Arguably 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 ย Bitcoins.com, and I did a bit of research to see if I could contact the original registrant of the domain name. ย I was able to get in touch with the original registrant, a native of Argentina ย 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 www e-cash called BitCoin (see attached photo). It obviously wasn’t this disruptive currency, but I worked in it for two years and even showed it to several local investors and possible partners. In year 2K I did my Graduation Thesis, which I aced ;-), based on Bitcoins and so I registered and created an initial web (unfortunately not recorded within thewaybackmachine). One of the strength explained in the Business Plan, was “the BitCoin name”.
Since then I always paid the $8 for keeping the name active (no automatic renovation). In 2005 I uploaded it in SEDO and once a year I Googled if someone had used my name for something. It seems I stopped searching in 2009. Though I did had some small offer once.
In 03/2011 the second year that I really doubted to keep paying for the domain because my difficult economical situation, a guy offers me $3.5k (half of what I was asking at sedo) but after some issue from his side we left the transaction for the next day. Bad luck for him, because that night I was unable to sleep and the night after and after…
Once I gained access to the SEDO account I realized that I had over 40 offers. Then I was induced to offer it at the GreatDomains.com auction in June (big mistake). It was the top searched, top bidded, top base price, etc but the offered price was not even a 10% of the last private offer (base price). This has been a premium wave that domainers lost. The guy of the last private offer, offered me half the price right after the auction but I decided to go into private dealings and some month later I had MY offer, for which I asked to be payed part in Bitcoins. If I would have kept them until today ;-(, it would have been enough to make this sale be inside this list (I kept some ;-).
The most interesting experience of this was that I had to fight against EVERYBODY wife, family, Bitcoin community, domainers and sedo executive for keep rejecting offers, and then for finally accepting part in Bitcoins too.
I’m not a domainer so it took me months to decide if bitcoin had an opportunity, if bitcoins.com was a typo (as everybody said) or a good name (1 of 3 google searches was bitcoin”s”), contact by myself premium domainers and bitcoin entrepreneurs, all to decide by my self and against chances, which was a fair price.
So next time YOU think about selling a domain, give a thought about adding some bitcoins to the offer.”
Thank you for sharing the story.
What was the final sale price?
Finally a good post! I was an avid reader of your blog but I have to admit since you rebranded it has been going a bit downhill.
I feel the same way about many websites I visit. There are ebbs and flows in my interest level.
We all have different interests various industry topics, so it can be tough to please everyone all the time.
Hopefully there is more good stuff to come.
I remember seeing the domain auction listed on dnforum but it was before I was involved in Bitcoin. I believe the final price was $50K. The “s” is used a lot but many people only use the singular form so it is sort of a typo. I just picked up Bitcoin.me last week. It has no “s” and I am very happy.
Great story E, nice to read something of great interest this morning ๐
Good work
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=045ma1ntmi7gmctg0nsr2blve6&topic=387588.0
This was discussed here.
It doesn’t look like the registrant shared his story there.
I just meant the domain research, clearly the story is the icing on the cake. Good job.
It seems the former owner was a little overconfident that his former domain would’ve reached the top 10 domain sales of all time. It’s a good quality domain, but not a multimillion dollar site yet. In my opinion, PayPal is absolutely the best payment system ever created on the net, bar none.
Intersting Story…
I prefer PayPal.com
but then I’m not trying to hide money moving around…
~Patricia
no way to correct typo’s on posts ??
If you were around in the early 90’s you heard the same sort of comments about the Internet. It’s all porn, it’s for criminals, if you use your credit card you will lose all your money, yada, yada, yada. Bitcoin is full of misunderstandings, misinterpretations, hyperbole, people with political motives who try to attach themselves to it, and people who know nothing about it who go around making negative comments about it. When you talk about Bitcoin with someone it is like a technology IQ test. This is what has made Bitcoin such a great investment for those that understand it.
You’re Sounding Defensive…
(smile) ~Patricia
Great article. It is interesting the auction price was so low. I have found that to be true also, that most of the time selling domains at an auction is not worth it.
“The most interesting experience of this was that I had to fight against EVERYBODY wife, family, Bitcoin community, domainers and sedo executive for keep rejecting offers, and then for finally accepting part in Bitcoins too.”
Sounds like he became a man here, thinking for himself, and going with his gut. ๐