Why You Need a .Sol Domain Name & How to Get One

About a month ago, the Euthereum Name Service (ENS) announced that existing owners of a “.eth” domain could claim an airdrop of its native governance token. More than $500 million (25 million tokens) was airdropped to holders of an ENS domain, making it one of the largest airdrops in the cryptoverse. As expected, the news took the crypto ecosystem by storm as many shared what they were airdropped on social media platforms like Twitter and YouTube. Early and active owners of this domain name were airdropped over 200 ENS (more than $10,000).

This and other airdrops such as dYdX and Uniswap that have been announced over the past year prove that web3 (or the decentralized web) rewards early adopters for their time and effort. There are rumors suggesting that several other crypto projects will be offering airdrops or issuing native tokens to loyal users in the future. This community-sourced spreadsheet, originally shared by CoinDesk, includes a non-exhaustive list of these projects.

In light of the ENS airdrop, it’s worth paying attention to other web3 domains, some of which might even have airdrops in the future. A particularly notable one is the Solana Naming Service (SNS).

Why Get a Solana Domain Name?

There are several reasons why you need a .sol domain. Bonfida, an ecosystem developed on Solana, only launched the Solana Name Service (SNS) in June 2021, which means that if you’re registering a domain name now, you’re very early.

It also means you can register shorter and simpler names that can most likely be sold for profit soon. For context, imagine you registered internet domain names like insurance.com in the early ’90s, when DNS was created and the domain name industry was flourishing. Today, you’d be worth millions, as insurance.com was bought for $35.6 million in 2010. As we transition to the web3 era, domains like .eth and .sol will undoubtedly become the norm.

If you get a Solana domain, you won’t have to remember your long Solana wallet address anymore or keep copying and pasting it anytime you need to perform a transaction. Instead of a long address like “CfRSUVyVhbMYohSKgMhwQkr7Xgp5Q7iErY9D38”, you’ll simply need to use an SNS name like hillo.sol for transactions. Registering a .sol domain name is also affordable — it only requires a minimum of 21 USDC — and lasts forever.

Even if you’re not currently doing a lot of Solana transactions, odds are you’ll be doing more of them sooner than later. Solana’s operational reliability and robust architecture — it has high transaction speeds — positions it as a popular alternative to Ethereum. It also has much lower fees. Its cost per transaction is only $0.00025. Solana currently hosts at least 500 projects and this number is skyrocketing. This means you will soon need Solana to engage with a lot of crypto projects. Getting a .sol name early will make this process easy for you.

How to Get a .sol Name

There are several steps to take to get a .sol name. While this might seem like a lot of work, it’s very easy as long as you follow along.

Before getting a .sol name, you need to buy some Solana (SOL) and Bonfida (FIDA) on Binance or similar crypto exchange platforms. In addition, registering a .sol domain name goes through a 3-day auction. You’ll need to check back three days after registering to claim it if you haven’t been outbid.

Step 1

I recommend buying at least $30 worth of each ($30 SOL and $30 FIDA). You might not need this much, but it’s better to have more than you will need. Buying Solana is pretty straightforward, as most exchange platforms support it.

FIDA is not yet supported on Coinbase or Buycoins, so Binance might be your best bet. If you’re using Binance, you won’t be able to directly buy FIDA with fiat currency (dollars or euros). You’ll only be able to buy it with USDT.

After directly buying some USDT on Binance, use this to buy FIDA. To get FIDA using USDT, you need to make sure you’re using Binance Pro (some people prefer Binance Lite because its easier to grasp). Once you switch to Binance Pro, select Trade, then Spot. Next, change the market to FIDA (shown as FIDA/USDT) on Binance. You can then enter how much FIDA you’d like to buy. As seen below, I bought 4.9 FIDA for 40 USDT. The transaction should take a few minutes to be finalized.

Step 2

Next, you need to create a Solana wallet. This should be done on a laptop or computer. Some of the wallets Solana supports are Phantom, SolFlare, Sollet, and MathWallet. I use Phantom for all projects on the Solana blockchain and highly recommend you do the same. Per the spreadsheet I shared earlier, Phantom might have airdrops in the future, since it has no native token yet. Thus, using it means you could qualify for any airdrops it may announce. Using Phantom is simple, all you need to do is add it as an extension to Chrome or Brave and select Create New Wallet once this has been done.

After creating a new wallet on Phantom, copy your wallet address, then deposit the SOL and FIDA you bought from Binance to this address.

Step 3

Go to Bonfida’s official website — naming.bonfida.org, connect your Phantom wallet, and search for your preferred domain name. As shown in the images below, I first searched for hillary. Since it shows that this name is “unavailable,” I tried hillaryloe, which is clearly “available.”

Step 4

Click “Register Domain.” Bonfida will provide a disclaimer letting you know that domain name registrations go through 3-day auctions. After reading this disclaimer, select “Start auction.”

Step 5

You will then see a timer for the auction and the “top bid,” select “Place a bid.” You must place a bid for at least 2.625 FIDA (roughly $21). Placing a bid does not mean you instantly own the domain name. You need to check back in three days to see whether you’ve won the bid. For the two .sol names I bought, no one else placed a bid, so I won them. You might also check back in a day or two to make sure sure you haven’t been outbid.

Step 6

If there are no other bids after three days, you’ve won the bid. Click on “Claim” and choose the storage size for your account. Larger storage sizes are for images, text, and similar. In most cases, a lower storage size — 1kb —will be sufficient. You will be charged for “rent” based on the storage size you select.

NOTE: Don’t forget to re-connect your Phantom wallet to Bonfida after going back to claim the bid. If you don’t do this, you’ll get a prompt stating that the name is “unavailable.”

Voila! You now own a Solana domain. For more information on the Solana Domain Name Service and its benefits, check out this article. Here is another helpful one.