Registering a domain name? Escrow also comes into play then!

The top-level domain, or TLD for short, comes in many forms. The most popular is of course the .com with over 160 million registered domain names. There are also country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) with an extension referring to a country such as Dutch .nl, German .de, or Belgian .be.

New top-level domain is rapidly gaining popularity

Nowadays, you also see many new generic top-level domains (gTLD). Examples include .club, .cloud, .agency, .law, .io (often used by start-ups and scale-ups) and .amsterdam, which is owned by, who else, the municipality of Amsterdam. But most new gTLDs are owned by commercial companies.

For a law firm, a .law domain name is appropriate and relevant. For a shop owner in Amsterdam city center, .amsterdam is more appropriate than a .nl domain. There are over 1,100 (!) ‘new gTLDs’.

ICANN as traffic controller

What do TLDs have to do with escrow? Well, more than you think. Because as the holder of a domain name, you want to be sure that your website, e-mail and maybe even your web shop will always work. Even in case the owner/holder of the TLD (registry operator) is unexpectedly in (financial) trouble.

This is why ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) the organisation that assigns internet names and domains to countries, organisations and companies has made a ‘registry data escrow agreement’ a requirement for holders of gTLDs. As a proven business continuity tool.

Underlying escrow arrangements indispensable

Escrow4all is one of the escrow providers that has passed ICANN’s strict selection. We provide daily data escrow to more than 350 TLDs with a combined total of over 22 million records (domain names). The data are refreshed daily and stored in data centres in different continents, according to the wishes of the parties. If a TLD holder has problems, a backup of the registry data is always available to ICANN. Another registry operator can then take over the technical tasks. This is how Escrow4all helps protect the interests of 22 million domain name holders around the world. A reassuring thought right?

Talk further?

Want to talk further about this topic or other forms of data escrow? Let’s schedule an meeting.