Ask HN: How many domain names do you own?

I worry that domains are becoming irrelevant, but the reality proves me wrong - people still pay good money for good domains.

My point is that ICANN and the whole domain business should be disrupted. Similarly to cryptocurrencies, domains attack the wrong folk. Plus, most things about domains are daylight robbery, which the corrupt ICANN and the greedy registrars enable!

Look at the list of accredited registrars [0] - a handful of companies have hundreds or even thousands of entities because when a domain gets deleted, every registrar receives an equal chance of catching it for the aftermarket, and the more registrars you accredit, the better chance you get at catching dropped domains and selling it for tens, hundreds, and often thousands of dollars - something, which costs you less than $10!

In many cases, people have legitimate domains they use for email, and suddenly, due to billing errors, they lose them to find out that an investor has them. And then they need to bargain and pay thousands of dollars to get them back.

Most registrars have huge fees to redeem an expired domain before it gets deleted. Many somehow trick the ICANN rules and auction the domain before it's dropped.

Just imagine you being late on your phone bill, and your competitor or some "investor" gets it and gets all the incoming calls or blackmails you to sell it back to you.

So, ICANN needs to change as they are a bunch of crooks, paid under the table by domain marketplaces - I have zero doubt about it.

I got an excellent domain through some of these registrars many years ago. Guess what? I had no way to transfer it or renew it! The company was based in the Bahamas or some island and had no way to pay. They also never emailed me the EPP/auth code, so, I couldn't transfer it out either. I opened a case with ICANN, and they told me that this is a customer support issue and ICANN does not regulate such matters, so I need to deal with the registrar on my own! Now, I believe things are slightly better, but not much better!

[0]: https://www.icann.org/en/accredited-registrars?view-all=true