The Name Registration system within Qortal is a unique names creation system in which a user inputs a name they wish to create on the blockchain and that name is then registered. The name is completely unique and users cannot ‘trick’ the system by attempting to use lowercase L as capital I and other such techniques. Name Registration is a key component of many aspects of what exists and what will exist on the Qortal Network. It functions as a ‘username’ and a simple name to send coin to instead of a long random wallet address as well as a ‘DOMAIN NAME’ within Qortal.

Currently, the Internet uses what is called ‘DNS’ for registration of website domain names. This is a centralized system controlled by third-party entities. In order to register a name within the DNS system, a user must pay a fee to an ‘authority’ who then gives the user temporary ‘ownership’ of the domain. In order to keep that domain for an extended period of time, a continual fee is required to be paid to the agency. No one in the existing DNS system actually owns anything. They are simply ‘renting’ the name from an agency. Qortal aims to remove these aspects of centralization, continual fees, and lack of true ownership.

In Qortal, when a user registers a name they then own that name. The user created that name and that name is completely unique. This alone opens the door for many eventual use cases such as ‘trademarks’ and any other type of ‘name ownership’ that must be ‘proven to be owned’. If a user registered the name, they own that name until they decide to sell it in the ‘names market’.

Names on Qortal can be utilized as usernames for various applications such as Qortal’s own ‘Q-Chat’ (completely encrypted, decentralized, and free blockchain-based instant text messaging service) wherein the user’s name will show up as the one sending messages and can be used by others to send messages to the user (as opposed to the wallet address). Any number of other applications that would prefer using a name instead of a long string of random digits to identify a user could make use of name registration for that purpose.

Name registration also ties the registered name to an address in Qortal and can be used to send coins or identify an account easily. Instead of having to remember a long string of digits or copy/paste a long wallet address every time a transaction is needed, simply input the registered name instead (for sending QORT). It will then be converted to the associated address automatically and sent to the correct address. This takes much of the perceived complexity out of utilizing blockchain-based systems.

Registering a name in Qortal currently costs a flat fee of 1.25 QORT (in the future this number may be modified) and after being paid, is owned by the account that registered the name. There is no continual fee associated with name registration. The ability to sell names to other users in the ‘names market’ is now possible - users can now sell their registered name to another user in a similar fashion to that which the Domain Name System currently uses but without the added monthly fee involved in order to keep the name ‘active’ in the system. The 'Names Market' can be found under NAMES tab in Qortal UI. In this case only the name is being sold and transferred, the account (the wallet, q-chat, QDN, q-apps) remains in the seller's hand. Name selling is NOT an account transfer - only the name is sold.

With web hosting and data storage, a major use case for name registration will be that of ‘domain names’ on Qortal (these are not called domain names, they are simply ‘names’ tied to a data space). These names can be utilized by any user of Qortal to access data hosted on a name’s data space. This could be a website, blog, social media page, or essentially anything the user chooses to put on the data space. An application utilizing the data space could also be built and any other user could then access the application utilizing the name. A ‘proxy’ setup with a Qortal Node could be utilized for those wishing to use a Qortal name to host a site that will also be accessible through a traditional Domain Name. The Qortal node would act as a proxy, proxying the access of a domain name, to the Qortal Network, and the registered name there. This would allow data hosted on the Qortal Network to be accessible without the need for installation of a Qortal node in order to access the data - giving access to anyone with the click of a link.

See the How To Register A Name page to learn how to register a name.