Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs • Hacker News Board

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#11

Post by simias » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:05 PM UTC

Honestly if that analysis is correct then on one hand I concede that it does make the decision appear less like pure bribery than I initially thought but on the other it's even worse for .org users.

Maybe I'm wrong to consider this a zero-sum game, but surely if ISOC made a good deal selling .org that means that Ethos Capital got the short end of the stick. That means that eventually they'll realize that they can't make as much money out of it as they had hoped. And then what will they do? Agree to continue operating the TLD at a loss? ell oh ell. It's more likely that they'll either attempt to extort more money from people who can't actually afford to migrate or "strip" the TLD for parts somehow.

On the other hand if ISOC bet on the wrong horse they've lost the Goose that Laid Golden Eggs, and they'll be in a worse position to help the open web. From the point of view of people believing in the ethos (ha!) of what .org is supposed to stand for, it seems like a lose/lose situation.

I still don't really think it made sense to greenlight that deal for purely monetary reasons, I think the people on that board lost track of their objective, which I think is what the author acknowledges in part in his conclusion.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#12

Post by Rebelgecko » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:06 PM UTC

herodotus wrote: post #4

If I understand the article correctly, ISOC took a reasonable decision based on (a) they are not supposed to be a registry operator; and (b) "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long, but the $1.1135 billion will be a great endowment fund. The flip side is the implication (and I hope I read this correctly) is that a bunch of smart but possibly ethica…

Considering that the price of a .org will almost certainly be going up soon, I think that $75m/year will soon be $82million. I don't think it's sustainable to pull that amount of money every year from a 1.1 billion endowment.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#13

Post by cameldrv » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:10 PM UTC

herodotus wrote: post #4

If I understand the article correctly, ISOC took a reasonable decision based on (a) they are not supposed to be a registry operator; and (b) "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long, but the $1.1135 billion will be a great endowment fund. The flip side is the implication (and I hope I read this correctly) is that a bunch of smart but possibly ethica…

If "they are not supposed to be a registry operator", why did they bid on the contract?

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#14

Post by ajkjk » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:12 PM UTC

I would love for the people who did this to lose a ton of money on it.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#15

Post by e2le » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:13 PM UTC

jacquesm wrote: post #5

No, that's not why they did it. They did it because they thought they could get away with it. But the charter of ISOC never was to make a mint of the .org TLD by selling it, and as far as I'm concerned this deal will be reversed at some point or we should simply set up an alternative root and a pox on both their houses.

OpenNIC would be that alternative root although often are they at odds with ICANN creating new tlds that conflict with their own. It seems like the DNS system in it's current form is broken and I'm not convinced an alternative root is the solution but perhaps part of one.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#16

Post by GordonS » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:14 PM UTC

herodotus wrote: post #4

If I understand the article correctly, ISOC took a reasonable decision based on (a) they are not supposed to be a registry operator; and (b) "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long, but the $1.1135 billion will be a great endowment fund. The flip side is the implication (and I hope I read this correctly) is that a bunch of smart but possibly ethica…

> That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long

Why wouldn't it? .org is one of the most well-known TLDs, and I see know reason why there would be an exodus away from it (well, apart from this sale itself!) - it's as sure a thing as there can be.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#17

Post by e2le » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

How often do people notice domains? I've seen many users use Google or similar to find their desired site such as facebook without typing the URL. If it were only an IPv6 address, would people even care?

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#18

Post by rnhmjoj » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:19 PM UTC

Can someone explain to me what actually operating a registry means? I have always assumed that it basically consists of maintaining a database replicated across a few authoritative servers and handling WOIS information but this can't possibly warrant $25M of yeary expenses.

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#19

Post by herodotus » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:25 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #12

herodotus wrote: post #4

If I understand the article correctly, ISOC took a reasonable decision based on (a) they are not supposed to be a registry operator; and (b) "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long, but the $1.1135 billion will be a great endowment fund. The flip side is the implication (and I hope I read this correctly) is that a bunch of smart but possibly ethica…

Considering that the price of a .org will almost certainly be going up soon, I think that $75m/year will soon be $82million. I don't think it's sustainable to pull that amount of money every year from a 1.1 billion endowment.

From the article (not my view): "And yet, those of us in the technology business understand viscerally that nothing lasts forever. What seems like a steady cash cow today may be obsolete sooner than anybody suspects. Personally I think even DNS will be disrupted in the future by some kind of distributed ledger technology beyond even blockchain, like hyperledger or hashgraph or some post-singularity quantum foam."

Re: Why ISOC sold .ORG to VCs

#20

Post by wongarsu » Fri, Dec 06, 2019, 6:31 PM UTC

Rebelgecko wrote: post #12

herodotus wrote: post #4

If I understand the article correctly, ISOC took a reasonable decision based on (a) they are not supposed to be a registry operator; and (b) "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush". That is, the $75m/annum profit from .org may not last for long, but the $1.1135 billion will be a great endowment fund. The flip side is the implication (and I hope I read this correctly) is that a bunch of smart but possibly ethica…

Considering that the price of a .org will almost certainly be going up soon, I think that $75m/year will soon be $82million. I don't think it's sustainable to pull that amount of money every year from a 1.1 billion endowment.

Back-of-the-envelope I would expect to pull a steady 50 million/year out of a 1.1B endowment. That's certainly less than 75 or 82 million. I guess the endowment gives you more security and flexibility.