AZERO.ID: The Domain Service to rule them all
Hello everyone and welcome to my 2nd article on another exciting AZERO ecosystem project. Today, I’ll be covering AZERO.ID (formerly known as AZERO Domains), the domain service building on Aleph Zero that’s been hailed to be offering the first ever private domain-to-domain asset transfer’s. In this article, I’ll be going over the problems with current crypto DNS’, the solutions that AZERO.ID is providing to the crypto space, the team behind the project and so on.
Just like my first article about Panjea, this article will divided into 6 parts: The Problem, The Solution, The Team, The Funding, Integrations & Roadmap, The Testnet, Validator & Ambassadors and The Conclusion, so make sure to begin from the start (The Problem) before moving onto the other parts. Now lets begin, shall we?
The Problem:
From the first ever blockchain project, Namecoin, to the famous Ethereum project, ENS, DNS’ (Decentralized Name Service’s) have become a staple in the crypto space for users to purchase and own their domain name on their favorite blockchain network in order to make sending funds to other addresses more easier and fluent. Without DNS’, crypto just wouldn’t be the same as it is today, because without it, it would make sending funds to addresses more prone to human error (accidentally misspelling a public address), makes alphanumerical character addresses harder to remember, and sometimes it can lead to fraud.
However, as good as these DNS’ really are, there also a list of cons that users really need to consider when they first buy their domain name from one of these service’s. Two good example of DNS’ on Ethereum that suffer from 2 challenges are ENS and Unstoppable Domains (UD). One of these challenges is domain squatting, which is a serious issue that none of these two DNS’ can’t seem to solve.
Domain squatting happens when domain service’s like ENS and UD suffer from a no. of speculator’s that collect a massive list of domains in order to sell them at a higher price in the future, depending if these domains are really valuable or not. Because of domain squatters, the utility of these on-chain domains for users have sadly been reduced.
Furthermore, these said DNS’ fail to capture a relationship with their communities, as these name systems are central hubs for the community and in order for the name service to see any kind of growth, they need value creation and revenues to be generated for the growth of the community and the ecosystem itself. Due to this failure, there’s now a lack of an efficient use and allocation of these obtained funds from the community.
The Solution:
AZERO.ID is set out to be the first ever privacy-enhanced domain system in the crypto space. In order to onboard the next users that decide to join the AZERO ecosystem, they will be introducing a couple of key innovations and use cases to make that happen:
- Improvements to the user experience: On-chain domains from AZERO.ID solve the lack of quality UX by providing an easy way to transact and / or interact with applications on Aleph Zero. The user’s domain will be their starting point in creating their on-chain identity and exploring the AZERO ecosystem. And just like that, the headache of double-checking wallet addresses repeatedly before making a transaction is now a thing of the past.
- First ever privacy-enhanced domain system: AZERO.ID will be the first movers in the crypto space for offering private domain-to-domain asset transfers. Because of this, this will lead to a huge leap in the user experience of on-chain domains since it’s the first time users can leverage their identity via a domain without revealing the user’s wallet balances and on-chain activities. Not to mention that all of this is being powered by Liminal, the soon-to-be-released privacy framework of Aleph Zero.
- Aggregate your social identity: Users can establish their on-chain brand and identity by adding any metadata they would like to have, like social handles (Twitter, YouTube, Discord, etc.), wallet addresses, credentials, and ZK-Proofs to their domain. Users can leverage it in all their on-chain activities such as payments, messaging, and governance.
- Trustless subdomains: Users can issue subdomains with unique member ID’s & explore limitless opportunities to manage their own community, employees, or NFT collection to their liking.
- Fully user-owned NFTs: All domains that users mint are represented as NFTs on the blockchain with full user custody. Soon, the team will aim to make the protocol itself completely decentralized.
- Personalized website: With each domain, users can expect to receive a link to a personalized website that they can share to all their social profiles, showcase their NFTs, and more.
