Highlights of ICNaming 2.0: Introducing the Revolutionary Blind Box and Name Market

Overview:

In this article, the ICNaming team is going to introduce two unique new features of their upgrade.

The team is going to introduce the blind box, which is an unprecedented and creative feature of their own, and that’s why it is much superior compared to other similar projects in the market.

First, it introduces a new way to explore the possibilities of name services, which delivers the ICnaming core belief: fairness.

Second, the blind box works on a mechanism of uncertainty, enabling a lot of enjoyment when users get involved.

Third, the initial probability design creates a higher chance for users to get more quotas and rare quotas with minimum spending that the price is relatively reasonable in the market. As such, to prove that they provided price and the project that offers a similar service to compare and contrast, they also provided the chart to illustrate the probability design that is more beneficial for the users due to the much higher probability than natural distribution, which means it will carry out more benefit for users at the beginning stage.

Lastly, the team is going to introduce their name market, which is one the most important facilities that support the trading of IC names, and they will elaborate the further details regarding functions and modalities in the following paragraphs.

In the new version, they will distribute IC names in blind boxes to promote market fairness. First, Let's introduce the rules of the blind box and the reasons for doing so.

Generally speaking, a 3-chars Web3 domain name costs more than $600. However, for the domain name system service providers, there is no essential difference between 3-chars and 7-chars names. The main reason for this is that shorter names are easier to use and remember. Therefore, users prefer shorter names. Initially, ICNaming considered this method: to increase the price of short names. However, there are no essential benefits for the users except bringing more profit to the creators. That is not the way how decentralized systems should be promoted. They want to design a better distribution mechanism as an open-sourced and decentralized name service system.

ICNaming's core value is to make IC Names accessible to everyone. IC name will become a revolutionary personal identity portal for Web3 that everyone can afford. On the other hand, they hope that IC names can be distributed to users smoothly and fairly. A blind box is a simple and interesting way to distribute IC names. Therefore, they decided to sell IC names in the form of blind boxes.

Each blind box contains an IC name quota and some tokens. The price of the blind box is $3 each. In previous address sales, the cheapest 7-chars domain name cost $3. Now, you have the chance to get rarer IC name quotas and some tokens with the same price.

The quota of IC names varies from 3-chars to 7-chars. As we all know, the number of 3 or 4-chars IC names is far less than that of 6 or 7-chars IC names. To clarify, the number ratio of 3 to 7-chars IC names is listed in the table below. If the blind box probability is set according to the ratio of the natural distribution, the likelihood of getting a three or 4-chars IC name is extremely low. The team adjusted the probability of the quotas of different digits to ensure that the revenue of the blind box is much greater than the selling price.

The following chart shows the detailed probability of the quota.

As you can see, the probability of each blind box is independent. In addition, the team designed a minimum guarantee for three and 4-chars IC names.

ICNaming could provide users with a fair and better market environment. Even in the worst case, you can get a 3-chars IC name quota and 99 4~7-chars IC name quotas for $300 and many tokens. Such a price is lower than that of any domain name service provider. If you’re lucky enough, you can buy a 3-chars IC name for only $3. Some users will generate many long character quotas while obtaining short character quotas. These long quotas can be sold through the market so that users who only want to register a long name can get a better deal than normal registration of a long name, which is more beneficial for the newcomers.

The rules that showed above will not only increase users’ playfulness during the participation, it will also make the whole system more valuable because of users’ participation, and the short quota will become more valuable. Thus, the blind box is not only a means to enhance the users’ willingness to obtain a short character quota and also promotes a free trading market with a fair enough price for the long quota to be obtained. The innovative, self-circulating decentralized system helps IC Naming become a sustainable project without centralized operators.

As a reminder for everyone, the minimum guarantee for three and 4-chars IC names is only a reward that the team has created to benefit their loyal users and is only applicable in the early stage of the release. As time passes, the distribution model of IC names will change, and the minimum guarantee mechanism will decrease the chance. In other words, the probability of getting rare IC names will become smaller. The current probability design is a way to appreciate loyal users who have always supported the mission.

Q&A

ICNaming has considered the way of auctioning names. However, it can complete the cold start in a very short period and obtain more funds from users who have participated in the early auction, which is beneficial to the team. However, in this way, users would fall into a cut-throat competition; it is detrimental to the market environment and requires the users to pay for the results, which is not a sustainable and ideal model for users.

Moreover, users with more money and the ability to obtain the information in advance will gain more advantages compared to the later participants, which reduces later participants’ interest in participation. As a decentralized system, reducing the users’ willingness to participate will inevitably lead to the massive loss of all users sooner or later due to the unfriendly trading environment. Therefore, the team abandoned the auction method for the greater good.

Name Market

You have probably been wondering about the information regarding the name market. ICNaming believes that names and quotas are valuable assets. The whole system will become much healthier if they can circulate freely among users.

Therefore, the name market will support trading names and quotas, including on-shelf, off-shelf, and transactions. In other words, not only can the IC names from airdrops be traded, but the quota issued by the blind box can also be traded. Due to the existence of the blind box mechanism, in order to obtain the short quota, users will have a large number of long quotas; as such, the market function as a means to help these holders to sell those quotas that they don’t use. Users who want to buy a longer character quota can get a lower price to register through the market. Of course, users who have registered popular names through early participation can earn profits through market transactions.

IC names and quotas can be freely priced and sold. IC Naming officials will not interfere with the market price. The price of IC names with different chars is determined by market supply and demand.