FAQ - Namebase

Getting started

What is Namebase?: A place to register a domain on Handshake, a naming system where the top-level domains are owned on a blockchain rather than leased from a central authority. Thousands of endings are listed here by the people who own them, and you register a name under whichever one you like.
How is this different from a normal domain?: With .com, one organisation controls the ending and everyone rents from them. On Handshake the ending itself was bought on-chain by a person, and that person decides what names under it cost and what the rules are. Namebase is the shop and the DNS host. The owner of the ending sets the price.
Do I need a wallet, or any of this to make sense first?: A free Namebase account and coins to pay with, and that is all. Any Handshake wallet works at checkout, and names under an ending whose owner accepts Bitcoin can be paid for in Bitcoin instead. Namebase Wallet is ours and is free, but nothing here requires it.

Buying a name

Who gets my money?: The owner of the top-level domain you are buying under, directly. We generate a fresh payment address from that owner's own extended public key, and the coins go from you to them without passing through Namebase. We never hold your funds, there are no account balances here, and there is nothing for us to freeze.
Is there a Namebase fee on top of the price?: No. The price you see is the price you pay. We charge the owner of the ending a registry fee on what they sell, and it is never added to your side of the transaction.
What can I pay with?: HNS, and Bitcoin under any ending whose owner has published a Bitcoin payout key. The search results say which. Your quote fixes the exact coin amount at the moment you order, so a price move while you are sending does not change what you owe.
Why did my order split into several payments?: Because each payment goes to one seller, on one coin. A cart spanning three endings owned by three people is three payments, and one seller paid in both HNS and Bitcoin is two. Each one completes on its own. Paying one and not another gets you the names under the one you paid for.
What if I do not pay in time?: Nothing happens to you. The quote expires, the order is cancelled and the names go back into the pool for anyone to register. You were never charged, because we never had a way to charge you.
Can I get a refund?: No. Blockchain payments are final and the money went straight to the owner of the ending, so there is nothing for us to reverse and no balance to reverse it from. This is the trade for a registry that cannot take your name or your money: it also cannot undo a sale. Check the name before you pay.

Owning a name

How long does a registration last?: From one to 10 years, whichever you pick at checkout. The term starts when your payment confirms and the name is issued, not when you place the order.
How do I renew?: From your Domains page, at the renewal price the owner of the ending has set, paid to them the same way the first year was. Renewing before your expiry date adds the new years onto it; renewing after it starts them from the day you renew. Either way, a renewable name can never be paid more than 10 years into the future. We do not send renewal reminders. Your Domains page shows every expiry date, and it is worth a look before one gets close.
What happens when a name expires?: It keeps resolving and stays renewable for 30 days. Renew inside that window and you keep it, though the new term runs from the day you renew, so the days it spent expired are not added back. After the window, the name is released: it stops resolving, leaves your account, and becomes available for anyone else to register.
Do I really own the name?: It is yours, and it is worth being precise about what that means. The ending is owned on-chain by its operator. Your name under it is a registry record held in your account and published by our nameservers, under the delegation that operator put on-chain. Registering a name does not give you any claim on the ending itself, and the name stays subject to that operator's policies. If they let their ending lapse or stop pointing it at us, names under it are affected.
How do I point my name at something?: From your Domains page. You get A, AAAA, CNAME, ALIAS, MX, TXT, NS, CAA, DS and TLSA records, the same set an ordinary registrar gives you. Visitors need software that understands Handshake to reach it; Namebase Wallet sets that up on a machine and then Handshake sites open in the browser you already use.
Can I give a name to someone else?: Yes. Start a transfer from your Domains page and we email the recipient a single-use link, good for seven days. They accept it on the address you sent it to, and the name moves with whatever time is left on it.

Coming from the old Namebase

I had names and coins here. Where are they?: Still yours, and still withdrawable. The previous Namebase was custodial: it held the keys, the coins and the names on your behalf. That service has been retired and this one holds none of those things, which is why your old balances do not appear on this site. The sunset guide walks through getting everything out, with the same account you already have.
What is a claim, and do I need a code?: A claim brings a name you already own somewhere else into your Namebase account, free. Each partner registrar issues a claim code: Porkbun generates one on your account there, and encirca, 101domain and Namecheap emailed yours. encirca customers whose email already matched a Namebase account had their names added automatically. Handshake names held as NFTs on hns.id are claimed by signing with the wallet that holds them. The claim page lists every route and you can read it without signing in.
What happened to the exchange, and to the airdrop?: Both are gone. Namebase Pro traded BTC for HNS and was custodial, so it retired with the rest of the custodial service; the details are here. The HNS airdrop closed years ago and nothing here continues it. We do not sell HNS and we do not run an exchange.

Running a top-level domain

I own a Handshake name. Can I sell domains under it?: Yes, and that is what the TLDs page is for. You publish our nameserver and DS records on-chain, prove you own the name by signing a challenge with the wallet that holds it, set your prices, and pay the listing fee. Then your ending appears in search and buyers pay you directly.
My ending is listed but nothing shows up in search.: That is the gate doing its job rather than a bug. An ending sells only once all of it is true: enabled, priced, a payout key published, ownership verified on chain, the listing fee paid, public registrations left on, and no unpaid invoice suspending your account. Your TLDs page shows which listing step is outstanding; a suspension shows as a notice pointing at Billing.
What does it cost to list?: $10 per ending per year, paid in Bitcoin, and it is what takes your ending live. An ending brought over from the previous Namebase gets its first year free.
What is the registry fee?: What Namebase charges you, the owner, on each domain-year you sell: 10% of what the buyer actually paid, with a floor of $0.25 and a cap of $10 per domain-year. It is invoiced to you monthly and never added to the buyer's price. The floor applies even to a name you sold for nothing, so a giveaway still costs you the minimum. The Registry Agreement is the authority on all of this.

Still stuck

None of this answers my question.: Then write to us. Three ways to reach a person, and if it is about a specific domain, send the name itself from the email address on the account.