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Comment by zokier | Hacker News Reader

Bleh. My personal domain renewal is coming up and Namecheap has gotten lots of recommendations here at HN. But on the other hand I'm bit reluctant to move domains from (my current) Swiss registar to US one, even if they all ultimately are based on ICANN.

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Facing the same problem. The whole US government fear, uncertainty and doubt mess makes me question decisions which probably don't even concern me in the long run.

I guess namecheap is about as popular as it gets and most European sellers like gandi aren't as cheap, but there is no way for me to know whether choosing a US based domain seller could ever have any adverse effects on me as an European, whether it's censorship, laws, transfer problems, ownership problems or anything I can't even think of.

- Out of curiosity, who's your current registrar?

- I don't know if you're talking about a ccTLD or a com/net/org but if it's the latter I don't think a non-US registrar can help you since those TLDs are directly under US control.

Currently at joker.com, and .net domain. Yes, I know escaping US control is ultimately futile, but that doesn't mean that I'd be wanting to give in any more than necessary. Even in the worst-case scenario a Swiss company should be able to communicate about the circumstances, while US based registar might be gagged with NSL or equivalent and I'd be left in the dark.

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