Quote:
Originally Posted by jeffpan
I also had this question. for example, I have a domain name whose evaluated value is xxxxxx USD, after I died in the accident, who will take benifit of this domain name?
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If nobody else has access (password and information about who is hosting the domain records), the domain will just sit there directing requests to the designated DNS server. If your DNS host is also paid up, then websites and email accounts which are paid up will continue to operate (if the host stays in business and doesn't require a login to maintain operation). When the accounts are in arrears, eventually the domain NS records will not work, and the domain will be available to be purchased by someone else.
My personally owned domain registration expires in mid-2024 (when I will be 70 years old). If I become incapacitated before that date without communicating the details to someone else or renewing the registration, the domain will be returned to the registrar and could be sold to someone else. My last renewal was for a 9 year term, including hosting the domain records. The Fastmail email account linked to my domain expires in early 2020, so email will bounce then if that's not renewed.
It's hard to guess how long domains, websites, and email services as we know them will be around. I have used many computer-related technologies which are essentially obsolete and not generally available for sale. At the time, it wasn't obvious when these would become obsolete, and in general these disappeared much sooner than I would have expected at the time I was using them:
- Acoustic coupler and direct tip/ring telephone line connection low baud rate modems (just barely useful today)
- RS-232 serial data interfaces (just barely useful today for special uses)
- Teletype Model 15
- Teletype Model 33
- TI Silent 700 teleprinter
- NEC Spinwriter
- A wide range of dot matrix printers
- HP Laserjet and other early laser printers
- Monochrome 80x25 CRT terminals (character only)
- Color 80x25 CRT terminals (character only)
- "Centronics" and similar parallel printer interfaces
- IEEE-488 interface (still used, but nearly completely replaced by VISA LAN and USB connectivity)
- Punched paper tape 5-level Murray/Baudot data storage (Teletype Model 14 & 15)
- Punched paper/plastic tape 7-level ASCII data storage (Teletype Model 33)
- Punched card
- 9-track magnetic tape
- "Kansas City standard" analog Compact Cassette magnetic tape data storage
- Digital Compact Cassette magnetic tape data storage
- 3M DC100 magnetic tape cartridge
- QIC (Quarter Inch Cartridge) magnetic tape (3M DC300, etc.)
- 8 inch floppy magnetic disk (in a wide range of formats)
- 5.25 inch floppy magnetic disk (in a wide range of formats)
- 3.5 inch inch floppy magnetic disk (in a wide range of formats)
- DEC RK07 removable cartridge magnetic disk platters
- Iomega Bernoulli disk 8-inch
- Iomega Bernoulli disk 5.25-inch
- Iomega Zip disk
There were many other I/O and media types used between 1970 and 2000, but these are just some of the ones I was around. I used most of these myself.
My point is that industry went through a wide range of computers, I/O systems, storage media, and data formats in the 30 years between the age of minicomputers (starting in around 1970) and what we think of as a modern PC (around 2000). Similarly, wide scale network connectivity (what we think of as the internet) has seen great changes in the 25 years since the World Wide Web was introduced and search engines became available.
So I'm not sure if domains (and email) as we know them will be around in a few decades.
Bill