your business, the easier it will be for your customers to find you online. Registering with nichemarket is easy; all you will need to do is head over to our sign up form and follow the instructions.

If you require a more detailed guide on how to create your profile or your listing, then we highly recommend you check out the following articles. 

• How to create a nichemarketer profile 
• How to create a nichemarket business listing 

Recommended reading

If you enjoyed this post and have a little extra time to dive deeper down the rabbit hole, why not check out the following posts about website domains.

• 9 Steps To Take Before Picking Your Domain Name
• Moz Launches Domain Authority Version 2.0 To Bring SEO Metrics Into 2019
• 6 Ways to Promote Your Web Hosting Company
• Everything you need to know about web hosting
• Does Web Hosting Affect SEO?

Tags: Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Crypto