A step-by-step guide to mastering the Solana domain service launched by Bonfida

The author of this article is Groot.

Domain name services, in the context of the traditional internet, refer to what is commonly known as DNS servers, which are used to manage domain names. They are generally composed of multiple servers that resolve domain names and point to the servers where the websites are hosted.

With the rise of cryptocurrencies, Ethereum Name Service (ENS) has gradually become well-known. Both types of domain services replace the original machine language with more readable names, but traditional domain names point to specific websites, while Ethereum names point to resources on the Ethereum network, such as wallets.

As blockchain technology continues to mature, other public chains beyond Ethereum have also shown increasing strength. New public chains not only demonstrate stronger competitiveness in terms of performance but are also rapidly building their own complete ecosystems. On June 23, the Solana ecosystem project Bonfida officially launched the Solana Domain Service, allowing domain names to be registered through an auction process.

Bonfida is a leading builder in the Solana ecosystem, providing foundational trading services for Serum Dex, algorithmic trading bots, and Serum API, focusing on offering user-friendly front-end services and lowering the barriers for users to participate in the Solana network. The launch of the Solana Domain Service is also an important part of Bonfida's ongoing empowerment of the Serum and Solana ecosystems.

1. What is the Solana Domain Service? What is its value?

The Solana Domain Service launched by Bonfida aims to provide a decentralized and affordable way to connect domain names (.sol) with on-chain data. This on-chain data can include SOL addresses, IPFS content IDs, images, text, or anything else. A clear advantage of the domain service is that it can map to SOL addresses, making it easier for people to read and use, as well as to conduct on-chain transfers and payments.

Since most users are not very familiar with SOL's on-chain addresses, the easy-to-read addresses created through the Solana Domain Service can significantly optimize the convenience of payments. Users only need to share a recognizable simple domain name to transfer and exchange assets.

Of course, the application of Solana domain names is clearly not limited to providing a simplified payment address; they can also be used for on-chain data storage of IPFS content IDs, which serve as unique identifiers for web hosting in the IPFS network.

Additionally, websites hosted on IPFS or Arweave using Solana domain names can achieve complete decentralization, avoiding the single point of failure issues that many DApps using centralized domain names may encounter.

Although this mapping method is not suitable for out-of-the-box web browsers, where users need to request on-chain data through an extension when entering the domain name in the URL search bar, all Solana web wallets (such as Phantom and Sollet extensions) will support this feature.

The Solana Domain Service also includes a feature for binding Twitter accounts, allowing Twitter users to link their Twitter accounts with SOL addresses through tweets. However, since Twitter itself is a centralized social media platform, the bound Twitter accounts may involve privacy issues. The .sol domain allows for account binding without revealing any personal information, which is a significant value of the .sol domain.

2. How to register a .sol domain name?

From a technical implementation perspective, registration is actually very simple; it is merely an instruction that needs to be authorized and signed by the root domain of the TLD (top-level domain). Users only need to pay the gas fee to complete the registration. However, the very low registration cost has also given rise to a new problem: it may lead to a large number of domain name grabs followed by resale.

To avoid this situation, Bonfida has decided to use an auction system for domain name registration. Additionally, the official team has designed a protective mechanism by reserving some specific keyword domain names in advance, which will display the information "reserved by BONFIDA."

In practice, anyone can register a .sol domain name through here. When searching for a domain name, three possible results may appear: the domain name is already taken, the domain name is not yet taken but has an ongoing auction, or the domain name is available.

In the first case, users can see the owner's information and notes about the domain.

The other two cases indicate that you can directly participate in the corresponding domain's auction. To ensure fairness in domain name registration and to prevent malicious grabs of specific domain names, the initial registration of the Solana Domain Service requires a 7-day auction process. Only users who win in this 7-day auction will successfully register the corresponding domain.

The official "Ending auctions" page will list auctions ending within the next 6 hours, allowing users to participate in those that can be accessed quickly, further ensuring the marketization of domain auctions. Of course, if you want to search for domain names containing specific keywords, you can also use the search service. Any bids made in the last 10 minutes of an auction will reset the remaining auction time to 10 minutes, preventing last-minute sniping.

Additionally, to prevent arbitrary bidding, the highest bid during the auction process cannot be withdrawn at will; it can only be retracted if another person exceeds that price.

Finally, it is important to note that users need to actively claim the domain name after winning the auction.

3. What other features (play styles) are there?

After successfully bidding for a domain name, users need to set up the storage space associated with their account, and the size of this space will determine how much information you can store in that account. A larger space can store more text, images, IPFS CIDs, or Arweave hashes.

However, for those who only use the domain name as a simple wallet address, the basic 1kB storage space is already sufficient. Even if you want to write some information into the domain name, 1kB of storage can provide about 150-200 words of storage capacity.

The successfully acquired domain name will show a management page after linking the wallet, where the Edit button next to the Content button provides the functionality to write information.

Additionally, the Transfer button next to the domain owner section can be used for transferring or gifting the domain name, and the ownership of the domain can be transferred to any SOL address. It is important to note that the transfer of domain ownership is irreversible.

The acquired domain name can also be auctioned off through the official auction system. By clicking the Sell button and setting the starting price and auction duration, you can publicly auction the domain name. The auction parameters cannot be adjusted after confirmation, and once the auction starts, the domain owner cannot end the auction. However, if no one bids by the scheduled auction end time, the user can reclaim their owned domain name.

4. Conclusion

As of July 16, Bonfida's Solana Domain Service has completed 4,954 auctions, with "square.sol" and "starbucks.sol" receiving the highest bids of 5,500 USDC.

With the maturation and improvement of the Solana ecosystem, more and more new projects are providing additional use cases for the Solana Domain Service. Since .sol domain names can not only bind wallets or store text, images, and other information but can also host NFT works, projects like the Metaplex NFT auction platform, DeFi Land, or Aurory, among others in the Solana ecosystem, can combine with domain services to create more interesting play styles and give .sol domain names greater value.

Leveraging the powerful performance of the Solana public chain, the ecological landscape has been rapidly expanding over the past few months, providing a more convenient user experience for applications in categories such as DeFi, infrastructure, and tools, while unlocking more play styles for the currently popular NFT and blockchain gaming projects. The future potential of the Solana Domain Service is highly anticipated.