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news Epik LLC Completes Transfer of Epik.com from Epik Holdings Inc.

accurate

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Epik LLC has acquired and transferred Epik.com and the associated domain management platform from Epik Holdings Inc.

Epik Holdings, Inc. was founded in 2009 by current Chairman Robert Monster, whose tireless efforts built Epik.com into one of the world's most recognizable domain registrars, best known for its commitment to free speech and privacy. Monster invested aggressively to build one the industry’s leading domain management platforms with a worldwide customer footprint and a reputation for legendary support.

In September 2022, Monster brought on a seasoned CEO, Brian Royce, to protect the interests of Epik stakeholders. Royce focused on tactical efforts to pivot Epik.com into a scalable and process-driven company. Epik Holdings Inc. was able to reduce costs and avoid bankruptcy on the way to securing the sale of the core registrar and hosting businesses to a logical acquirer.

"It's been one of the biggest challenges and successes in my career so far to have saved Epik from financial collapse," said Royce. "I got to know so many amazing people who were gracious enough to stick and work with us."

Epik LLC will focus on the core features of Epik.com's domain management platform and help solve web problems for Epik clients. By focusing on providing exceptional value, Epik LLC will become the obvious choice for anyone trying to register and maintain their domains assets and digital intellectual property.

As part of the transaction, Mr. Monster will return as CEO and majority shareholder of Epik Holdings Inc. The company plans to continue development of resilient infrastructure for digital empowerment with an initial emphasis on empowering the emerging parallel economy”. Epik Holdings Inc will change it's name to Kingdom Ventures to avoid confusion, and develop key properties like Masterbucks, Amplify, Bitmitigate, and other vital services needed for digital empowerment.

“After a season of chaos, an orderly transition for the Epik registrar is well under way. The stage is being set for a stronger and more focused Epik. Upon review, the decision to hold the line on lawful free speech came with both blessings and challenges. While we did not always choose the easy path, we did our best”, said Monster.

Contact Information:

Epik LLC
30 N Gould St, Ste E
Sheridan WY 82801
+1 (737) 301-5923
www.epik.com

Kingdom Ventures
www.kingdomventures.com
rob@kingdomventures.com
 
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accurate

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ICANN shared a blog post about Epik.

 

amplify

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Interested to know what @amplify thinks?
They haven't changed any of their core principles, so I will still be a customer of Epik LLC. Further, I'll still use some tools offered by Kindom Ventures.

It'll be interesting to see how Kindom Ventures goes because the three mentioned tools arguably have a $106.47 billion market cap (Masterbucks vs. PayPal $PYPL @ 71.697B; Amplify vs. Coinbase $COIN @ 11.749B; and Bitmitigate vs. Cloudflare $NET @ 23.028B) that it can take a small bite of still be wildly successful for a private company--one that I would bet on with my own money if they issued warrants.
 

jmcc

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ICANN shared a blog post about Epik.

An unusual move by ICANN and it does highlight the seriousness of the situation for Epik (old or new). It still has to cure the items listed in the breach notice or ICANN will proceed with the termination procedure.

Regards...jmcc
 

accurate

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I don't recall ICANN making statements on registrars like this too often.

How would we know if Epik has gotten into compliance? @jmcc
 

jmcc

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I don't recall ICANN making statements on registrars like this too often.

How would we know if Epik has gotten into compliance? @jmcc
It would be up to ICANN to announce that the breach had been cured. The problem for Epik is that the clock is ticking and Epik has to have the breach cured by the 22nd of June or ICANN will proceed with termination.

This is the ICANN breach notices page:

It generally posts the updates on breach notices there.

Regards...jmcc
 

accurate

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It seems like the sale was a ploy for more time.

ICANN isn't budging judging from that blog post.

It would be up to ICANN to announce that the breach had been cured. The problem for Epik is that the clock is ticking and Epik has to have the breach cured by the 22nd of June or ICANN will proceed with termination.

This is the ICANN breach notices page:

It generally posts the updates on breach notices there.

Regards...jmcc
 

jmcc

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It seems like the sale was a ploy for more time.

ICANN isn't budging judging from that blog post.
The sale seemed to be to move the registrar business to a new company while leaving existing debts with the old company. The problem for Epik is that reassignment of the registrar agreeement needs ICANN approval. Epik had also been slow to pay ICANN fees and registry fees. It has also made ICANN look like it was taking no action despite the complaints about non-renewals.

Epik had been gaming the grace periods with renewals. There's a grace period of 0 to 45 days (Auto-renew grace period) that can be set by the registrar when a domain name expires. By extending that period, it allowed Epik to spread renewal fees that had to be paid to the registries over a longer period. The registrants hadn't lost their domain names. It was just that the renewal hadn't been applied. This also broke the Nameliquidate model with expired domain names moving to auction/sale before they went into the 30 day Redemption Grace Period and then into Pending Delete. (The blog post also mentioned that many of the complaints were resolved because the domain names were still in the first grace period when the complaint was made.)

If Epik doesn't cure the breach then ICANN will terminate its accreditation. Epik's new management might hope that the sale will buy some time but from the breach notice and the ICANN blog post, it would seem that ICANN's patience with Epik has run out. ICANN will still have to review the documentation supplied by Epik and decide if it is sufficient.

Regards...jmcc
 
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