intro Hello from the Netherlands Everyone!

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

I’m Marco, based in the Netherlands, and I work in the Internet/DNS space at SIDN Labs, the research group of the .nl domain registry.

I’ve been working with DNS for quite a while, mostly from the technical and infrastructure side, but I’ve recently become more interested in the domain industry and the things happening around buying, selling and discovering domain names.

One of the projects I’ve been working on recently is RFC 10023, which defines a simple DNS convention for signalling that a domain is for sale. I’m particularly interested in what this could mean for automated domain discovery, and I’m curious to hear how people in the domain community look at that.

Anyway, happy to be here and looking forward to learning from the discussions and meeting some of you!

Cheers,
Marco

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

Welcome Marco!! May I ask you - what is the secret of why .NL is the 3rd top ccTLD in Europe? .. and, the #1 by domain per person, in Europe?

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

Welcome Marco!! May I ask you - what is the secret of why .NL is the 3rd top ccTLD in Europe? .. and, the #1 by domain per person, in Europe?

If only I knew.

I do know that we were one of the first ccTLDs, and that the Dutch really embraced the Internet from an early stage.

And perhaps just as importantly, we have a relatively open and competitive registration model, a large and professional registrar ecosystem, and we try to keep the infrastructure reliable and the registration process straightforward.

So I'd say it's perhaps the result of 40 years of trust, adoption, competition - and a bit of Dutch pragmatism.

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

If only I knew.

I do know that we were one of the first ccTLDs, and that the Dutch really embraced the Internet from an early stage.

And perhaps just as importantly, we have a relatively open and competitive registration model, a large and professional registrar ecosystem, and we try to keep the infrastructure reliable and the registration process straightforward.

So I'd say it's perhaps the result of 40 years of trust, adoption, competition - and a bit of Dutch pragmatism.

Wow, never knew this. I do know that Dutch have always been the most entrepreneurial people - always a spark for a coin (or tulip) .. And, probably the friendliest people in Europe )

 

[nicenicnicenic is verified member.]

Welcome Marco! Nice to see someone from SIDN Labs here. What got you into buying and selling domains?

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

Welcome Marco! Nice to see someone from SIDN Labs here. What got you into buying and selling domains?

Thanks for asking! I'm the author of RFC 10023, which describes a simple way to add a digital “for sale” sign to a domain name using DNS.

At SIDN, we've been using this approach for several years, and by documenting it in an RFC, we hope to make it useful beyond .nl as well. It’s already starting to gain traction, as shown by this recent report: https://forsaledns.net/research/state-of-for-sale-dns-2026 .

So yes, that's what got me into the domain name aftermarket world.

I’d definitely encourage anyone here who’s interested to take a closer look at this method.

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

Thanks for asking! I'm the author of RFC 10023, which describes a simple way to add a digital “for sale” sign to a domain name using DNS.

At SIDN, we've been using this approach for several years, and by documenting it in an RFC, we hope to make it useful beyond .nl as well. It’s already starting to gain traction, as shown by this recent report: https://forsaledns.net/research/state-of-for-sale-dns-2026 .

So yes, that's what got me into the domain name aftermarket world.

I’d definitely encourage anyone here who’s interested to take a closer look at this method.

ahhh.. I was just about to ask you if you are the person behind the forsaledns.net .. the Paraguay company SUNCOM EAS on the footer did confuse me..

very very very nice!!

makes sende > just add a TXT record '_for-sale' to your records and we will clearly know it is for sale.. still, in many cases, investors prefer not to say that the domain is for sale - sometimes there are legal reasons for this, sometimes sales technique

love the idea!

so far, @Nameshift have implemented this, have they? Anyone else?

.. found the website earlier while checking your linkedin account and saw this update:

The State of For-Sale DNS 2026 | Marco Davids

There's now actually a first report on 'ForSale' (RFC10023) adoption: 😉 https://lnkd.in/eAz7VR3P (No need to download the PDF - just scroll down and you’ll find all the highlights neatly laid out)

www.linkedin.com

----

p.s. you are most welcome to promote it here and on our forum families.. and add a link with some text to your forum signature > free traffic and some related backlinks never hurt a good website

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

Thanks for asking! I'm the author of RFC 10023, which describes a simple way to add a digital “for sale” sign to a domain name using DNS.

At SIDN, we've been using this approach for several years, and by documenting it in an RFC, we hope to make it useful beyond .nl as well. It’s already starting to gain traction, as shown by this recent report: https://forsaledns.net/research/state-of-for-sale-dns-2026 .

So yes, that's what got me into the domain name aftermarket world.

I’d definitely encourage anyone here who’s interested to take a closer look at this method.

@birajst chech this out >> https://forsaledns.net/

maybe it makes sense also scanning the websites for the '_for-sale' TXT records? .. and marking a domain "For Sale" at the SLD Checker you keep developing and improving?

