Popular .io TLD may disappear

[examplens]

The UK has announced it is giving up sovereignty of a remote but strategically important cluster of islands in the Indian Ocean after more than half a century.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c98ynejg4l5o

Why is this important?
A very popular .io TLD, especially in the tech and gaming sphere, many crypto projects are happy to use it. Now that domain Is a country code top-level domain (ccTLD) related to a nation. Well, the Chagos Islands – which Britain has called the British Indian Ocean Territory – have their own ISO country code: IO.

In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove the country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain.
It usually takes five years for a government domain to expire after a withdrawal decision, administrators can request an extension of up to five years, so a total of .io domains can remain for ten years.

sources:
https://every.to/p/the-disappearance-of-an-internet-domain
https://www.iana.org/help/cctld-retirement

So, what do you think, will this cause confusion with domains? Many large services use the .io domain, and some guess that there are over 1.8 million registered .io domains.

[bitterguy28]

So, what do you think, will this cause confusion with domains? Many large services use the .io domain, and some guess that there are over 1.8 million registered .io domains.

yes definitely this will cause confusion i mean people can still search and use existing websites with io domains in the grace period after the removal of the domain but these websites would need to find new alternatives to use which will definitely impact search engine rankings and their branding

not to mention there could be an increase of fake links spreading around since there is so much confusion about the official websites i do hope it becomes a smooth transition but i don’t think so

it will be chaotic for sure

[joniboini]

I believe if a project or website is big enough and gets affected by this they'll respond quickly with announcements or something similar. Even some random discord servers that I joined in the past do the same thing whenever they move to a new domain. While not everyone is necessarily on Discord, pretty sure most projects or platforms have social media accounts for things like this.

Not sure how long it will take so people don't associate .io with things other than the Chagos Islands websites though. CMIIW.

[target]

Indian Ocean is owned by UK?
Doesn't make sense to me but ok.

So many projects in crypto using that .io extension. What can they do to prevent from disappearing? I'm sure everything is negotiable when it comes to making money. They can pay or simply fresh start and just find another suitable domain and extension.

[TomPluz]

Indian Ocean is owned by UK? Doesn't make sense to me but ok. I'm sure everything is negotiable when it comes to making money. They can pay or simply fresh start and just find another suitable domain and extension.

Don't be surprised with that fact and it is all because Britain used to be called an empire where sun never set...it got still some places or small nations right now under its wings in far-flung locations. Now, am sure there can be solutions that will be presented with this problem and soon we can learn on what are those. otherwise those using .io should start to find an alternative which can suit them best. We have to remember that when there can be big money involved, good solutions would sprout naturally like mushrooms.

[hugeblack]

10 years ago the internet was not in its current form and I believe that in 10 years everything will change, all the things that we consider wealth will have changed and therefore .io links will not receive the same attention after these years have passed.

Indian Ocean is owned by UK?
Doesn't make sense to me but ok.

There are about 14 more territories you will find more details about them ----> https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fdca611e90e07452a1c44de/UKOTs_Information_Paper.pdf

[luckyledger]

Indian Ocean is owned by UK?
Doesn't make sense to me but ok.

There are about 14 more territories you will find more details about them ----> https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fdca611e90e07452a1c44de/UKOTs_Information_Paper.pdf

The heritage of the British Empire.. 
On the side note, I hope that this domain mess will be resolved eventually.

[joniboini]

On the side note, I hope that this domain mess will be resolved eventually.

I believe the confusion mess hasn't happened yet, and there is enough time for projects to move away from the io domain. There should be enough time for people to notice and see announcements from the websites they used to follow if the developer realizes their responsibility. Trying to keep the domain is probably not worth the cost since SEO will likely reflect this change sooner or later. CMIIW.

[bayu7adi]

In particular, the International Standard for Organization (ISO) will remove the country code “IO” from its specification. The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which creates and delegates top-level domains, uses this specification to determine which top-level country domains should exist. Once IO is removed, the IANA will refuse to allow any new registrations with a .io domain.
It usually takes five years for a government domain to expire after a withdrawal decision, administrators can request an extension of up to five years, so a total of .io domains can remain for ten years.
So, what do you think, will this cause confusion with domains? Many large services use the .io domain, and some guess that there are over 1.8 million registered .io domains.

