Name Bidding and Premium Names on EOS
What is a name?
An influential playwright once wrote
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet
However, I think we all agree rose looks nicer than xxxrosexxx12. But what about rose.com, or flower.rose, or rose.flower, or rose.io? Blockchains to date have avoided the great name wars by using random hashes instead - bitcoin and ethereum addresses for example generate a random hash that is mathematically proven to be unique.
EOS wanted to do things differently.
Names in EOS
EOS still has random hashes in the form of public and private keys, however EOS introduces the concept of an account. Accounts can be controlled by the owners of a public key, or by other accounts. (Check out our multisig tutorial)
The important thing about EOS accounts is that they have a unique human readable name. At this point in time account names must be 12 characters long and may only include the characters 12345abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz. Part of the reason for this is to prevent "name-squatting" from occurring in the early stages of the EOS mainnet launch. Unfortunately these limitations don't make for the prettiest names - no sweet.rose allowed.
Premium names
With the recent release of Dawn 4.2 the concept of premium names and name bidding comes into play. The current idea is that premium names will be available in the form of "suffixes". This is essentially the same idea as the Top Level Domain (TLD) used for website addresses:
- .com
- .net
- .io
- .eos
- .mydapp
The owner of these premium names would then be able to generate new accounts that can be shorter (but not longer) than the 12 character limit, and may include a "dot". The owner of .mydapp could create user1.mydapp, iam.mydapp, whatever they wish. These accounts are unable to be deleted and may be given away at the discretion (or for the correct price) of the owner of the premium name.
There is ongoing discussion regarding the premium naming conventions; the hottest topic being whether the premium name should be a suffix, a prefix, or both. That discussion (now closed) can be found at the official eosio github.
How do I get a premium name?
Mechanisms are being developed starting from Dawn 4.2 that will allow anyone to begin bidding for a name they feel will be valuable as a premium name through a built-in auction. The important notes at this time are:
- Premium name bidding does not begin until 14 days after the mainnet unlocks. (The mainnet will unlock and officially reward block production once 15% of the total EOS supply has been staked and voted for block producers).
- Any name may receive bids by anyone
- Each consecutive bid must increase by 10%
- Only one name will be awarded each day - the name awarded is the one that has the highest bid of all names as of that day.
What does this mean?
In addition to the competition by block producers to receive votes, for EOS to be used to stake for Bandwidth and CPU, to purchase RAM on a Bancor market, a whole new world of name auctions and name market places will appear. It is anticipated that the first several days after the name auctions become active we will see Top Level Domains bid on rapidly. Early adopters will be rewarded by bidding on names early in the first days before competition becomes even more fierce. Name market places will arise to sell specialized account names.
While remaining subject to change the current model would indicate that niche and specialized Dapp names may have to wait significant time before their preferred premium names will be the "highest bid" while fierce bidding is occurring. We may see cases where certain groups may place very large bids on personal premium names just to force them to the top of the highest bid rankings out of impatience or as an attempt to secure their premium name.
Where does the EOS go?
The EOS paid for premium names will go into a shared eosio.savings pool that includes unallocated inflation from the inflation model. These savings are intended to be used to fund and incubate various community initiatives and projects based on voting of the governance model and community. This means that the fight for a premium name should ultimately benefit the community by giving back to it.
What do you think?
We would love to hear everyone's opinions on what the premium name auction system will mean for EOS and what sort of community involvement and interactions will arise from this mechanism. Please comment and start some discussion.
Check Out Nathan's Video on this topic:
About Us
GenerEOS is a social enterprise block producing candidate with a mission of promoting and supporting scalable and highly reliable block production whilst giving back block rewards to charities.
Based out of Sydney, Australia, GenerEOS is founded by a team of like minded blockchain enthusiasts with diverse backgrounds and a passion to make a difference in the world and fostering the spirit of generosity by giving back.
Public Presence
Website: https://www.genereos-sydney.io
Steem: https://steemit.com/@genereos
Telegram: https://t.me/joinchat/FfqLYBDQkv5vSkiLsh34IA
Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/GenerEOS
Github: https://github.com/generEOS
Medium: https://medium.com/@generEOS
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/generEOS
Proceeds go to a dedicated eosio.names fund to be allocated or burned by community later.
