Domain names have remained a valuable asset since the birth of the internet. However, while standard domain names — or centralized domain names as they’re otherwise known — laid the foundations for what domain names could achieve, decentralized domain names offer a whole other level of domain (and blockchain) functionality.

From offering an extra layer of security to cryptocurrency addresses, to offering a platform for DApps to be hosted on, decentralized addresses offer a number of notable features and functions which make them a worthy investment.

If you’re not convinced yet, we’ve put together a list of 4 reasons why decentralized domains are valuable. We at Portal Network hope that after reading, you’ll have a better understanding of why decentralized domains aren’t just buzzword, and how decentralized domain names are revolutionizing the cryptocurrency and blockchain world as we know it.

They are safer for cryptocurrency holders to use than hexadecimal cryptocurrency addresses

Needless to say, security is a critical concern when it comes to transferring such a valuable asset as cryptocurrency. However, there are unfortunately countless cases of people losing thousands of dollars worth of their cryptocurrency portfolio due to mistakes made by human-error.

That is precisely why the type of cryptocurrency address you use can make a substantial difference to the likelihood of something going wrong in the process of transferring cryptocurrency between addresses. While in the past there was only the option of using a hexadecimal cryptocurrency address, cryptocurrency investors now also have the option of using a human-readable decentralized domain address.

Here’s a simple exercise to demonstrate the relative ease, and thus greater security, a decentralized cryptocurrency address offers over a standard hexadecimal cryptocurrency address.

Imagine you need to send an ethereum payment. The process of sharing your standard hexadecimal cryptocurrency address would go something like this:

1. You make a copy of your standard ethereum address, or type it all out. For the sake of this scenario, let’s say your address is: 0x123a7b27320175423642d4.

2. You then check that you’ve copied it or typed it out correctly by manually looking to see that all of the numbers and letters in your address are correctly in sequence from start to finish. You run through the numbers — “0x123, yes, “a7b2, yes…” to make sure you haven’t accidentally left off a number or letter, or somehow tainted your address. As you’ve unlikely memorized it, you will need to rely on the vigilance of your manual checks to ensure the address you use is in fact the correct one.

Now compare this to the process of sharing a decentralized ethereum address, which would go something like this:

1. You make a copy of your .eth address, or type it all out. For the sake of this scenario, let’s say it’s: cryptoaddict.eth

2. You then check that you’ve copied it or typed it out correctly by manually looking to see that all of the letters in your address are correctly in sequence from start to finish. You’ve memorized your address, so are able to recognize the exact sequence the letters –“crypto” and “addict” — as well as the “.eth” when you check it over.

Which one sounds easier to you?

We at Portal Network are guessing you picked the second option, the .eth address. As a human-readable address which is substantially easier to memorize, it is far more straightforward to check over a decentralized domain address and complete the process of verifying that you have input the correct address.

Human-error, needless to say, will not usually stand as an excuse for sending money to the wrong address, or providing the wrong address on an exchange or to another user. Once a transaction is confirmed on the blockchain, that is usually the end of the matter. That being said, some exchanges do offer recovery options for users who have made an error in their address when sending cryptocurrency. However, these recovery options are known to be highly limited, cumbersome, or expensive in themselves.

For these reasons, more and more people are turning to decentralized domain addresses in favor of hexadecimal addresses to avoid the high cost of human-error.