Crypto Companies May Lose Access to ‘Service Provider’ Domain Names

Crypto companies may be banned from hosting .bank and .insurance domain extensions.

fTLD Registry Services, a domain name system (DNS) registry, announced it is looking to restrict the DNS extensions from generic banking “service providers.” The proposal comes amid an alleged uptick in applications for .bank domain names by crypto firms.

Originally, the .bank domain was reserved for government-regulated retail banks, savings associations, national banks, or bank holding companies.

However, according to fTLD director of compliance and policy, Heather Diaz, told Mashable:

“More recently, as the financial services arena has evolved, particularly as it relates to fintechs offering financial products/services (e.g., P2P payment providers, cryptocurrency companies), we have found that some prospective Registrants were seeking domains to enhance their legitimacy to market to regulated entities and/or consumers.”

By reinstating the old restrictions, fLTD is trying to “further secure these trusted spaces,” she said. Oddly, Diaz also said the registry has never accepted a crypto company’s application for a .bank domain name.

The name costs approximately $1,000 to host per year.

Included in this potential freeze are P2P payment providers, money transfer businesses, and microloan providers. The company hasn’t formally enacted the restrictions, and has opened the decision to public comment until August 24.

In July, competing registrar EnCirca, launched an ethereum naming service (ENS) to provide domain names at .eth locations. EnCirca currently hosts 61 percent of the .bank domain names registered, according to fTLD data.

Domain names via Shutterstock