The 3rd-level domains of fraser.name will be closed. The 22 000 people will simply loose their domain.

On 15 April 2026 Verisign proposed the destruction of the entire 3rd level of the '.name' hierarchy in order to simplify their administration. Astonishingly, on 28 July 2026 ICANN approved this action. I found out about this a few days ago when my registrar emailed me.

So what does this mean? First, this website vanishes in February. Despite the fact that it's registered and paid for until 2040. Second, my email address also disappears. Third, all the IoT devices that use services on this domain become bricks. Basically, I disappear from the Internet.

What is particularly hard is "'.name' is completely different. It was setup exclusively as a 3rd-level operation. One registers xxx.yyy.name from any registrar and there is a full whois record. Exactly like .ny.us, or .co.uk."