Dope! Which official wallet will we be able to vote for block producers from @dan?
Dan,
It’s obvious that you know the secret. If you want something bad enough the universe will provide. I want the world to be more balanced. I want people to know that they deserve great things. I want to build a unique thank you voice message token. My family is incredibly talented musically, we have been beyond blessed. Our parents gave us the gift of appreciation and giving this gift to the world is what I have been studying. The best way to get the world off of the fiat greed system, is to switch to a system that is balanced between giving and receiving, thanks.eos.
Thank you for your contributions to making the world better for everyone.
Voice messages and natural human interactions evoke emotions that are just more powerful than reading text. Your emotions change your universe, you get what you want and you steer the ship. People that you value should be rewarded in thanks every day. People who are appreciated make the world a better place.
The secret to success is letting the people around you know that they are appreciated. They are who make things possible for you and you make things possible for them.
Please help me create a sharing thanks network, that doesn’t become unusable due to cost of entry. I want everyone to be involved and to give people thanks for nothing. Free to use like steem it. Thank you
Thanks for providing the clarification @dan. Team GenerEOS really appreciates that instead of just generating profit the EOS ecosystem will allow the community to decide how to use these proceeds.
but it is the community that decides what happens with the funds or is it Block1 or you or the one with the most eos?
Seems like an interesting idea but it does not really seem to serve a lot of purpose (except extra publicity or getting even more capital then before)
I am a very small investor and (slowly growing) witness here on steem and I am ambivalent on what EOS does. It has a lot of benefits and looks really good but I still have that nagging little doubt in me about the whole thing.
I guess the biggest thing is: why would you need that much money... No ICO needs that much money in my opinion.
I know expressing doubts in your project is maybe not the right way to go about the next question but I would hope honesty would be appreciated
I know you are not very active on steem (as seen on your witness votes below) but if you would grant a new project your vote that would be amazing @swisswitness
thanks in advance
Community means it doesn't get allocated by block.one or Dan.
A good ICO isn't capped. Nobody from block one could or should determine how much people can bid to participate in their bid based ICO. As the stake holder with the greatest incentive to see eos succeed, I trust that they'll use the venture capitalist fund wisely.
Eos allows developers to build decentralised applications like steem without having to build a blockchain.
exactly... Now I will be honest that I havent gotten that deep into the EOS topic but is there anything in place that will do that or is it just based on our trust?
I thought you were going to quit Steemit. Or don't I remember that very well?
tks for introduction
Are these names different from the names claimed with Scatter?
Yes, Scatter uses their own identity layer called RIDL. Names you claim with Scatter/RIDL can then be associated with multiple EOS accounts. When processing a transaction using Scatter you can chose which EOS public keys or accounts to sign or pay with.
Awesome! Great to hear we have our own Aussie block producer doing great things!
Great article guys, very well explained.
so is it like eos is creating its own web presence? i'm totally clueless. ty
Premium Names, quite literally, have the potential to make or break EOS. This topic is so important so I took the time to write a direct appeal to block producers.
Please consider my appeal and maybe get some reaction from the community. I want EOS to succeed everyone's expectations and I believe this could be the key. We cannot get this wrong because the implication could have dire consequences...
AN URGENT APPEAL TO EOS BLOCK PRODUCERS
https://steemit.com/eos/@richreeve/an-appeal-to-eos-block-producers-and-the-wider-community
It's a great plan except for only awarding one name per day. I can't imagine that scaling once EOS really takes off. And people who want simple names with low value will have to wait, possibly forever, to become the highest bid name that day.
The wording is poor. They're like domain spaces. Who wins for example .game can sell cards.game, casino.game poker.game to other parties. You get one good domain space you're going to print money, expect huge bids. This isn't for you to get a vanity address. It's for dapps to be easily found and accessed.
I'm definitely going to participate in this, I just don't know how much of a realistic chance I will have. Will there be a mechanism in place to make sure people with the most EOS don't claim more than a certain amount of premium names? If not, then the only people who will stand a chance are those with the most EOS. They'll claim every valuable name.
cool