With new ICANN agreement, you'll need to verify email and phone to register a domain
Domain registrars like GoDaddy will soon be held far more accountable for information on those who are signing up for web domains. In the future, users will need to verify both their email address …
Context & Ripple Effects
ICANN is tightening registrant-data rules while preparing hundreds of new address suffixes for availability by the end of 2013 and launching a trademark clearinghouse. That expansion makes the registrar layer a more consequential enforcement point for the domain system.
GoDaddy had already shown that registrars can alter registration access in response to market constraints through its plan to stop registering domains in China. The ICANN agreement applies that compliance role to registrant-contact validation.
First-order effects
- Domain applicants must verify an email address and phone number before completing a registration, adding a required step to the purchase flow.
- GoDaddy and other registrars assume greater responsibility for collecting and validating registrant contact information under ICANN's agreement.
Second-order effects
- Registrars must operationalize email and phone verification in their onboarding systems, making compliance execution part of the domain-registration experience.
- The rule reduces the pool of domains registered with unverified contact details, increasing the importance of registrars' data-quality controls as new suffixes enter the market.
Third-order effects
- If applied consistently across registrars, ICANN's contract model shifts domain governance toward identity assurance enforced by commercial intermediaries rather than voluntary registrant disclosures.
The trend: Domain-name governance is moving toward stricter registrar-enforced identity and data-validation requirements as the address space expands.