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.

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!

Can I trade @handles?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

No. See Inscribing @handles for details on limitations

What about emoji and Punycode?

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.

Why is my name not indexed properly?

Funky or imperfect formatting can sometimes cause this. See the examples in the Indexing Reference Guide. Check your JSON5 here.

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