What can we build on top of _for-sale?

[mdavidsmdavids is verified member.]

Hi there,

A few months ago, RFC 10023 was published: The "_for-sale" Underscored and Globally Scoped DNS Node Name. In short, it defines a simple, standardised way for a domain name holder to signal directly in DNS that a domain is available for sale, using a _for-sale TXT record.

What started as a fairly simple idea is now beginning to turn into something more interesting.

There are already well over a million domains publishing _for-sale records, according to recent measurements, and the ecosystem around the convention is growing as well. There are registries, domain tools, scanners, APIs and other services (including SLD) starting to recognise and process these records.

That makes me wonder: what could we actually do with this?

The interesting part of a standard like this isn't necessarily the record itself. It's what becomes possible once a sufficiently large number of domains expose the same piece of machine-readable information.

For example, could _for-sale make it easier to:

• discover domains that are genuinely being offered for sale?
• build better domain search and valuation tools?
• improve marketplaces or broker workflows?
• identify potential acquisition opportunities automatically?
• provide better visibility for domain owners?
• connect buyers and sellers in ways that aren't practical today?
• create entirely new services or applications that we haven't thought of yet?

And there may well be use cases we haven't even thought of yet.

So, assuming _for-sale continues to gain adoption: what would you build on top of it?

I'm genuinely curious to hear ideas - including weird, experimental or half-baked ones.

Let's get creative! What possibilities are we not seeing yet?

--
Marco