THE QUESTION BENEATH THE QUESTION.

When people first encounter the idea of an onchain address — a digital identity anchored to a blockchain record rather than a centralised registry — the question they tend to ask is: what is this built on? The philosophical arguments for ownership over rental, for permanence over subscription, can be made without reference to any particular technology. But infrastructure is not philosophical. Infrastructure is concrete. It exists somewhere, was built by someone, and reflects a set of decisions made at a specific moment in time about what the internet ought to become.

This article is about that infrastructure. Specifically, it is about what a Swiss-registered company called Freename has constructed since 2021, and why the decisions it made — technical, legal, and conceptual — matter directly to Queensland’s onchain identity project. The broader arguments for why permanence matters, why ownership is philosophically distinct from subscription, and why the next chapter of digital identity will look different from the last three decades, are addressed in other essays in this series. What this essay addresses is the machinery beneath those arguments: the actual platform, its architecture, its regulatory standing, and the specific capabilities it enables for a project like queensland.foundation.

The short version: Freename built a bridge. Queensland is one of the communities that now has an address on it.

WHERE THE TRADITIONAL INTERNET DRAWS ITS AUTHORITY.

To understand what Freename built, it helps to understand what existed before it — and what limitations that system carries.

In 1998, at the behest of the United States government, a nonprofit organisation called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers — ICANN — was created “to administer policy for the Internet name and address system.” From that point forward, ICANN’s role became the coordination of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the internet, including the DNS root zone — the authoritative directory for all top-level domains such as .com, .org, .net, country code domains, and newer generic domains like .tech or .app.

ICANN issues accreditations to more than 1,000 independent registrars worldwide that issue domain names to individuals, businesses, and other site owners on the internet. The system works, and it works reliably. But it carries within it a structural assumption that has shaped every digital address issued since: the assumption that ownership of a domain name is, in practice, a periodic licence. ICANN-accredited registrars charge on a yearly basis, which means registrants pay renewal fees every year. The conventional Web2 domain registration price varies between approximately ten and twenty dollars per year. That annual transaction — small in isolation — represents the structural fact that the registrant does not own the name. They hold it, conditionally, for as long as they continue to pay.

Web2 top-level domains are controlled by centralised organisations like ICANN. That is not, in itself, a criticism. Centralised coordination solved real problems of global interoperability that could not have been solved otherwise. But centralisation has a cost, and that cost manifests differently at different scales. For an individual, it means perpetual renewal and the possibility of expiry. For a community attempting to anchor a long-term cultural identity onchain — for a project like queensland.foundation — it means that the permanence of the address depends, ultimately, on someone continuing to pay a fee to an organisation that can, in principle, change its terms.

WHAT FREENAME ACTUALLY BUILT.

Freename, also known as Freename AG, is a domain registrar based in Zurich, Switzerland. It was founded by Davide Vicini and Mattia Martone in 2021 and is the first Web3 namespace to receive ICANN accreditation, as well as the first on-chain Web3 DNS to be readable by a standard browser.

That founding date matters. Freename was founded in 2021 in Wollerau, in the canton of Schwyz. At the time of its founding, it offered only Web3 solutions, including a naming platform that let people create blockchain-based top-level domains. The ambition from the beginning was not simply to build another registrar sitting within the existing ICANN framework, but to construct an alternative architecture for naming — one built on blockchain technology, outside the traditional DNS root zone, in which domain registration was not a licence but a recorded ownership event.

Minting is the process of publishing a domain from Freename’s data onto the public ledger of a blockchain and into a user’s wallet — giving the user full ownership over the domain. This is a conceptually distinct act from registration in the traditional sense. Registration in the ICANN system records a relationship between a person and a registry. Minting records an ownership event on a public, immutable ledger. The distinction is not merely technical. It is the difference between a tenancy agreement and a title deed.

Freename allows users to register and manage their own Web3 top-level domains and second-level domains. Freename operates a multi-chain approach. Users can choose on which blockchain to mint their Web3 domains and top-level domains, ranging across Ethereum, Aurora, Polygon, Cronos, and Binance. The platform also enables minting on Base, Abstract, Chiliz, Sei, and Etherlink. This multichain approach was a deliberate architectural decision: rather than tying the namespace to a single blockchain’s fate, Freename distributed the ownership record across several networks, so that a domain’s permanence does not depend on the health of any single chain.

Freename’s Burn and Remint feature allows domain owners to transfer their domain to a different blockchain for a small fee, addressing one of the major limitations in the blockchain domain space — being locked into a single network.

The platform uses proprietary technology for blockchain mirroring between Web2 domains and their on-chain identities, enabling Web3 use cases such as wallet resolution and crypto payments on tokenised Web2 domains. The platform uses DNS technology that is compatible with blockchain networks such as Polygon, Solana, Base, Chiliz, and BNB Chain, as well as browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari. This browser compatibility was one of the hardest technical problems to solve: the traditional DNS infrastructure does not recognise Web3 domains, meaning that without a translation layer, onchain names would be invisible to the conventional internet.

