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Identity Digital to take over .ai

Kevin Murphy, October 15, 2024, 14:44:02 (UTC), Domain Registries

Identity Digital is to take over the running of .ai, following a deal with the Government of Anguilla announced today.

The two parties said they “plan to build a world-class registry management program that prioritizes quality domains and instills trust in .AI domain names for years to come”.

It looks like a back-end deal. There’s no suggestion of any kind of redelegation.

Currently, .ai is run by a small local outfit called DataHaven.Net, on a fairly basic web site that gives off all the vibes of being a one-man show and perhaps a little bit slapdash.

Identity Digital, by contrast, runs its huge portfolio of TLDs on the Amazon cloud and has pretty much blanket coverage of ICANN-accredited registrars. Only 40 registrars are listed on the current .ai registry site.

The ccTLD has grown to be a significant player in the last two years, growing from about 150,000 domains mid-2022, prior to generative AI entering the popular imagination, to 533,068 at the start of this month.

Identity Digital said that .ai already accounts for 20% of Anguilla’s revenue, and that this new deal should help increase that amount.


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Comments (3)

  1. Garth Miller says:

    It is worth noting that the current locally run DataHaven registry infrastructure is standards based with support for EPP, RDAP and DNSSEC, multiple Anycast Networks and replicates data to multiple geographically diverse sites for business continuity. On a technical level its hard to see how the change represents a substantive change or upgrade.

    • Peter says:

      It’s worth noting that this comment is completely unbiased and has NOTHING to do with the fact that .AI will stop using Garth’s Cocca… “My Prius is a perfectly good car its hard to see how changing for a Porsche represents a substantive change or upgrade”

      • Garth Miller says:

        My comment was simply a response to Kevins observation that DataHaven’s approach to operations is “slapdash” (done too hurriedly and carelessly.) This is factually incorrect, the industry is standards based and mature.

        By partnering with LACTLD, PCH, and Gransy for Anycast, and using other tools – CoCCA for the SRS and RDAP, KNOT and NSD for DNSSEC, subscribing to 3rd party abuse monitoring services, DataHaven etc – a small local entity, was able to run registry that meets ICANN and IETF standards and SLAs.

        Governments or TLD managers in small, post conflict or emerging economies don’t have to outsource to foreign entities to ensure their ccTLD registry complies with applicable RFC’s and industry standards, there are plenty of tools – CoCCA, Fred, OpenDNSSEC, NDS and entities LACTLD, PCH, Gransy – and many others that can assist and provide small operators with additional capacity.

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