Domains4Bitcoins.com - Suspended Domain & Asked for ID

[moriartybitcoin]

Hi Bitcointalk users,

Just thought I would post a quick note on here about a recent experience I had with Domains4Bitcoins.com

My Bitcoin stock exchange https://BitSpeculate.com was registered with Domains4Bitcoins.  In fact I had hundreds of domains registered with them.  BitSpeculate is a live financial website (Bitcoin stock exchange) which launched last month and already has 100s of clients actively using the service.

One day, I tried to visit the admin panel and noticed the site was down.  Couldn't figure out why, and quickly discovered the domain had been SUSPENDED.  I checked my email and sure enough the domain suspension notice was in there, and someone by the name of JASON WEEKS from UK2Group Ltd. was asking for TWO pieces of government ID, a credit card statement, and Paypal statement.

I thought this was really odd. First, I don't even have a Paypal account or, for that matter, a credit card. I purchased the domain BITSPECULATE.COM on Domains4Bitcoins with - you guessed it - Bitcoin. 

I own 1000s of domains spread across many different registrars and I have never once - not ONCE - in twelve years of domain ownership ever been asked for ID by any registrar.  Not Moniker, not Namecheap, nobody.  I did some google searching and couldn't even find anyone else online who has ever been asked for ID by a registrar.  It seems almost unheard-of.

Anyways, I was in a pickle because it looks pretty bad when a live financial website suddenly disappears - POOF - goes offline. That looks like a scam.  I registered CoinSpeculate.com and notified clients of the change.  No accounts were affected and there was no financial loss.  That was the best I could do while I sorted out the domain problem.

Domains4Bitcoins.com was very helpful and very apologetic.  I found out they are really just a reseller for resell.biz which is owned by UK2Group Ltd.  And UK2Group Ltd calls the shots, unfortunately, not Domains4Bitcoins.  After about a few days, D4B was able to persuade UK2Group to un-suspend my domain, and I promptly transferred it out of Domains4Bitcoins.

Anyways, according to UK2Group policies, they can suspend a domain AT ANY TIME and FOR ANY REASON (or no reason at all, as in my case) and demand passport, driver license, credit card statement, paypal statement, utility bill, and more.  If you can't provide this info, your domain seems to be lost forever.

I think one of the main reasons I was able to recover my domain was because I'm a well-known player in the Bitcoin world with 10000+ Bitcoiners as followers on twitter, facebook, mailing lists, etc.  I wonder if it would have been possible to recover the domain if I was an unknown guy with 1 domain?

Anyways, I thought I would let Bitcoiners know about this, since many Bitcoiners use Domains4Bitcoins to register their domains. Be warned that you could be asked for ID.

Again, Domains4Bitcoins itself was helpful and apologetic, but they did not seem to have any power to unsuspend the domain; they are completely at the mercy of UK2Group Ltd.

There was a good article posted about this on CryptoCoinsNews today:
http://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/news/need-anonymous-web-hosting-bitwebhosting-may-better-domains4bitcoins/2014/06/01

[toast]

This sort of shit is exactly why we're building http://dotp2p.io (namecoin competitor with price discovery and other neat features).

Sorry for the shameless plug, but it seems really relevant here. Domains are property - the current model is more like leasing instead of proper purchasing with ownership transfer.

To bad you had your property stolen like this.

[franky1]

alot of people are making complaints about moriarty. so i see this as KARMA.

if you want to rule a legit business. be legit.

if you want to run a shady business, expect repercussions

your self funded propaganda machine paying media bloggers to do interviews with you and copying and pasting that your a legit business owner of 50 businesses fools no one.

[ashish12]

thanks for your post
I was looking to buy 4 - 5 domains from them
I'll look for alternative now

[moriartybitcoin]

Hi Franky,

I notice you always make disparaging comments in my threads.

What exactly *IS* your beef with me?

As far as I can tell, we've never done any business. Please correct me if I'm wrong, but you've never been a customer on any one of my sites. Have I done something to personally offend you??

[moriartybitcoin]

This sort of shit is exactly why we're building http://dotp2p.io (namecoin competitor with price discovery and other neat features).

Sorry for the shameless plug, but it seems really relevant here. Domains are property - the current model is more like leasing instead of proper purchasing with ownership transfer.

To bad you had your property stolen like this.

I agree, there needs to be an alternative to the current domain registration system and ICANN monopoly.  What makes your dotp2p.io superior to Namecoin though? I am quite curious about it, and sounds like a good idea. 

[toast]

This sort of shit is exactly why we're building http://dotp2p.io (namecoin competitor with price discovery and other neat features).

Sorry for the shameless plug, but it seems really relevant here. Domains are property - the current model is more like leasing instead of proper purchasing with ownership transfer.

To bad you had your property stolen like this.

I agree, there needs to be an alternative to the current domain registration system and ICANN monopoly.  What makes your dotp2p.io superior to Namecoin though? I am quite curious about it, and sounds like a good idea. 

The biggest advantage is a combination of *price discovery* for names via an auction-like process and *dividend payments* from the sale of names, which should massively disincentives squatting. Here's the auction spec: https://github.com/BitShares/bitshares_toolkit/wiki/.p2p-Auction-Specification

Minor advantages include POS and named stealth addresses.

The "stay tuned" mailing list on dotp2p.io will keep you posted for when we put up test nets and then when we launch.

[xbit.in]

There is a new ICAAN policy from 2014 RAA whois verification for domain registered after  January 1st, 2014 OR you have modified any contacted detail.
You have to click on verification link provided in email if you fail to do so your domain will get suspended by domain registrar.

Read below article for it.

http://www.hosticon.com/client/announcements/27/RAA-WHOIS-info-verification.html