THE ICANN ACCREDITATION AND WHY IT CHANGED EVERYTHING.

The most significant institutional development in Freename’s history came in July 2024. Freename announced that it is the world’s first Web3 namespace to receive ICANN accreditation for registering traditional domain names under generic top-level domains on a Web3 platform. This milestone highlights the growing convergence between traditional and Web3 domains, marking a significant development in the domain market.

The significance of this accreditation is structural rather than merely symbolic. Prior to it, Freename existed in a parallel namespace — legitimate on its own terms, but technically outside the recognised framework of the global internet governance system. ICANN accreditation changed that relationship. The ICANN Registrar licence allows Freename to bridge Web2 domain names on-chain, enabling them to leverage Web3 utilities. At the same time, it allows Freename to introduce Web3-native names to a traditional audience, making them usable with conventional tools such as website builders, emails, and payment methods.

The ICANN accreditation strengthens Freename’s activities, including the mirroring of traditional domains into Web3. This capability allows users to purchase traditional domains and, with a single click, add Web3 utilities to convert them into decentralised versions. This ensures any domain can be utilised across the traditional and decentralised web, unlocking unique Web3 utilities and applications.

Speaking at the time of the accreditation announcement, Freename CEO Davide Vicini described the achievement in terms of the broader domain industry’s future:

“Receiving ICANN accreditation is a huge step forward for the entire domain industry. It reinforces our commitment to innovation and excellence in the domain registration sector. We’re excited to bridge the gap between traditional domains and blockchain technology, offering our users and other businesses a seamless experience.”

Later in 2024, Freename continued to extend its infrastructure. Freename launched the service NOTO, in closed beta, which crawls blockchain naming systems to compile lists of domain names and to allow internet service providers such as browsers and wallets to resolve Web3 domains in a safe and interoperable way. NOTO represents an attempt to address one of the genuine challenges facing the Web3 naming space: the collision of top-level domains created by different registries and standards bodies, resulting in multiple competing or overlapping TLD registrations across various chains or resolution systems. Freename’s response to this collision problem — through a resolution layer that can identify, de-duplicate, and route across competing systems — is one of the more technically ambitious undertakings in the namespace space.

THE ARCHITECTURE OF OWNERSHIP.

Understanding how Freename domains work at a technical level illuminates why the permanence claim is credible, rather than merely aspirational.

Freename domains function as NFTs and follow ERC-721 standards, allowing integration with apps and crypto marketplaces. The ERC-721 standard is the Ethereum protocol for non-fungible tokens — records that are unique, individually owned, and transferable. When a domain is minted on Freename, it is not stored on a centralised server that Freename controls. It is stored in the owner’s wallet, on a public blockchain, as a token with verifiable provenance.

Freename’s smart contracts are divided into three categories. The FNS Registry Contract stores records of all Freename domains and allows users to manage their domains by setting records and delegating management. It follows the OpenZeppelin ERC-721 Enumerable Metadata token standard, meaning domains are stored as NFTs with unique metadata such as crypto addresses, IPFS hashes, and avatars. The contract maintains data including registered domain names as name hashes, owner and operator addresses, approved domain addresses, key-value records, and whitelisted minters.

What this architecture means in practical terms: the domain exists as a token, the token exists in a wallet, and the wallet is controlled by its holder’s private key. There is no annual licence, no renewal invoice, no administrative decision by a third party that can extinguish the record. In Freename’s Web3 model, these extensions are minted as tokens on the blockchain. When a user purchases and registers a TLD, that record is written permanently on-chain, confirming the owner as the legitimate holder of the extension.

Freename’s domains can be used to send and receive crypto payments, send Web2 and Web3 emails, and build decentralised websites. Crypto wallets such as MetaMask can be linked to domains. The utility layer on top of the ownership layer is broad: a Freename domain is not simply an address for a website, but a persistent identifier that can route payments, anchor email, resolve to decentralised hosting infrastructure, and serve as a verified identity across platforms.

Freename also utilises a collision management system to resolve identical domain names across blockchains and Web3 registrars. This collision management is important for anyone building on top of the Freename infrastructure, because it means that the namespace they are entering has been actively curated to avoid the kind of duplication that has undermined confidence in other Web3 naming systems.

THE TLD MODEL AND WHAT IT ENABLES.

One of the features that distinguishes Freename from earlier blockchain naming systems is the TLD ownership model. Unlike Web2 domains, where ICANN controls all TLDs and registrars simply resell second-level domains, Freename allows users to own entire extensions. When a domain is registered under a Web3 TLD, the transaction details are recorded on the blockchain. A smart contract then allocates the correct royalty share to the TLD owner’s wallet. Freename pays up to fifty percent of each registration fee.

This creates a structurally different relationship between a TLD holder and the namespace beneath it. In the ICANN model, a registry company manages a TLD and sells second-level domains through accredited registrars. The TLD itself is not something an individual or community can own; it is operated under contract with ICANN. In the Freename model, owning a TLD means holding a blockchain token that represents the right to administer the entire namespace beneath that extension — and to receive revenue from registrations within it.

