How D3 Is Turning Domains into DeFi Gold

by
Victoria d’Este

Revealed: August 07, 2025 at 9:55 am Up to date: August 07, 2025 at 9:55 am

by Ana

Edited and fact-checked:
August 07, 2025 at 9:55 am

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Regardless of overseeing greater than 40 million domains and collaborating with business leaders like Google and Verisign, Fred Hsu noticed a essential hole in Web3: the absence of a legally authoritative naming system. This realization sparked the creation of D3, a platform that reimagines domains as dynamic, programmable belongings driving the rising DomainFi economic system. Underneath Hsu’s management, D3 goals to unify Web2 and Web3 domains, unlocking new monetary potentialities like fractional possession, yield technology, and cross-chain interoperability.

Might you please introduce your self and share a bit about your journey into Web3?

Completely. I’ve been within the area business for about 25 years. Traditionally, I’ve managed round 40 million domains via my first firm. From early on, I understood the large financial worth locked inside DNS infrastructure. I began D3 to redefine what domains might be,  not simply as static digital actual property, however as programmable, composable belongings.

What’s the basic perception that led to the creation of D3? How does it redefine the function of domains within the digital economic system?

The elemental perception got here from realizing that Web3 had no legally authoritative naming system. After managing over 40 million domains at Oversee and seeing billions in income generated with companions like Google, Yahoo, and Verisign, I understood the large financial worth locked in DNS infrastructure. However Web3 and Web2 domains existed in separate silos, limiting their full potential.

D3 redefines domains from static digital actual property into programmable, composable belongings. We’re turning the $340B+ area business into the spine of a brand new DomainFi economic system the place domains can generate yield, be fractionalized, function collateral, and energy cross-chain identification—all whereas sustaining their authorized authority and international interoperability.

In your view, what’s the main operate of a site within the twenty first century: identification, asset, infrastructure—or one thing else completely?

All three, unified. Domains are the convergence layer of the digital economic system. They’re identification as a result of they supply human-readable, verifiable names throughout chains and purposes. They’re belongings as a result of they generate actual money circulate via renewals, leasing, and monetization—much like business actual property however international and digital. They’re infrastructure as a result of they’re the foundation layer that connects billions of customers to purposes, web sites, and providers.

However extra basically, domains have gotten programmable fame programs—they carry metadata, allow belief, and can function the passport system for AI brokers and cross-chain interactions.

What systemic limitations within the present area business does D3 goal to beat? Why is now the precise time to take action?

The most important limitations are illiquidity and fragmentation. In the present day, premium area offers take 4-8 weeks with brokers skimming 20-30%. There’s no fractional possession, no programmatic lending, and no composability with DeFi protocols. Web2 domains and Web3 naming programs exist in separate worlds.

Now’s the precise time as a result of now we have the infrastructure—mature sensible contract platforms, DeFi primitives, and institutional urge for food for real-world belongings. The 2026 gTLD utility spherical creates a once-in-a-generation alternative to launch blockchain-native TLDs which can be natively programmable from day one.

What new sorts of digital services or products develop into attainable via composable area rights?

Instantaneous area finance revolutionizes the way in which domains are purchased and managed by enabling Amazon-style checkout for complete or fractional purchases, leasing, or financing with transactions finishing in underneath a minute and costs stored beneath 5%. Domains evolve into programmable passports for AI brokers, offering verifiable and human-readable identities that operate seamlessly throughout a number of blockchains and purposes. 

Moreover, communities acquire the facility to launch and govern their very own top-level domains (TLDs), similar to .shib or .pirate, supported by on-chain treasuries that oversee renewals and coverage enforcement. This method additionally introduces a cross-chain fame framework, making a single canonical identification that resolves uniformly throughout .sol, .base, .com, and conventional domains, successfully eliminating the silo downside. 

Moreover, token holders profit from various income streams by amassing pro-rata earnings from area parking, leasing, and gross sales in actual time, thereby making a dynamic and participatory financial ecosystem round area possession.

In methods can tokenized domains take part in DeFi protocols—for instance, in collateralized lending, staking, or revenue-sharing constructions?

As soon as domains are tokenized via DOMA-enabled registrars, they seamlessly combine with DeFi infrastructure, enabling a variety of monetary alternatives. Homeowners can use their domains, similar to Chat.com, as collateral to borrow stablecoins immediately, with loans backed by verifiable DNS possession. Token holders profit from income sharing, receiving pro-rata earnings from area monetization, together with parking yields starting from 20% to 40% yearly—distributed day by day or month-to-month. 

