The Story Behind the Bitcoins.com Domain Name

Elliot Silver
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15

BitcoinsArguably one of the most popular topics of 2013 was the emergence and growing popularity of bitcoins. Thousands of publications have covered all aspects of bitcoins, and you can see the jump in popularity in bitcoins in this Google Trends chart.

A website was recently launched on  Bitcoins.com, and I did a bit of research to see if I could contact the original registrant of the domain name.  I was able to get in touch with the original registrant, a native of Argentina  who asked that I not publish his name for privacy reasons, and he was kind enough to share his story about the domain name . Bitcoins.com is now owned by Tibanne Co. Ltd., the company that operates the Mt.Gox bitcoin exchange.

“Back in 1998 (dot.coms) I created a Business Plan for a new kind of

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Together.com May Have Sold Last Month

Elliot Silver
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6

I was doing some domain name acquisition research at DomainTools last week when I came across Together.com. I noticed the screenshot  from July showed a Mark Monitor landing page that said “This Domain Name May Be for Sale.” Based on the current Whois information, which differs from the Whois information at the time of the screenshot, it appears that Together.com may have recently changed hands.

My guess is that a transaction happened sometime around the beginning of November. If you look at the Whois history, an organization called The Climate Group owned the domain name until the end of October. In early November, a new registrant was listed. The domain name now resolves to TogetherNetworks.com.

I did some research, including a search of the domain sales database at

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DNForum Opens Domain Sales for Bitcoins Section

Elliot Silver
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22

Last night, I happened to come across a new domain sales section on DNForum, “Domains For Sale (Accepting Bitcoins) – Fixed Price.” People who want to sell their domain names for Bitcoins as payment may list their domain names for sale in that specific forum.

According to an unscientific poll I ran the other day, a little more than half of the people who voted in the poll said they

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Tip: Don’t Check In on Unreturned Emails

Elliot Silver
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5

For the most part, I will return solicitation emails when people ask if I want to buy their domain name(s). While the vast majority aren’t close to being of interest to me (keyword .com domain names are almost exclusively what I buy), I do my best to give a “no thanks” or something along those lines because I think it is courteous.

In addition to these emails, I receive a ton of guest post and SEO pitch emails. I almost never reply to those emails because I have absolutely no interest in working with someone who needs to make these types of unsolicited emails to get business. I don’t want to give someone an opportunity to add me to a “responsive” email list for future solicitations, nor do I want to get another sales pitch.

One thing that irritates me is getting an email like this:

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Managing Sale Listings Post-Inquiry

Elliot Silver
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1

I assume that most people with domain name portfolios have sale listings at marketplaces like Sedo, Aftermarket.com, and Afternic. If you’re like me, you list some domain names for sale at BIN prices and others are of the make offer variety. On occasion, I will update the prices as the market dictates, although I often “set it and forget it” in the words of infomercial star Ron Popeil.

Oftentimes, inquiries for my domain names either come from the domain name’s landing page or as a result of my emailing potential buyers. Because of this, many prospects don’t see what price a domain name is listed for on a marketplace, so there could be a price difference – sometimes more or sometimes less depending on market and business conditions.

When this happens, a prospect could

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Would You Accept Bitcoins for a Domain Name Sale?

Elliot Silver
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29

chartThere has been considerable news about bitcoins and the rising value of bitcoins. There was an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, and other publications have written extensively about bitcoins. You can search Google News and see hundreds of mainstream articles about bitcoins and bitcoin values.

I know a few people who have been involved with bitcoins and bitcoin mining, but I haven’t gotten involved yet (as you can see from the QR code I added with 0 BTC). I’ve considered putting a few domain names up for sale in exchange for bitcoins, but I still have a number of questions about them before being willing to accept bitcoins for valuable domain names. Volatility is an issue for me; I wouldn’t want to sell a domain name for $10k worth of bitcoin and see the value drop 30% before I collect the funds. I assume some buyers would have the same issue, too.

Namecheap is one domain registrar that accepts bitcoins for payment. This proved to be a smart move for the company, as the value of a bitcoin has increased tremendously since announcing this.  I assume other domain registrars and domain service companies will follow suit, although I don’t know when that is going to happen. I love the idea of it though.

I am curious about you. At this point in time, would you

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