For a project like queensland.foundation, this matters in a specific way. The six top-level domains — .queensland, .brisbane, .goldcoast, .qld, .surfersparadise, and .brisbane2032 — are not leased namespaces managed by a distant registry. They are onchain assets, held as tokens, with the ownership recorded on a public ledger. Names registered beneath them — a family.queensland · riverfire.brisbane · southbank.brisbane2032 — are similarly permanent, similarly recorded, and similarly owned by whoever holds the private key to the wallet that minted them.

Because the entire process is recorded on the blockchain, every registration and payout can be verified by anyone. This structure removes the uncertainty common in traditional licensing or affiliate systems. It also ensures that TLD owners know exactly where their income originates.

WHY QUEENSLAND BENEFITS FROM WHAT WAS BUILT.

The connection between what Freename constructed and what queensland.foundation is attempting to do is not incidental. It is architectural.

Queensland’s project is one of civic permanence — the idea that the names of places, communities, events, and individuals in this state deserve an identity layer that outlasts any particular technology trend, any particular commercial platform, and any particular company’s willingness to continue operating a service. That aspiration requires infrastructure that can make good on permanence. Not as a promise, but as a structural property of the system.

What Freename built provides that. The multi-chain design means that Queensland’s TLDs are not hostage to any single blockchain’s future. The ICANN accreditation means that the infrastructure sits within, rather than simply alongside, the recognised framework of global internet governance. The browser-compatible DNS layer means that onchain addresses registered under Queensland’s namespaces can be resolved by standard browsers without requiring users to install specialist software or reconfigure network settings. The platform uses DNS technology that is compatible with blockchain networks such as Polygon, Solana, Base, Chiliz, and BNB Chain, as well as browsers such as Google Chrome and Safari.

The collision management system matters too. Freename utilises a collision management system to resolve identical domain names across blockchains and Web3 registrars. For a civic namespace, this means that a name registered under .queensland or .brisbane2032 is not at risk of being duplicated or overridden by a competing registration on a different chain. The name is curated, protected, and uniquely held.

And the royalty model creates a structural alignment between the infrastructure provider and the TLD owner that does not exist in the traditional DNS world. In the traditional model, Queensland would be a customer of a registrar, paying annual fees with no stake in the success of the broader namespace. In the Freename model, the TLD owner participates in the economics of the namespace they steward. Every name registered under .brisbane generates a return to the holder of the .brisbane TLD. This is not a passive arrangement. It is a structural one that gives Queensland’s digital identity layer an economic logic that reinforces rather than undermines the permanence argument.

THE INFRASTRUCTURE AS CIVIC RECORD.

There is a tendency, in writing about digital infrastructure, to treat it as a purely technical subject — a matter of protocols, ledgers, and smart contracts. That treatment misses something. Infrastructure is always also a record of intention. The DNS system that ICANN inherited and has administered since 1998 embeds within it certain assumptions about governance, about the appropriate relationship between public and private authority, about who gets to name things on the internet and under what conditions.

Freename’s infrastructure embeds a different set of assumptions. That ownership is preferable to licence. That permanence is achievable, not just aspirational. That communities and individuals should be able to hold their digital identities with the same kind of security that they hold physical property. That the act of naming something should not require ongoing tribute to a centralised authority.

The space is characterised by real value, on-chain integration, and a growing community of builders and users who see decentralised identity as infrastructure, not a passing fad.

For Queensland, the significance of this infrastructure is not merely technological. It is civic. The state’s onchain identity layer — anchored through six TLDs to the geography, culture, and future of Queensland — sits on a foundation that was built with permanence as its primary design principle. That foundation was not built in Queensland. It was built in Zurich, by two founders with backgrounds in finance and computational research, who saw something in the emerging architecture of Web3 naming that most registrars and most governments had not yet seen: that the naming layer of the internet was about to change structurally, and that the window to participate in that change — to build within it rather than merely adapt to it — was open and would not remain so indefinitely.

Queensland did not build Freename. But Queensland, through the queensland.foundation project, recognised what Freename had built and understood its implications for a place that has always taken seriously the long view on infrastructure. The Storey Bridge took years to construct and was built to last well beyond the century. The Snowy Mountains scheme was conceived across decades. The rail network that opened the western Queensland interior was laid with an understanding that the investment was multigenerational.

Onchain identity infrastructure operates on a different timescale, but the same logic applies. What is built on permanent foundations compounds in value. What is built on rental agreements depreciates silently, year by year, renewal by renewal, until the moment of expiry that no one quite planned for arrives.

Freename built the permanent foundation. Queensland.foundation is building the civic address on top of it. The names registered there — by families, by businesses, by cultural institutions, by individuals who understand that a name.queensland is something different from a subscription — will outlast the platforms they were registered through, the browsers through which they were first resolved, and quite possibly the political and commercial structures that currently define the digital landscape. That is what permanent means. And it is what Freename, through a decade of deliberate infrastructure work, has made structurally possible.