Third Level .name Termination by VeriSign

Neil Fraser, writing on his blog:

On 15 April 2026 Verisign proposed the destruction of the entire 3rd level of the ‘.name’ hierarchy in order to simplify their administration. Astonishingly, on 28 July 2026 ICANN approved this action.

and

So what does this mean? First, this website vanishes in February. Despite the fact that it’s registered and paid for until 2040. Second, my email address also disappears. Third, all the IoT devices that use services on this domain become bricks. Basically, I disappear from the Internet.

This is wild, and a good reminder that nothing on the internet is permanent. Your entire internet presence is largely controlled by large organizations and is at the the whims of people sitting in executive chairs who don’t have even an iota of understanding the effects of their actions.

I hope that VeriSign thinks this through.