Brave not brave enough for .brave as Unstoppable ICANN bid proves stoppable

Unstoppable previously announced they had partnered with Brave to apply, in the 2026 round of the ICANN new gTLD program, for the .brave TLD. They announced .brave as web3 domain in May 2025 along with the intention to explore an ICANN application1 but now are offering refunds to anyone who bought one after they'd confirmed they would apply2. Plenty of unhappy customers on Twitter voiced their opinions in response but the CEO of Unstoppable, Matt Gould, insists they are the ones taking a financial loss on this after their investments in infrastructure and compliance.

The likely source of contention is the draft report from ICANN on integrating with alternative naming systems3 which Unstoppable cited as the reason they would not be proceeding with nine of their own applications (including .crypto and .nft). They said the report suggested that all existing web3 customers for a domain would have to disclose their details whether they wanted to be in the ICANN root or not and Unstoppable were unwilling to force this on their customers4.

The bespoke .brave page on Unstoppable's website5 (which offers .brave domains) still has an FAQ section which includes the goal of integrating with ICANN DNS which they might want to update:

We will be collaborating with Brave to plan and strategize for applying to the upcoming Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) general Top Level Domains (gTLD) application round in 2026. The goal is to create Web2-Web3 domain "twins," allowing users, brands, and companies to take the best from both worlds and fully leverage the power of onchain domains within the traditional Internet space.

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Brave, by all accounts, is a terrible company run by a terrible person but at least a browser is an interesting use case for a dedicated TLD, even if it isn't delegated into the ICANN root. Brave's browser currently already resolves .brave web3 domains and has a built-in wallet which makes for a seamless experience for the owner but what about anyone else you want to access your website? 99% of users will be on a browser incompatible with your .brave domain.

One of the more interesting web3 features that Brave boasted was native support for the Interplanetary File System (IPFS), a decentralised storage system for hosting files and websites. Other browsers would need to make use of gateways and bridges such as ipfs.io and eth.limo but unfortunately the feature was deprecated by Brave in 20246.

Brave Becomes First Browser to Launch On-Chain Naming Service, Unlocking .brave for Over 85M Users Brave blog (brave.com)

On deciding not to apply for ICANN tlds - Matt Gould (twitter.com)

Feedback Request: gTLD Integrations with Alternative Naming Systems TSG Report - Theresa Swinehart (icann.org)

ICANN Applications are in! Some TLDs are eligible for a refund - Unstoppable blog (unstoppable.ai)

.brave Domains - Unstoppable Domains (unstoppabledomains.com)

IPFS Support in Brave - Brave blog (brave.com)