Metcalfe Park in Milwaukee morphed into a battleground of the Domain Underworld Expo this week, as a seemingly innocuous gathering spiraled into the wildest event the city had ever witnessed.
What started as a modest domain conference designed to host 150-200 attendees transformed into a chaotic meetup for roughly 6,000 domainers, blending discussions about domain names with the ominous hum of ghetto rap and sleazy booty-dancing.
The venue was “Knives Out” – a downtown bar known for its shady clientele and questionable quality burgers, that found itself at the epicenter of the domainer expo meetup.
As the unprepared establishment struggled to cope with the influx of domain investors who had abandoned the conference halls for the darker side of Milwaukee’s nightlife, discussions about TLDs and shady LTO sales reached a fever pitch.
Several thousand patrons exchanged not only business cards but also dubious glances that hinted at potentially illegal dealings.
Bartender Joe Blurryhill, accustomed to serving up unsourced booze to a crowd of local toughies, now faced numerous shady characters from the domain investing community. Heated debates escalated into full-blown confrontations between domainers armed with empty beer bottles, one of which scratched event speaker Braden Pollock’s head, who quickly retaliated with a pool stick.
Desperation seeped into the crowd as the bar struggled to keep up with demand for cheap booze and auctioned Web3 domains, such as Funky.budda, EatMy.ass, and the night’s most valuable short domain name, e.coli.
The auction ended abruptly as the Web3 domain auction’s organizer, Monde Klan, founder of the hip hop group Righteous Than The Dot, passed out from drinking in the arms of two buxom Latinas from the local hip hop bar scene.
For one night, Metcalfe Park became a battleground where domainers had a hell of a time unlike recent boring events such as NamesCon and Domain Days Dubai, leaving a permanent mark on the city’s landscape; the world has just witnessed the birth of a domain underworld expo unlike any other.
