# FAQ

### **Why own an @handle name?**

Name systems are essential for our online lives and businesses, but they are usually under the control of centralized companies. 

A Bitcoin-based name system has the potential to revolutionize online identity with names secured with Bitcoin securely and decentralized.  We hope to see many wallets, marketplaces, and apps develop around the @handles standard.<br>

### **When will @handles go live?**

It already is and over 30,000 @handles exist already. \
You register @handles by inscribing ordinals. \
Go inscribe one right now!<br>

### **Can I trade @handles?**&#x20;

Absolutely! @handles are simply ordinals and can be traded. Whatever wallet holds the first instance of a name our indexer will consider the current owner. <br>

### **How does @handles make money?**

We do not make money, nor do we have any plans to do so. \
@handles are inscribed as ordinals in a fair mint fashion. First is first with no reserves.  The only costs involved are fees paid to miners on the Bitcoin network or by service fee to Inscription Services.<br>

### **Who controls the DAO and standard?**

There is no DAO. And there is no protocol in the smart contract sense. All we propose here is a standard for registering names. We cannot change names, update names, raise the cost of names, or do anything of that sort.<br>

### How do I get OG status, rewards, tokens, mintpass, whitelisted, etc.?

There is nothing like that here. Everyone has equal access to inscribe whatever @handles they wish on a first come first serve basis.

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## Registrations

### How can I inscribe @handles?

Follow the instructions in the [Inscribing @handles](https://handles.gitbook.io/handles/spec/handles-protocol/inscribing-handles).&#x20;

###

### How can I tell if someone has already registered my name?

Visit the verification tool provided by the Trac Network.\
<https://trac.network/trac-demos/handles/>

### **How can I tell if a particular ordinal name is real, authentic, or legit?**

We’re just a group of enthusiasts suggesting a standard. We don’t have any authority over what is “real” or not. Tools have been created to help marketplaces, wallets, and individual users sort out which @handles name was first. You shouldn’t trust us or anyone—you should verify. That said we’ll try to make it fast and easy to verify!

###

### Can I register multiple names in one ordinal?&#x20;

No. See [Inscribing @handles](https://handles.gitbook.io/handles/spec/handles-protocol/inscribing-handles) for details on limitations

###

### What about emoji and Punycode?&#x20;

Handles do not currently support Emojis or characters outside of Letters (English), Numbers, underscores (\_), and hyphens (-)\
\
This could change in the future, but the current goal is to make the protocol easy to understand, index, and develop.

### What happens if I inscribe a duplicate name?

First is first. Indexers will regard the second name as invalid.&#x20;

###

### Why is my name not indexed properly?&#x20;

Funky or imperfect formatting can sometimes cause this. See the examples in the [Indexing Reference Guide](https://handles.gitbook.io/handles/spec/handles-protocol/indexing-reference-guide). Check your [JSON5 here](https://jsonformatter.org/json5-validator).

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