On Monday, the firm behind Ethereum Domain Name Service(DNS), sued GoDaddy over the sale of the eth.link domain name that was vital for running Ethereum DNS. The aforementioned firm, True Names Ltd is responsible for all the web addresses ending in ‘.eth’ which is used by the Ethereum community.
The complaint was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona by True Names Ltd. and argued that the registration was to expire on July 26, 2023. However in August, GoDaddy falsely declared that it had expired on July 26, 2022 itself.
Also, GoDaddy had allegedly said the domain name would be available for the re-purchase again on September 5, 2022, but it had apparently sold eth.link to a third party, crypto start-up Manifold Finance, on September 3.
As per the filing, while doing so, GoDaddy has ‘deprived plaintiff True Names Ltd. of its livelihood’.
Consequently, the sale will disable a vital crypto network and ‘recklessly risk making it available to scores of malicious actors’, the complaint further said.
Usually, Domain registration renewals are a simple and an easy task. However, in this particular instance, the person who has the authority to renew the registration for eth.link, Virgil Griffith, is currently serving a 63-month prison sentence for violating the US’ economic sanctions against North Korea.
The complainants, True Names and Griffith are seeking a compensation of at least $75,000 excluding legal costs.
The plaintiffs are also demanding a ‘temporary restraining order against defendants GoDaddy, Inc., GoDaddy.com LLC and any employees or entities that directly or indirectly let eth.link to expire and be available for purchase by third parties’.
Currently, the eth.link landing page is displaying a message from new owner Manifold Finance which says ‘services will be restored in the upcoming week’. Apparently, Domain name wire reported that Manifold paid $851,919.30 for the eth.link.
For the uninitiated, Eth.link ensures that users can easily get to .eth addresses. Generally, it is easy for MetaMask and other Web3-enabled browsers to get to .eth sites but traditional browsers cannot and this is made possible by Eth.link which acts as a bridge.
Also Read: Second largest sale for ENS domain recorded