- Trustless identity systems: Users can find that they can enable verified asset & contract identities, sybil-protected governance, undercollateralized DeFi, or a unique identity system for their own game / metaverse.
- Auctions: Users can decide to bid on exclusive domain names to set themselves apart in the digital world. This feature will be available soon, as this is still in development as part of their native domain marketplace. For trading domains right from the beginning, AZERO.ID have officially partnered with ArtZero, which is currently the central marketplace to buy, sell and trade NFT’s on Aleph Zero.
Now you might asking: how much is the domain going to cost and what’s the yearly renewal fee? AZERO.ID have stated in their FAQ (found on their website) that the base fee for a 5+ character domain is 6 AZERO per year. However, longer, upfront registrations require paying a premium. Due to this, the team is dedicated to aim and achieve fair yearly domain renewal fees by introducing a demand-based pricing mechanism soon. For that reason, a domain registration period is not extendable after purchase right now.
How about adding in different types of characters and languages to our domain name? Well for now, users can only register 5+ character domains with lowercase Latin letters, numbers, and hyphens in between. But don’t be disgruntled by this, as the team will be continuously adding in more characters and languages to the supported character set.
The Team:
AZERO.ID is being developed by Scio Labs, a team of 6+ people building the platform on Aleph Zero for now and in the future. They’re passionate about everything web3 and crypto, and this all driven by the spirit of decentralization. The team started AZERO.ID with a successful participation at the ETHWarsaw hackathon back in September 2022, where they won first prize from the Aleph Zero Foundation and today, the primary goal was and still is to improve the overall Aleph Zero user experience with the simplicities of on-chain domains.
They chose to build on Aleph Zero due to the fact that they’ve been very active in the community ever since day 1 and as a result of this, the team were the first successful applicants in the AZERO Ecosystem Funding Program (EFP).
Before starting AZERO.ID, the team has had initial success building previous projects on Ethereum and Polkadot like stablecoins.wtf (https://stablecoins.wtf/), a Data Dashboard & Education platform about Stablecoins and Stake for Earth, a project coming soon that enables users to compound yield for Climate Action at 0 cost. They also act as an advisory across other ecosystem projects outside Aleph Zero, like BrilliantBlocks (https://www.zkode.xyz/) and Narratic (https://narratic.ai/).
Not a lot is known about the other members of the team so instead, I’ll list three of their most prominent:
Mike Schneider (Co-founder)
Dennis Zollmann (Co-founder)
Levii (Community Manager)
If you would like to follow Scio Labs and AZERO.ID on LinkedIn and view the teams profiles, here’s the links — https://www.linkedin.com/company/scio-xyz/people/ & https://www.linkedin.com/company/azero-id/ and you can find the other members of the team on their Discord server too!
You can also find job opportunities not just on their LinkedIn pages, but on the Scio Labs website, which can be found in the References list, and in their Discord server, so keep an eye out for future job posts if you’ve got what it takes to join the team!
The Funding, Integrations & Roadmap:
With the rebrand from AZERO Domains to AZERO.ID, the team behind the project has successfully secured funding in a pre-seed round, which will provide them more manpower and resources to develop the project for the long-term. They’ve been lucky to attract and connect to so many well-minded individuals from Aleph Zero and some AZERO ecosystem projects, and were proud to participate in the pre-seed funding round.
Because of this, AZERO.ID is proudly backed by Aleph Zero, Parity Technologies, the Web3 Foundation, Block54, nxgen, Rana Capital & WWVentures. Not only was the funding fundamental to the growth of this project, but AZERO.ID also has an abundance of technical expertise among these group of investors, with the most important areas being in ink!, Substrate, Aleph Zero and the Dotsama ecosystem.
