Having the perfect domain name for your business can make all the difference and a company called Block.one has paid the highest amount ever recorded for the domain Voice.com.
The previous record holder for the most expensive domain was the purchase of Sex.com for $13m but now Block.one has trumped that number in an all-cash deal of $30m for Voice.com. At first the record-breaking purchase makes no sense, until you look further into the company behind it.
Block.one is a cryptocurrency company with its own digital coin called Eos. However, the company is trying to move beyond cryptocurrency by creating a slew of new services aimed at challenging today’s biggest corporations.
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Voice will be Block.one’s answer to Facebook and the social media company will run on the blockchain. The service will require users to sign up using a government-issued ID which will help it combat fake news and phony accounts.
Voice
Block.one has raised $4bn ahead of the launch of its new social network and the company also plans to spend $150m to build out Voice so that it can better compete with its more well-known rivals in the space.
Spending $30m on a domain name ahead of the service’s launch makes a bit more sense now that we know the context and the publicity from the purchase will also help Voice become more of a household name.
However, The Register discovered several red flags after it looked further into Block.one. First off the company raised its $4bn in cryptocurrency by having investors use one coin to buy another and then the company used a dollar-to-crypto-coin exchange rate to state its value that varied wildly. Also, Block.one is based in the Cayman Islands and its founders seem to have little experience beyond anything related to blockchain.
Will Voice.com end up dethroning Facebook, only time will tell but as of right now, it seems that Block.one has more ambitious goals than it does actual products.
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Via The Register
