How would someone go about registering domains on their own? Why do I have to go through like GoDaddy where every year it seems to exponentially increase in price? Does anybody have information on how to cut out the middleman?
The public Domain Name System that we typically think of as "the public internet" is a hierarchy which is ultimately managed by ICANN. ICANN delegates management of various TLDs to various registries, (for example, .com is managed by Verisign). In order to register a domain with a registry, you must be a registar that is officially accredited by a registry. GoDaddy is one of these , but there are many other alternatives. Starting your own registrar is not impossible, but it is also not a way to save money: https://www.verisign.com/en_US/channel-resources/become-a-re...
If you want to be included in ICANN's global DNS system, you really have no choice other than to play by the rules that ICANN sets. If you don't want to pay registration fees, but you'd like to participate in the internet, your best alternative is to ask your users to connect via your IP address.