Grin-Tech.org is a really crappy domain: a two word, dash separated .org that makes no sense.
“Grin tech?” What type of company uses that?
The domain is now being auctioned at DropCatch, and there is lots of interest going on. Already at $1,200 dollars with 51 bids from 19 bidders, it seems that it will end higher than that in about 2 hours from now.
It seems that Grin-Tech.org was allowed to expire by accident. The domain has been used as the primary web site for Grin coin, a cryptocurrency that is proclaiming to be secure and private.
Grin is a cryptocurrency that lost its primary domain name, Grin-Tech.org
There’s an interesting discussion about losing control of the domain by not paying the renewal fee, at the Grin community’s secondary (and equally crappy) domain, Grin-forum.org.
- looks like igno forgot to pay the bill…
- I’ve contacted the domain name registrar and explained the situation, and asked whether they would consider a transfer to us now that the domain has expired. Let’s see how they respond, if at all.
- On the domain front, it would be a shame to lose all the valuable SEO ranking built up by forfeiting the domain completely without a redirect. It would also open up for various scammers that could seize the domain and carry out attacks on the project, for example by cloning the /site repo, but editing the donation addresses to something other than what is in fact the general fund. I’m personally keen to avoid this. So while I do encourage us as a community to both work out fall back solutions, and also to build and deploy more informational websites about Grin beyond the content of /site, I think we should in parallel also try to retain control of grin-tech.org if at all possible.
- Quick update: contacted both the registrar and the registration service provider, offering to pay for the extension of the account (i.e. without a transfer), but to no avail. Will try to get the domain when it expires, but realistically, the chances for that will be quite low.
Oops! So there you have it. A cryptocurrency community with a decentralized system, failed to renew their domain, as some volunteer “forgot” about it. Whoever gets Grin-Tech.org at DropCatch is hoping to monetize the existing traffic and backlinks.
Usually, cryptocurrency founders go after the single word .ORG, but it seems that any other TLD will do: Grin is now moved to Grin.mw, a ccTLD of Malawi, that in this case it’s being used to represent the Grin protocol, Mimblewimble.