Premium domains like Hockey.com will be fractionalized, permitting smaller buyers to take part whereas offering liquidity to present homeowners. Moreover, area tokens will be staked in liquidity swimming pools or utilized in governance to earn protocol rewards via yield farming. Central to this technique is authoritative tokenization, which ensures that possession is anchored in precise DNS registries relatively than mere wrappers or copies, preserving authenticity and worth.

How does D3 guarantee compliance with ICANN insurance policies whereas introducing blockchain-based area performance?

We function inside the present DNS ecosystem as a reputable registrar with confirmed infrastructure. Our crew consists of veterans from ICANN, GoDaddy, and main registry operators who perceive the regulatory panorama.

We’re not changing DNS—we’re enhancing it. Domains stay absolutely compliant with ICANN insurance policies whereas gaining programmable options via tokenization. We work with established registries and keep the authorized chain of title that makes domains useful within the first place.

For blockchain-native TLDs within the 2026 spherical, we’re making use of via correct ICANN channels with the infrastructure and compliance observe document required.

How does D3 assist builders seeking to combine domain-based performance into their dApps or marketplaces?

We’re constructing the Stripe of domains—protocol-first infrastructure that powers area belongings throughout all chains. Our DOMA protocol gives APIs and SDKs for:

Fractionalization: Creation of fungible tokens to facilitate value discovery & gross sales 

DeFi primitives: Combine area collateral into lending protocols

Id options: Create wallets and apps that use DNS for cross-chain identification

Market integration: Construct area buying and selling platforms with on the spot settlement

Developer instruments: Entry stay pricing oracles, lease yield information, and area metadata

We’re the rails, not the storefront—enabling builders to create the following technology of domain-powered purposes.

What are among the novel use instances you’ve seen emerge from builders leveraging Doma’s permission-based sensible contract framework?

Though the area remains to be in its early phases, promising developments are already rising. Corporations are starting to discover area treasury administration, searching for to remodel their area portfolios from illiquid holdings into yield-generating belongings. Institutional yield merchandise are additionally advancing, exemplified by Plume’s integration of DomainFi into their Nest Protocol, which permits tokenized domains to provide institutional-grade returns. 

In the meantime, fan identification infrastructure is gaining traction, with OneFootball leveraging .soccer domains as a foundational identification system for its group of over 180 million month-to-month energetic customers.

What function does D3 envision for domain-based belongings in multi-chain ecosystems, notably with regard to interoperability and asset portability?

Domains remedy the canonical identification downside throughout chains. We envision DNS because the common resolver that connects all blockchain naming programs .sol, .base, .eth, conventional .com—underneath one unified system.

With partnerships like Solana Basis (for .SOL and .SOLANA TLDs), Base, and Avalanche (for .AVAX TLD), we’re creating native interoperability. Your area turns into your common passport that works throughout each chain and utility, eliminating silos and fragmentation.

DOMA protocol is chain-agnostic, so area belongings can transfer between Solana, L2s, and different networks whereas sustaining their DNS authority and authorized standing.

What’s D3’s long-term imaginative and prescient for DomainFi? How may it affect the way forward for net infrastructure or digital finance?

If D3 wins, the Web in 2030 will appear like a borderless nation the place identification, possession, funds, agentic communications, and fame are rooted in DNS and interoperable throughout each chain and app.

DomainFi turns into the infrastructure layer for the following web, the place each digital interplay is anchored to verifiable, programmable identification. AI brokers use domains as their passports. DeFi protocols use domains as prime collateral. DAOs govern their very own TLDs as on-chain nations.

We’re not simply tokenizing domains, we’re creating the muse for a brand new digital economic system the place the web’s naming layer turns into its monetary and identification layer.

Might you please share the roadmap of D3?

By 2025, the DOMA protocol is about to launch its mainnet, marking the debut of the primary fractional area gross sales alongside stay pricing oracles and complete area market information—successfully making a Bloomberg Terminal for domains. 

In 2026, the ecosystem goals to drive important participation within the gTLD utility spherical, empowering DAOs and blockchain communities to launch their very own top-level domains, whereas reaching full DeFi integration with main protocols for lending, yield farming, and liquidity provision. 

Waiting for 2027 via 2030, the imaginative and prescient consists of common cross-chain and interoperable Web2 and Web3 identification decision, scalable AI agent identification infrastructure, and institutional adoption of domains as a core real-world asset (RWA) class, culminating in an entire transformation of area transactions from weeks-long brokered offers into on the spot, programmable commerce.

The roadmap is about constructing the rails that energy the following technology of web infrastructure—making domains as liquid and programmable as any DeFi asset whereas sustaining their distinctive place because the legally acknowledged, globally interoperable basis of digital identification.

About The Creator

Victoria is a author on quite a lot of expertise matters together with Web3.0, AI and cryptocurrencies. Her intensive expertise permits her to put in writing insightful articles for the broader viewers.

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