CEO of Freename Davide Vicini took some time to answer some questions about his company freename, Web3 and a few other topics. I hope you enjoy.

Q1) What was it that drew you to the domain name space?

I was intrigued by the similarities between domains and financial commodities. I see that names have a limited supply, that they have a value. They are not an optionality, they are a necessity: you need a name if you want to sell something, you need a name if you want a blog, etc. There are more than 6 billion people online, and they all need names. I remember I bought my first domain in high school, created some websites and was involved with domains ever since. Even though many of those websites don’t exist anymore, I still conserve the domains because I feel very attached to them, I feel like they are a piece of the internet.

Q2) Why Web3 domains instead of traditional legacy DNS names?

I wouldn’t say Web3 domains “instead” of DNS names, it’s not one or the other. I think the blockchain-as-a-service technology enhances the use cases of DNS domains. Why is that? We live in 2025, the new generation, the people that are now 20 years old, they are highly technological. They were raised with smartphones and use the internet constantly, being innovative, disrupting technology, while the previous generation was playing snake on their Nokia 3310 at that age. This is a symptom of the huge and fast change in the use and consumption of technology and the internet. 

Having said that, DNS domains are wonderful to maintain the DNS property, the website names, email redirections. But they are not sufficient to embrace all of the new use cases that new generations, current generations are doing online, on chain. So I wouldn’t say one instead of another, I would say we are here to enable the traditional DNS space, the traditional internet, with blockchain features, with digital identity, that lives and resides on a blockchain and can be interoperable with DNS operations.

Q3) What are the common misconceptions most domainers have about Web3 domains?

We tend to think that general regulators have been there since the beginning of time and I think it’s a misconception that we all have to rely on regulators on an administrative level. It’s definitely good to have regulators, but we need to think outside the box. There is also the misconception that the system as it is right now, an ICANN government system, is the one and only, now and forever.

I think this is a great limitation: the more we advance in time, the more technology advances exponentially. ICANN was born with the aim to keep the internet clean and safe, which is extremely important. But let’s take a look into the future, in 100 years, perhaps there will be another type of governor of the internet. In fact, perhaps there will be a completely different type of the internet. I think the biggest misconception in the domain world is that the Internet we have today is also meant to be there in the decades to come.

Q4) What is the single thing most needed for Web3 domains to have mass adoption by the general public?

It is browser resolution and search index capabilities as well as the inclusion in the DNS records. What’s needed is an integration at the DNS level, since DNS is the ISP recognized name service (if there was another world wide recognized name service, that would be it).

Q5) How does Freename differ from other companies that offer Web3 domain names?

Freename is the only Web3 domain registrar with a multichain approach. That means our customers can freely decide which chain to use to mint their domains. And this is not limited to the EVM space, we also include Solana and other non-EVM-chains. That allows a wide range of opportunities for our customers, as they can interact with the chain they wish. We are also the only company that offers the possibility of being your own Web3 registry. What does that mean? Our customers can use us kind of like Shopify – they can buy their favorite TLD and make revenue by running their own Web3 name space. Only Freename offers the technology and tools to manage Web3 TLDs in this way.

Q6) Will there ultimately be one winner in the Web3 domain category or is there room for everyone to carve out a profitable business?

In my opinion there is definitely room for everyone. The DNS world comprises nearly 400 million names and there are a lot of companies working together, building the environment. And in Web3, right now there are almost 700 million wallets, many more than domains. I think there is space for all, the industry even needs to be a competitive industry, not an oligopoly. I hope the Web3 domain industry will progress like the Web2 naming industry has progressed, with a lot of partnerships, a lot of cohesion and with a lot of stakeholders that manage to survive, strive and successfully build one environment together. 

Q7) What are the benefits of having an account with Freename?

There are many advantages! You are part of the most innovative domain registrar. You can make revenues with your own Web3 TLDs, build on top of your domains, mirror your Web2 domains, you can trade domains with the Freename Aftermarket. On top of that you can use all of our technology for free: the reseller API, the global resolution API, they are all available on the website for free. We want to break down barriers, people should be able to build their own environment as freely as possible with the help of our technology.