Frequently Asked Questions
Overview of everything EBPTO and IP domains
First off, thanks to everyone for the huge amount of support and encouragement! We are looking forward to seeing what ways people use their .ip domains.
The EBPTO is a verifiable identity domain registry.
EBPTO aims to make IP portable, memorable, chain agnostic and fun. EBPTO is designed to be decentralized in both it's infrastructure and governance.
General
What is the goal of the IP Domains?
The most important objective of .ip domains is to become the distributed identity domain protocol standard.
What can I do with my IP domain?
IP domains work on EBPTO's blockchain-based cross-chain registration system that provides a globally unique naming system that can be used in many ways including transferring ETH & NFTs, creating a personalized identity hub, domain name resolution, portfolio management, validated credentials and more.
IP domains are ENS-compatible allowing you to send ETH assets to your assigned .ip domain. (Ex: Send 1 ETH to "mywallet.ip")
Resolve addresses with an .ip domain for E2EE messaging, verifiable credentials and more. View the XTMP powered E2EE messaging demo here.
View additional use cases.
What’s the difference between a .ETH ENS domain name and a .IP domain?
An IP domain is an enhanced, Ethereum compatible domain built on the same rails and fundamentals as ENS.
ENS names are human readable with a ‘.eth’ at the end, while IP names are ENS-compatible names that contain ‘.ip' at the end.
- bob.eth
- bob.ip
Getting an .ip domain does not prevent you from getting an .eth domain from ENS and using it in your Web3 wallet.
In research, we found that most people associate .eth domains solely with Ethereum. We believe you should have maximum control of your IP; that it should be free of limitations. IP domains are designed to be used on multiple blockchain networks.
How are names registered?
Hashes provide a fixed length identifier that can easily be passed around between contracts with fixed overhead.
What are the costs to register ip domain?
Initial registrations are auctioned publicly. Reserve premiums apply for names with 4 characters or less.
5+ characters - $2.50 / year
4 character - $80 / year
3 character - $320 / year
2 character - $640 / year
1 character - $10k / year
Fees are paid in ETH. The ETH/USD exchange rate is set by the Chainlink ETH/USD oracle. Network fees (gas) applies.
How many transactions are required to register an IP domain?
You can register in a single transaction.
Is there anything needed to ensure the continued use of existing IP domains?
Make sure you renew your IP names before they expire. There is a 90 day grace period following expiration.
From the profile view or directly in the smart contract, you can add registration years to any name at any time and extend the registration for as long as you like.
Why do .ip domains use a custom ERC721 base contract (ERC-721PTO)?
ERC-721PTO uses structs to efficiently pack ownership and loyalty metadata information.
Loyalty metadata stored in the ERC-721PTO includes the number of IP domains, initial (minted) registrations, earliest registration period and longest registration period of every active address. The objective is to use this data in a similar fashion as ENS.
struct AddressData {
uint64 balance;
uint64 numberMinted;
uint64 firstRegistrationTimestamp;
uint64 largestExpiryTimestamp;
}
ERC-721PTO is deployed with our BaseRegistry contract and can be found here: 0xEB668b89be0C33d1A1559305d75F91e0a54e69Ab
The .ip domain NFT rendering engine defaults to a contract-generated HTML page contanining the registrant, domain name, registration date metadata, and avatar record based presentation. This information is provided in the tokenURI's animation_url param.
Auctions
Why are there auctions?
Initial registrations are handled through public auctions with a goal to achieve fair access. While names with 4 characters or less are priced in, the auctions are designed to reduce cybersquatting given initial market visibility.
How do the auctions work?
Interested parties can search for a name they have interest in. If the name is not yet in auction, they can activate the auction by meeting or increasing the bid reserve. The bid reserve follows standard pricing guidelines.
Once the initial reserve is met and deposited, the auction lasts 24 hours.
Whenever a new bid is submitted, the prior bid funds are automatically returned and, if less than 15 minutes remain in the auction, the timer is extended 15 minutes. The time extension is an anti-bot mechanism to prevent programmatic sniping.
How Long do I have to settle an auction?
You can settle an auction at any time. When an auction is settled the registration is assigned to the auction winner, who can then claim/settle the auction.
If someone settles an auction on your behalf, only you will receive the .ip domain.
In the event you attempt to settle an auction you've won and the claim button is disabled, it's likely someone has settled the auction on your behalf. Don't worry, no one can take the domain you've won in auction.
Auction Halving
Once the halving begins, at the end of each period the auction length will be reduced by half until auctions are only 1 minute in length. Following the last halving auctions will be disabled and EBPTO will only support open registrations.
24h→12h
12h→6h
etc.
During the halving the 15 minute last bid extension will apply.
Learn more about how open registrations work.
Registrations & Renewals
How do renewals work?
Anyone can extend registration years to any existing name by paying the registration fee. You can extend registration at any time.
What is the minimum renewal period?
Renewal duration is recorded in the smart contracts using seconds. While there is no maximum time, there is a minimum period of 28 days.
What if I forget to renew and my domain expires?
There is a 90 day grace period to allow you to extend any registration. After the grace period ends, if not extended you will no longer own the domain.
What happens to the registration & renewal fees?
All fees collected in the registrar contract will be periodically sent to the EBPTO multisig. The multisig roots will determine how to distribute funds across and for the benefit of the protocol. Considerations for fund allocations are largely inspired by ENS, focused on long-term growth, funding DAO, token, external projects that use the protocol and the core EBPTO team.
Management
Where can I manage all my IP names?
Visit www.ebpto.com. Make sure your wallet is connected and click "Profile" from the menu. View all of your IP domain names at a glance, or select them individually for details and configurations.
Can I trade or sell my IP names?
You can use the EBPTO Marketplace directly on the site. It allows you to trade IP domains on ebpto.com in addition to other popular secondary marketplaces that support ERC-721, all at once.
When I transfer my IP domains will they still be tied to my public key?No, EBPTO contract clears all registration data including signatures, images and portfolio works when transferring IP domains.