If it is really going to be removed, there is no other way but migration to a brand new domain... and that might be done by domain owners before their .io domains are completely inaccessible... such as redirects or official information might help their traffic stay on the correct and latest domains... at least it is better than having to close their services because they can no longer use their .io domains in the future...

Preparations could probably be made 2 or 3 months in advance, such as including a new link on their homepage, or simply redirecting to the new domain while announcing the change...

[Baofeng]

On the side note, I hope that this domain mess will be resolved eventually.

I believe the confusion mess hasn't happened yet, and there is enough time for projects to move away from the io domain. There should be enough time for people to notice and see announcements from the websites they used to follow if the developer realizes their responsibility. Trying to keep the domain is probably not worth the cost since SEO will likely reflect this change sooner or later. CMIIW.

It might happen in the future, so for sure who have been using the *.io domain, for sure they will be affected because they will have to move and migrate everything.

But I guess preparation is the key here for big and small companies, but with the advancement of technology? It could be very seamless migration and it might take as little as a week to move and test everything is working as it was used to be.

[joniboini]

But I guess preparation is the key here for big and small companies, but with the advancement of technology? It could be very seamless migration and it might take as little as a week to move and test everything is working as it was used to be.

From my understanding buying new domain names and registering a new one with a migration if required shouldn't be that difficult to begin with. I guess it will take a while to update the name resolution service if 1 million domains are moved at the same time. I guess it depends on the hosting provider that the developer chooses. But yeah, as long as they are competent it shouldn't take that long to migrate the domain. Granted one website that I regularly used has been migrating for months now because their back-end guys are terrible at their job. CMIIW.

[robelneo]

Preparations could probably be made 2 or 3 months in advance, such as including a new link on their homepage, or simply redirecting to the new domain while announcing the change...

The real problem is getting a popular TLD with the name of your company attached to it, The.io domain become popular because some companies chosen domain is not yet available so they settled for an alternative one, which is.io, and some tech companies associate their company with.io now because it is synonymous with input/output.

One thing that I see on this is abuse. Those who are into domain appraisal and domain flipping are going to buy domain name on other extension earlier in order to invite these companies to bid for the name of their domain on other extension.

Domain owners should hurry to acquire the name of the company on another extension before these domain flippers beat them.

[enoch_from_off]

On the side note, I hope that this domain mess will be resolved eventually.

I believe the confusion mess hasn't happened yet, and there is enough time for projects to move away from the io domain. There should be enough time for people to notice and see announcements from the websites they used to follow if the developer realizes their responsibility. Trying to keep the domain is probably not worth the cost since SEO will likely reflect this change sooner or later. CMIIW.

It might happen in the future, so for sure who have been using the *.io domain, for sure they will be affected because they will have to move and migrate everything.

But I guess preparation is the key here for big and small companies, but with the advancement of technology? It could be very seamless migration and it might take as little as a week to move and test everything is working as it was used to be.

I hope for it to be this way.
Sometimes, dire situations unpack lots of stuff that wasn't prepared in case of urgencies 

[target]

Indian Ocean is owned by UK?
Doesn't make sense to me but ok.

There are about 14 more territories you will find more details about them ----> https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5fdca611e90e07452a1c44de/UKOTs_Information_Paper.pdf

The heritage of the British Empire.. 
On the side note, I hope that this domain mess will be resolved eventually.

And we thought they already plunged, they are still up trying to dominate some other countries while they are also subdued by a bigger empire. Big fish eaten by bigger fish.

Well they still hold on to the dot com bubble when a person as rich as Elon can buy a one letter domain x.com.
Hope those companies using .io can afford a premium domain.

[MrSpasybo]

Don't be surprised with that fact and it is all because Britain used to be called an empire where sun never set...it got still some places or small nations right now under its wings in far-flung locations. Now, am sure there can be solutions that will be presented with this problem and soon we can learn on what are those. otherwise those using .io should start to find an alternative which can suit them best. We have to remember that when there can be big money involved, good solutions would sprout naturally like mushrooms.

If this becomes the international standard, we will be forced to abandon the .io TLD soon. I don't own any .io websites, so I don't see any problem, but I think some others will start looking for opportunities from this change.

A crypto project using a .io domain will need to buy a new domain, and they have a few options like .com, .net, .info. A domain speculator will try to own them and sell them at a very high price in the future. For example, Gate.io will soon have to be replaced, and someone will try to register Gate.com, Gate.net, Gate.info to sell them back to Gate at hundreds of times the price.