FAQ

Is Butterfly Protocol limited to a single TLD?

No. Unlike other blockchain based naming systems the eventual goal of the butterfly protocol is to be an alternative to the legacy system. In a url the http:// part denotes what protocol is being used. We follow that format in clients we build where possible using web+bfly:// to direct the client to use Butterfly Protocol. We also use gateways that allow Butterfly Protocol domains to be accessed through existing dns systems. These gateways live at existing domains such as bfly.link but will be open source allowing anyone to host a gateway on their own legacy domain.

Why are you not scoping Butterfly Protocol to a single TLD?

While we provide ways to connect the old and the new we don’t want the new to be held back. The TLDs are important, if we rely on the old system Butterfly Protocol would be crippled. An example is the .dev TLD. Until recently .dev wasn’t a valid domain so many developers used it to point to different projects on their local machine. When ICANN released it into the wild it broke. Any new naming system that relies on a TLD not existing on legacy DNS is dependent on that legacy system.

How are TLDs selected and made available on Butterfly Protocol?

ICANN currently charges $185k to evaluate a new TLD. For Butterfly Protocol we want the community to be able to decide what TLDs should exist. To that end we released a utility token, BFLY, that is burned to sponsor new TLDs. It initially cost 10k BFLY to sponsor a domain with that cost going down every block until it reaches a minimum of 10 token after about 3 years.

For cross chain and special use TLDs we offer the ability to register fully owned TLDs by burning 100k BFLY. The fully owned TLDs are completely controlled by the entity that registers it. This allows for a very flexible system for other projects to build on and expand the ecosystem.

How does Butterfly Protocol compare to namecoin?

One of the biggest differences is that namecoin was its own blockchain while Butterfly Protocol builds its ownership control on ethereum using standardized tokens. This means that any marketplace or wallet that supports the ERC721 standard will work with your domains. Another key differentiator is that once you own a domain on the butterfly protocol you don’t rent it you own it. Most other systems, including namecoin, make you pay every year just to keep something you already paid for.

How does Butterfly Protocol compare to ENS?

ENS is a great project and has a couple things in common with Butterfly Protocol. They are both built on ethereum and use similar name hashing. ENS does use NFTs to manage ownership of a domain but the domains themselves are not NFTs and you have to pay every year. There are a number of other differences such as how Butterfly Protocol stores data and allows the community to creates TLDs. Where possible we bridge TLDs to ENS letting Butterfly Protocol provide a superset of features.

How does Butterfly Protocol compare to IPFS/IPNS?

IPFS is pretty amazing and it is actually a main component of Butterfly Protocol not a competitor. While IPFS has some tools for linking traditional domains to files stored on IPFS it doesn’t have a naming system of its own. Even IPNS just provides a consistent address that can link to different files. We take full advantage of different parts of IPFS including IPLD to allow us to store much more than ethereum by itself or legacy DNS.

Does Butterfly Protocol prevent domain squatters?

Not exactly, and we don’t want to. Although we do have a couple features that make squatting on a high value domain more difficult. The ability to buy a domain for a low price and selling it for more than you paid is a good thing. It creates an open market where the value of a name is determined by free trade. We also make it easy for domain owners to create and sell subdomains, create ERC20 tokens tied to a domain, and provide many other ways for a creative domain owner to turn a profit besides squatting.

One reason it is a problem on legacy DNS is that all legacy domains under a TLD cost a fairly consistent low price from the start. This is partly because it needs to be low since people pay the fee every year. But it allows someone to swoop in and buy up a bunch of names. With the butterfly protocol after the tokens used to create a domain for a specific TLD are distributed the cost in those tokens starts fairly high at 1k tokens and slowly goes down over time. This makes it costly for a squatter to just buy all domains under a TLD.