16% of Web3 companies are using .io. Historically, ccTLDs (country code top-level domains) have been removed five times.
Written by: Karen, Foresight News
The historic moment of the UK relinquishing sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory's Chagos Islands and transferring it to Mauritius marks the end of British colonialism in Africa and has sparked widespread discussion about the future of the highly regarded .io top-level domain.
What Happened?
Amid escalating geopolitical competition, on October 3, the UK and Mauritius issued a joint statement announcing that they had reached a historic political agreement regarding sovereignty over the Chagos Islands. Under the terms of the treaty, the UK will agree to Mauritius's sovereignty over the Chagos Islands, including Diego Garcia (the site of a US-UK military base). Although the agreement is still pending final treaty confirmation, both parties have committed to completing the relevant procedures as soon as possible.
However, as the UK transfers sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, the future of the .io top-level domain has also become uncertain. This change could have far-reaching implications for many websites that hold .io domain names. The .io ccTLD was originally assigned to the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) and is managed by a UK private company, Internet Computer Bureau (ICB), which is currently owned by the US company Identity Digital.
The ".io" top-level domain derives from the abbreviation IO in the English term British Indian Ocean Territory, representing the ccTLD for the British Indian Ocean Territory in the internet domain name system. The .io domain has existed since 1997, with the first registered .io domain being levi.io, registered by the clothing company Levi's in 1998. According to a 2014 report by The Independent, "The UK government receives a portion of the profits from the sale of internet domain names from the Indian Ocean Chagos Islands. Under the terms of the agreement with ICB, the UK government receives an undisclosed share of the £60 fee for each activated .io domain name. Paul Kane, founder of ICB and an internet infrastructure expert, also confirmed that the UK government receives part of the fees paid for using the '.io' domain."
Historically, ccTLDs Have Been Removed Five Times
The future of ".io" is largely determined by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). However, it is important to note that ".io" is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), and political considerations take precedence over technical and commercial factors.
As mentioned, ICANN is a non-profit organization based in California, established on September 30, 1998, to take over various internet-related tasks, including managing domain names and IP address allocations. According to Domain Incite, since ICANN's establishment in 1998, ccTLDs have only been removed from the DNS root five times. In all cases except one, the trigger for removal was a change to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 list of international standards.
".yu" was originally the ccTLD for Yugoslavia in the internet domain name system. The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved in 1992 due to civil war, but as the remaining union of Serbia and Montenegro dissolved in 2006, ".yu" stopped accepting new registrations in March 2008, although it was not officially removed from the DNS root until 2010.
".tp" was the ccTLD for East Timor, officially launched in 1997 while the country was still under Indonesian occupation. After gaining independence in 2022, it was renamed Timor-Leste, and the ISO assigned it a new code TL, removing TP from its list, but ".tp" was not completely removed from the DNS root until February 2015.
".zr" was the ccTLD for Zaire, which changed its name back to the Democratic Republic of the Congo and began using .cd. ".zr" was officially discontinued in 2001 and was the first ccTLD to be removed by IANA.
".an" was the ccTLD assigned to the Netherlands Antilles. After the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010, Curaçao adopted the .cw domain, Sint Maarten adopted the .sx domain, and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba received the .bq domain, leading to the removal of AN from the ISO list. The ".an" domain was completely discontinued in 2015.
".um" was the ccTLD for the United States Minor Outlying Islands but was not in use. In 2007, ICANN removed the .um domain from the main domain list.
However, it is worth noting that ".su" is a special case. The ccTLD ".su" was assigned to the former Soviet Union and was activated on September 19, 1990. Although the Soviet Union has since dissolved, the domain is still available for use.
What Does the Future Hold for ".io"?
According to ccTLD deactivation policies, the eligibility of a ccTLD is determined by the relevant country or region assigned under the ISO 3166-1 standard. When a country or region is removed from this standard, its eligibility expires, and it must cease use after an orderly transition period. By default, ccTLDs will be deleted after five years. The ccTLD administrator can apply for an extension, but it must be justified. Extensions can be granted for a maximum of 5 additional years, so the longest possible period before formal removal is 10 years. Of course, ccTLD administrators can also choose to deactivate the domain early.
If it is determined that the eligibility of a ccTLD has changed, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will notify the ccTLD administrator of its intention to issue a deactivation notice at the time of the decision to deactivate. The ccTLD administrator will have the opportunity to designate an alternative contact to handle notifications related to the deactivation.
As Domain Incite notes, the core concern for .io domain registrants is whether the newly named British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT) can continue to retain its IO allocation on the ISO list and whether the islands still possess the unique territorial qualifications to obtain ccTLD status. If BIOT exists only as part of Mauritius and is no longer recognized by the United Nations as an independent territory, the survival of .io domains will face severe challenges and may be removed. Conversely, if BIOT maintains its independent territory and retains eligibility for ccTLD, the situation will become more complex. Of course, there is also the possibility that ".io" could follow the path of ".su," but this probability is relatively low.
Which Crypto Companies Are Using .io?
In computer science, "IO" is often used as an abbreviation for "I/O" (Input/Output), making .io domains inherently suitable for technology-related services. Coupled with their simplicity, this top-level domain is highly favored by tech startups and software companies, and many projects in the Crypto space also utilize it. Additionally, .io domains are the preferred choice for video game projects, as "io" represents browser-based multiplayer games in gaming terminology.
According to NetEase's "World of Technology," "Glitch and GitHub Pages both use .io domains for user-created websites and applications, and the Itch.io game store also uses this domain. The domain has generated nearly $40 million, indicating that over a million .io domains may have been registered." Notably, in 2021, the domain "Metaverse.io" sold for 1.14 million yuan, making it the highest publicly recorded sale price for a .io domain.
Among the approximately 20,000 Web3 companies and projects listed in Foresight Wiki, nearly 16% of these companies use .io domains, including but not limited to Matter Labs, ZKsync, Arbitrum, Optimism, Gate.io, Scroll, Sei, Damus, CoinFund, Scallop, Mask Network, TrueFi, Raydium, DODO, and others. As for the future of .io domains, Foresight News will continue to monitor the situation.
References:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/joint-statement-between-uk-and-mauritius-3-october-2024
https://www.iana.org/domains/root/db/io.html
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/.io#cite_note-9
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/government-accused-of-profiting-from-sales-of-chagos-islands-io-domain-name-9574316.html
https://domainincite.com/30406-five-times-icann-deleted-a-cctld-and-what-it-means-for-io
https://www.iana.org/help/cctld-retirement
https://www.163.com/dy/article/JE69H0JR05564QCM.html
免责声明：本文章仅代表作者个人观点，不代表本平台的立场和观点。本文章仅供信息分享，不构成对任何人的任何投资建议。用户与作者之间的任何争议，与本平台无关。如网页中刊载的文章或图片涉及侵权，请提供相关的权利证明和身份证明发送邮件到support@aicoin.com，本平台相关工作人员将会进行核查。
