The founder and CEO of Wiz & Associates and Mempool Holdings, known online as “Wiz,” is seeking Bitcoin community support for a .bitcoin domain application ahead of ICANN’s August 12th deadline.

If approved, .bitcoin would become part of the traditional Domain Name System, allowing eligible registrants to use addresses ending in .bitcoin. 

The registry would not have authority over Bitcoin’s protocol, consensus rules, software or peer-to-peer network.

Wiz operates the mempool.space block explorer and a Bitcoin DNS seed that helps nodes find peers. 

His planned community application comes during ICANN’s first new generic top-level-domain round since 2012. 

The current window closes at 23:59 UTC on August 12th, according to ICANN.

Wiz expects other organizations to seek .bitcoin. If multiple applicants pursue the domain, ICANN may resolve the competition through Community Priority Evaluation or an auction.

A community application does not receive automatic priority. It must score at least 12 out of 16 points based on the proposed community, its relationship to the domain, its registration policies and the level of community endorsement. 

If more than one community applicant passes, the remaining applicants may still proceed to auction.

Under Wiz’s plan, registrants would need to verify that they perform a qualifying Bitcoin-related function. Eligible groups could include:

  • Bitcoin node, DNS seed, and infrastructure operators.
  • Software and protocol contributors.
  • Wallets, exchanges, custody providers, payment services, explorers, and mining businesses.
  • Bitcoin authors, educators, and publishers.
  • Organizers of conferences, meetups, and working groups.

Projects promoting altcoins or other cryptocurrency protocols would be barred from registering .bitcoin domains. 

Wiz cited Bitcoin Only, which requires listed projects to support Bitcoin and not altcoins, as an example of the proposed approach.

A committee drawn from the eligible groups would oversee registration decisions and determine whether technologies such as Bitcoin Layer 2 systems qualify. 

Wiz stated that he would have one ordinary seat, with no veto, registration priority, or special access to names.

The registration restrictions are intended to become binding under Specification 12 of an eventual ICANN registry agreement. 

Wiz emphasized that the arrangement would concern only the internet domain.

As he put it, “this is just about keeping the .bitcoin TLD strictly Bitcoin Only instead of letting it get sold off to the highest bidder.”

The proposed registry would donate 21% of its annual revenue to open-source Bitcoin developers. 

The announcement did not specify how recipients would be selected or how the funds would be administered.

Community backing could materially affect the application. 

Wiz is requesting letters that identify Wiz & Associates and .bitcoin, state the signer’s role, estimate the number of people or organizations represented, explain the reason for supporting the proposal and authorize publication of the statement. 

Organizations are encouraged to use official letterhead. Parties that do not wish to endorse the application may instead submit a statement of no objection.

ICANN considers both support and relevant opposition rather than simply counting letters. 

Wiz added that the notice was released before filing so concerns could be raised while changes remained possible.

Statements and questions may be sent to wiz@mempool.space before August 12th. At the time of the announcement, the application and any competing bids had not been publicly confirmed.