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

I was just about to ask you if you are the person behind the forsaledns.net .. the Paraguay company SUNCOM EAS.

For the record, I am not. In fact, I was quite surprised to see forsaledns.net appear so soon after the RFC was published. I do appreciate the enthusiasm of its creator though!

still, in many cases, investors prefer not to say that the domain is for sale - sometimes there are legal reasons for this, sometimes sales technique

That's perfectly okay! The _for-sale record is completely voluntary, and there's no obligation whatsoever.

 

[DNF AdminDNF Admin is verified member.]

Hello @mdavids ,

Welcome to DNF! Nice to see you here

I have a couple of questions for you, but we have a festival here in Nepal, so I’ll be off for the next two days. I’ll catch up with you after that!

 

[birajstbirajst is verified member.]

Welcome to DNF @mdavids nice to see you

 

[cactusfly]

Welcome!

 

[DNF AdminDNF Admin is verified member.]

@mdavids just checked RFC 10023; I never knew _for-sale subdomain is a thing. And that makes it much easier to find domains for sale through DNS checks.

@birajst is currently using DNS to check if a domain is active, parked, or inactive. It's not covered by all sides by any means, but now that we know the specifications as well, we can use that to check if a domain is for sale, right @birajst ? That's cool

 

[DNF AdminDNF Admin is verified member.]

@birajst chech this out >> https://forsaledns.net/

maybe it makes sense also scanning the websites for the '_for-sale' TXT records? .. and marking a domain "For Sale" at the SLD Checker you keep developing and improving?

Ohh Helmuts has already mentioned it

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

@mdavids just checked RFC 10023; I never knew _for-sale subdomain is a thing. And that makes it much easier to find domains for sale through DNS checks.

That is indeed the goal. But please note that the RFC is still quite new - it was published just a month ago. And yet, it's already gaining quite a bit of traction!

The latest new kid on the block is IPWHOIS.net. For example: https://ipwhois.net/domain/alchemic.co.uk (just clicking wont't work - better copy and then paste the URL in a new tab).

@birajst now that we know the specifications as well, we can use that to check if a domain is for sale. That's cool

Yes, the more widely the method is adopted, the better.

 

[HelmutsHelmuts is verified member.]

@Sedo, @godaddy, what are your thoughts on implementing the '_for-sale' TXT records?

 

[nvdh]

Hey Marco, good to see some Dutch people joining! Goeiedag!

Regarding the RFC, are marketplaces/owners actually publishing yet, outside the .nl registrar pilot?

On the .nl pilot, when a WHOIS/availability lookup finds fcod=NLFS-…, is that code meant to be stable during the listing lifecycle or is it just a pointer that SIDN can remap server-side without touching the zone?

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

Goeiedag!

Hallo!

Regarding the RFC, are marketplaces/owners actually publishing yet, outside the .nl registrar pilot?

Yes, we see others implementing it too. It's not a lot yet and NameShift is clearly dominant, but it's increasing.

Here's a baseline report that gives an indication just three weeks after publication of the RFC (scroll down to '07'):

The State of For-Sale DNS 2026

What public DNS looked like as RFC 10023 became official: a baseline of 341,642 current _for-sale listings.

forsaledns.net

(disclaimer: this is an independent publication, made by a third party with whom we are not affilated)

On the .nl pilot, when a WHOIS/availability lookup finds fcod=NLFS-…, is that code meant to be stable during the listing lifecycle or is it just a pointer that SIDN can remap server-side without touching the zone?

The value in the `fcod=` tag is meant to be stable. The landing page to which it redirects can be changed in our backend. It's the registrar that can do this in the registrar portal.

For those who don't know what this is about; here a little demo: https://www.sidn.nl/en/whois?q=distributeurs.nl

 

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

I had a bit of a brainwave: what about a browser extension that understands RFC 10023 and shows you when a domain is for sale?

Not too long ago, building something like this would have been quite a project. With today’s LLMs, however, it turned out to be surprisingly easy. I put together a Chrome version and published the code on GitHub, so anyone interested can install it locally.

GitHub - mdavids/ForSale-RFC10023-browser-extensions: Experimental RFC10023 ForSale browser extensions

Experimental RFC10023 ForSale browser extensions. Contribute to mdavids/ForSale-RFC10023-browser-extensions development by creating an account on GitHub.

github.com

I don't think I'll take it much further or submit it to the Chrome Web Store or anything, though. Because I'm not entirely convinced there's enough practical use for it. Still, it's a fun little experiment - and a nice illustration of how a website can be fully functional while its domain is up for sale.

I also made a Firefox version, although that's somewhat less useful - so I didn't bother to publish it on my GitHub. Firefox has stricter requirements for extensions: in the regular release version, extensions need to be signed by Mozilla. Without that, you can only install them temporarily, and they disappear when you close Firefox.

Anyway, I thought it was worth sharing.

Enjoy!