GoDaddy Sued For Auctioning Off Eth.Link ENS Domain

Internet domain service provider GoDaddy has been named in the lawsuit in relation to a recently auctioned ENS domain name. The eth.link domain name had belonged to registrant Virgil Griffith who had run into trouble with the United States after being caught trying to help North Korea evade sanctions. So since Griffith was behind bars, he was unable to renew his ownership of the domain name but had had a third party renew it in his stead.

However, the problems began when the eth.link domain name came up for renewal this year. Apparently, the domain registrar had refused to allow a third party to renew the domain ownership for Griffith as it had previously done in the past. Instead of allowing the registration to expire and then auctioning off the domain name. 

In the auction that followed, GoDaddy had auctioned off the domain name through a partnership with Dynadot. The platform was placed in charge of auctioning any Uni domains that were not supported by GoDaddy does not support after it acquired Uniregistry but failed to acquire the registry. The domain name fetched a whooping $851,919.30 from the auction.

This move did not sit well with True Names, the developers behind the Ethereum Name Service. The company has partnered with Virgil Griffith to sue the domain issuer to stop the sale and transfer of the eth.link domain to a new owner.

GoDaddy Sued For Auctioning Off Eth.Link ENS Domain

Internet domain service provider GoDaddy has been named in the lawsuit in relation to a recently auctioned ENS domain name. The eth.link domain name had belonged to registrant Virgil Griffith who had run into trouble with the United States after being caught trying to help North Korea evade sanctions. So since Griffith was behind bars, he was unable to renew his ownership of the domain name but had had a third party renew it in his stead.

However, the problems began when the eth.link domain name came up for renewal this year. Apparently, the domain registrar had refused to allow a third party to renew the domain ownership for Griffith as it had previously done in the past. Instead of allowing the registration to expire and then auctioning off the domain name. 

In the auction that followed, GoDaddy had auctioned off the domain name through a partnership with Dynadot. The platform was placed in charge of auctioning any Uni domains that was not supported by GoDaddy does not support after it acquired Uniregistry but failed to acquire the registry. The domain name fetched a whooping $851,919.30 from the auction.

This move did not sit well with True Names, the developers behind the Ethereum Name Service. The company has partnered with Virgil Griffith to sue the domain issuer to stop the sale and transfer of the eth.link domain to a new owner.

Griffith Wants Eth.link ENS Back

Virgil Griffith and True Names are currently taking GoDaddy to court over the auction of the eth.link domain name. Both parties had collaborated and filed a complaint in a District Court of Arizona to stop GoDaddy from transferring the domain name and for breach of contract.

The eth.link domain is an important one in the ENS niche because it is actually used to help .eth domain names to resolve. The complaint accuses the domain registrar of giving false information to its users regarding the expiration of the domain and giving a false date of when the domain would actually go back to the registration pool. This meant that the original owner did not have the time to actually renew the registration, also saying that the domain name should’ve never been allowed to expire. 

The lawsuit names GoDaddy, Inc., GoDaddy.com LLC, Dynadot LLC, and Manifold Finance, Inc. as defendants, with Trues Names, Ltd. and Virgil Griffith named as plaintiffs. The filing also includes a demand for a jury trial for breach of contract, breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, and unfair competition. 

The plaintiffs are seeking damages of at least $75,000 in the case with the exclusion of attorney fees. Manifold Finance is currently listed as the new owner of the eth.link domain name, hence its appearance in the list of defendants. 

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