One of the most significant findings from our recent analyses of blockchain domain names, is the emergence of a new style of ‘artwork’ domain names. This is where the characters of the domain name itself take the form of a pixelated artwork, when the name is displayed in a suitable grid. This may represent a new use-case for blockchain domain names, outside their more familiar applications as the basis for cryptocurrency wallet addresses and for the hosting of decentralised websites, moving more into the realm of ‘tradeable’ names similar to NFTs. 

We have conducted a study of the set of long (>100 character) .eth blockchain domain names registered in the 120-day period to the start of November 2023, to analyse any new trends in artwork domain names during this time.

Amongst the registrations, a number of artwork examples appear, including a new series of ‘CryptoPunk’-style images (which may be infringing the NFT collection owned by Yuga Labs), and a group of graphical domain names terminating with ‘ensart.eth’, which may represent a specific tradeable set or a collection produced by an individual artist.

One specific trend is the appearance of artwork domain names featuring lettering (‘pseudo-logos’). It may be the case that, going forward, we see a new type of infringement, where company logos or other branded imagery could appear in graphical blockchain domain names themselves. This would mean the emergence of a new class of cybersquatting. Consequently, there may be a need for brand owners to be mindful of this space, which may require the development of new monitoring technologies. This may also present a call for novel enforcement procedures (and potentially also changes to regulation or legislation) to address these infringements.

You can find a full report of the research here.