Is charge for username typical?

#1

Hi,

When attempting to add a username to my blockstack.id, I see that I can buy it for 0.002516 btc (~$20). Is this typical? Does every username cost something? What determines the price of a given username? Thank you.

#2

Just another user here, but yes a charge for usernames is usual. The shorter your name the more it costs. I got a price for an all lowercase 11 character name and it was BTC equivalent of about $10. I guess your desired name was shorter or had special characters?

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#3

True. My friend bought a username with 4 characters. It cost her about $30.

#4

Where does this crypto go? Is Blockstack core team using it as a revenue generator?

#5

Not according to Larry Salibra (blockstack contributor), “Instead, you’re creating the name by burning bitcoin - sending the bitcoin to an unspendable address”

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#6

What is the reason for buying a username, can someone please explain to a novice?

#7

You’re essentially buying an identity on this new platform. That’s why there’s a charge. Also (in my opinion) this would financially hinder people from spamming the network and buying thousands of IDs.

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#8

this makes sense, can you purchase more than one “identity?” (because that defeats the purpose in my opinion) and do all identity purchases cost the same amount of money, and if not how are prices set?

#9

I can partially answer your question for you.

  1. Yes, more than one identity can be bought.
  2. The prices are set by the length of characters in the name. The shorter the name the more expensive the cost will be. For instance, my nickname “Kit” costs .00831 BTC; whereas my full name "Kitsana’ only costs .001943 BTC. I’m sure there is more to the formula, but I think this works to understand the naming prices at a macro level. If you play around with the different lengths of names you’ll be able to see this yourself.
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#10

What is the difference between my ID and my username? I was under the impression verifying an ID removes anonymity from the platform - but if you then can purchase a random username (and even multiple usernames) then I’m confused how this is stopping spamming and how this is stopping anonymity. I know I am missing something, but I don’t know what it is?

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#11

I have the same question. I thought that when downloading Blockstat browser we were given the chance to register our name for free and then buy as many Id’s as we want. But I bought one ID and now my name has disappeared. Any thoughts?