This is a step-by-step guide to registering a CNS (.ccd) crypto domain.
The internet is user-friendlier today because of Domain Name System (DNS) which was established in 1983 by Paul Mockapetris, an American computer scientist. The DNS served as “the internet phonebook” to give (domain) names to IP addresses so that the users of the internet wouldn’t have to recall the hard-to-remember period-separated number combinations like 213.45.195.2 to get to, say, Google. Instead, a user just had to type in Google.com on any browser, the DNS did the rest of the work behind the scene to resolve these names to the corresponding IP addresses.
However, the DNS is one big centralized name registry operated by a centralized body called ICANN — Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Numbers, making it a system prone to attacks and censorship. In fact, it’s proven to be so vulnerable as over 82% of companies studied by the IDC DNS survey have reported attacks costing these companies altogether millions of dollars.
For these reasons of technology usability (now in Web3) & web security highlighted above, the Concordium Name Service (CNS) was birthed.
What is CNS?
The Concordium Name Service (CNS) is a decentralized, open, and multi-utility wallet naming system based on the Self-Sovereign ID Professional Blockchain, Concordium. It maps human-readable and memorable names to hexadecimal wallet addresses for better usability similar to what DNS did for IP addresses.
It’s a multi-purpose service as in addition to serving as a wallet address replacement, also serves as a dapp login, a decentralized website domain name, and a shelf for your social media handles. These CNS names are CIS-1 compliant NFTs, meaning they can be transferred and sold just like NFTs on a Concordium NFT marketplace like BictoryNFT.
Domain names on CNS take the format [YourName].ccd. Unique to CNS, it supports ANY UTF-8 string under 64 bytes per subdomain label that does not include “.”, which is used as a separator. Learn more about UTF-8 characters here.
The shorter the name, the higher the price it will cost the registrant. Fees include a yearly subscription fee (the same as the subsequent renewal fee) and the network fee. See the pricing structure & pre-Order announcement for more information.
Getting & Setting Up Your Concordium Wallet
Payment for a domain name registration on CNS is made on the blockchain’s native currency — CCD. To handle your CCD, you need a Concordium wallet, either the one from CryptoX or the official Concordium Wallet. Both wallets are available on Android and iOS. For the initial account created on any Concordium wallet, a KYC needs to be passed to create your User ID Certificate (UIC), which can be subsequently used to build private accounts.
Concordium doesn’t store your data or know you; they work with reputable third-party ID partners to verify you to receive the UIC. It’s a self-custodial wallet, so keep your Keystore file or Identity export safe and secure.
See this CryptoX wallet setup video.
Fund your Concordium Wallet with some CCDs from any of the exchanges where it is listed, including Bitfinex, AscendEX Support, and KuCoin or Switchere official (you can buy directly with a credit card here).
CNS Registration & Configuration
Visit ccd.domains, launch the web app (coming soon), connect your funded Concordium wallet and search for the domain name you’d like to register. You can also buy from a catalog of auctioned names.
On search, if the desired name is available, click on it. Before hitting on the register button at the bottom, specify the length of the name registration. This increases the subscription fee with the gas fee unaffected. The gas fee on the Concordium blockchain is low and stable, so even the rush hours for the CNS domain names will not cause the fees to surge.
Review your selection and confirm the fees, and then register. Approve all of the smart contracts call on your wallet to complete the purchase. When it’s complete, you now own a CNS domain name. Congratulations! 🎊
Support for the CNS across the Concordium Dapp ecosystem is underway. When complete, it can be used as the only needed address for transactions, dapp logins and other pretty interesting use cases.
Now you know how to get yourself a name on the first Self-sovereign ID Professional Blockchain Network.
Well done!
Cheers
Team Bictory Finance.
