I’ve been attending ICANN events and trying to get to grips with the entire setup for the last couple of years and quickly realised that the only way we could really move forward was to become accredited. We’re already accredited with a lot of the ccTLD operators, such as Nominet, AFNIC, Eurid and several others, so getting rid of the middleman for our gTLD domains made sense.
With our own accreditation we’d be able to interact directly with the registry operators and with the wider ICANN and internet community.
I also realised that since the entire RegisterFly debacle “buying a registrar” was possible, but it would have been a really really bad idea.
So instead of opting for the easy “off the shelf” solution we went through the entire accreditation process from start to finish, so we got it on our own merits, making us the first Irish company to have ever done so.
The accreditation process can be quite confusing, but luckily several good friends and colleagues were able to help clarify various parts of it along the way:
- Jothan Frakes – he’s like a walking talking domain encyclopedia (currently working on new gTLDs over here)
- Frank Michlick – he’s done a lot of this stuff so many times before
- Mark Klein – he’s a cool guy and really helpful
- Steve Gobin and Tim Cole – both incredibly helpful and patient
While we aren’t setup to use our accreditation yet with any of the domain registries we will be soon enough (I’m not sure how long that’s going to take, but I know that I will have to deal with a LOT of paperwork in the coming weeks!)
We can, however, use the ICANN logo!
As we go through the process of getting the accreditation with the individual domain registry operators (Verisign, Afilias, PIR, dotMobi, Telnic etc.,) I’ll try to keep people up to date on our progress.
You can see a full list of the current accredited registrars on the IANA site as well
Well done Michele, great achievement ploughing through all the admin and a fantastic step forward for Blacknight.
That’s fantastic – congrats Michele and everyone at Blacknight.
Great work Michele, it must have been a mountain of work!
This is fantastic news Michele, congratulations. Looking forward to transferring all my domains over! 😉
Congratulations Michele & co. Glad I was able to be of assistance, let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.
Congrats Michele & Paul! Well done!
Congratulations Michele et al !
Congratulations guys. About time and well deserved 🙂
Thanks for all the kind words 🙂
Well done Michele. How long did the whole process take ?
paul
Well done Michele. Go after GoDaddy. I don’t like Bob Parson’s methods.
Wow. Big step – congratulations on the accreditation!
Well done. Being a company who designed and developed our own ICANN accredited from ground up we know how tough it is. Welcome to domain club, Michael.
Now to add all those interactive web features and drop domain prices…. Good luck.