Web3 Service Providers Focus on Improving the User Experience

Unstoppable Domains and ENS (Ethereum Name Service) have become the top two blockchain domain name providers for Web3 users. Web3 domains are NFTs that can be traded, but they can also be used as a shorthand for cryptocurrency wallet addresses to send or receive crypto.

On OpenSea, ENS ranks first within the domain names category in terms of cumulative trading volume and for having the largest collection of items, while Unstoppable Domains ranks second. 

During the first weekend of July, the number of ENS registrations peaked from 11,042 to 34,357, according to a data tracker created by ENS developer Nick Johnson, possibly due to the falling price of ether (ETH) and lower than average gas fees. Even social media activity surrounding ENS reached new highs that week, the social tracking platform Lunar Crush tweeted.

Unstoppable is the fifth collection under collectibles NFTs with the most users in the past 24 hours, according to DappRadar, ahead of Art Blocks and Yuga Labs’ Otherdeed for Otherside.

Sandy Carter, senior vice president and channel chief at Unstoppable Domains, explained to Blockworks that Web3 may feel “complex and confusing for people getting started.” NFT domains serve to expand access and “bring more people into the world of Web3.” 

Part of its mission is to make the user experience “easy to navigate,” which includes accepting credit card, PayPal and cryptocurrency to buy Unstoppable domains. In contrast to ENS domains, which can carry an annual renewal fee anywhere between $5 to $640 paid in ether, Unstoppable Domains charges a one-time fee that generally starts at $5 but can cost more.

On Wednesday, Unstoppable announced a partnership with crypto payment services provider MoonPay to enable users to buy cryptocurrency and send it to their wallet using their Unstoppable Domains name. 

The two companies aim to make all .crypto or .nft decentralized URLs more useful.

MoonPay enables users to buy and sell 90 cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards, Apple Pay and Google Pay to include over 30 fiat currencies.  

That “reduces a major barrier to entry,” said Carter, who believes that NFT domains “will be as ubiquitous as email” in the future. As opposed to Web2, where “your identity and data are owned by corporations,” users can own, control and choose to share an identity built across Web3, she added.

MoonPay shared with Blockworks that it wants to “make sure that the infrastructure of Web3 is attuned to the evolving needs of consumers” in order to “support greater use and familiarity with Web3.”

The company also confirmed that there are no additional fees associated with the Unstoppable integration. Currently, a flat fee of $4.99 plus a 3.5% transaction fee is applied to purchases below $141, and a fee of 7% is deducted from purchases over $142. 

Moonpay recently launched HyperMint, a self-service platform that enables large companies and brands to create, manage and mint utility NFTs at scale. 

Since its 2019 inception, MoonPay has processed more than $3 billion in transactions and counts on a customer base of more than 12 million global users.

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