So far, AZERO.ID has a impressive list of partners and projects they plan to integrate their technology with (and some of these are from the funding round too). Here’s the list:
- Aleph Zero
- SubWallet
- Common
- Parity Technologies
- Cardinal Cryptography
- PanoramaSwap
- Gatenox
- Kudelski Security
- Subsquid
- ArtZero
- DRKVRS
Finally, AZERO.ID has also laid out a well-planned roadmap for their future developments. The roadmap includes points that have been COMPLETED and some that are to be completed SOON, like:
- Hackathon winner at ETHWarsaw 2022 — COMPLETED in Q3 2022
- 100K+ registrations on the testnet — COMPLETED in Q3 2022
- Accepted to the Aleph Zero EFP — COMPLETED in Q4 2022
- Launch on the Aleph Zero mainnet — SOON in Q2 2023
- Expansion to the Dotsama ecosystem — SOON
- Native domain marketplace — SOON
- Private domain-to-domain transfers — SOON
- Token & DAO governance — SOON
The Testnet, Validator & Ambassadors:
AZERO.ID plans to launch their closed beta testing phase / testnet on the 14th June 2023 (9 days from when this article will be posted on), and after the proper testing and the overall conclusion of their pending smart contract audit from Kudelski Security will they announce the launch of AZERO.ID onto mainnet.
Luckily, for the current users and for the ones that are new to this project, AZERO.ID will allow these users to secure a spot on the whitelist when interacting with the testnet and providing valuable feedback to the team. The whitelist will make the user eligible to join their early access phase onto the mainnet, allowing them to exclusively purchase and register a domain 1 week before the general public.
However, to gain access to the upcoming testnet, users will need the OG role in AZERO.ID’s Discord server. How do you get this role, you might ask? Well, by participating in their new Zealy sprints / quests, you still have a chance to obtain this role. Unfortunately, there’s no way now to obtain the role now (as of writing) as they’ve concluded their previous events that allowed users to obtain it by completing some quests / competitions.
But don’t be discouraged by this just yet! They’ve still got some more sprints / quests that are to follow before the testnet arrives. If you would like to join their Zealy Questboard to complete some quests now and earn the chance to obtain the OG role, click on the link here with my referral code — https://zealy.io/c/azero-id/invite/HyBlFkNHoJGdHGgFlNIcg
But that’s not all, as there’s also another way to get whitelisted too! Besides getting whitelisted by following the steps above, users also have the chance to receive a whitelist spot by staking with their Community Validator Node. If you would like to know more as to how to stake your AZERO with the AZERO.ID Community Validator Node, their commission fees, and their awesome partnership with Swiss Staking, the link to their staking article can be found at the end of this article in the References list under the tag (STAKING).
The team at AZERO.ID has also recruited a total of 10 ambassadors in order to promote the project, and to give the team any valuable suggestions and feedback that can improve AZERO.ID significantly. The list of ambassadors includes some very well-known accounts on Twitter that support and promote Aleph Zero and the AZERO ecosystem, like euromandriver, Kryptstar Mack, Sekoya Labs, captainazero, and many more. You can find more about the ambassadors in this Twitter post by AZERO.ID — https://twitter.com/AZERO_ID/status/1613094687740465154
The Conclusion:
In conclusion, AZERO.ID are poised to disrupt the DNS space with their amazing technological innovations, like their variable demand-based pricing mechanism, private domain-to-domain asset transfers, trustless identity systems, and so on. The team behind AZERO.ID has a lot to accomplish in the future in order to make this DNS the best it can offer to users, so if you would like to, you can also subscribe to their newsletter on their website (https://azero.id/) to get the latest news about development, integrations, achievements and etc. Don’t forget to join their socials if you haven’t as well, with all of the links being on their website!
You’ve now reached the end of this article (hooray!). If you guys enjoyed reading this, share it with anyone that might be interested about AZERO.ID and what they’re doing. Below is the list of references I used to make this article possible. Don’t forget to give me a follow on Twitter (https://twitter.com/Ethan_H343) if you haven’t already, let me know what you think of this article if you have anything to say about it in the comments, and thanks for reading :)
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