escrow – Goldstein Report

Escrow.com Facilitates $85M In Domain Name Transactions in First Quarter

The total value of domain name transactions facilitated by Escrow.com passed the $85 million mark in the first quarter of 2019, exceeding the last quarter of 2018 and of the past 7 quarters was surpassed by only the second and third quarters of 2018, according to the Escrow.com Internet Domain Name Index Q1 2019 released this week. Of the last 7 quarters, the second quarter of 2018 had the highest sales with $97 million in domain name transactions.

The United States once again led the way for total domain name transaction value but of the top 5 regions, both Canada and Hong Kong saw a surge in transaction value from Q4 2018.

The value of domain name transactions in the United States rose strongly in the first quarter of 2019, up from $55.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $62 million. The result was below 2018’s second quarter peak of nearly $70.3 million.

Canada overtook the United Kingdom as the next largest region for total domain name transacted value, rising to $9.16 million versus the United Kingdom’s $8.58 million. China continued its decline following its peak in the second quarter of 2018 of around $18.4 million in total transaction value. In the first quarter of 2019, by comparison, the China saw $5.8 million in total transaction value.

The report also notes the median price of domain names with content continued to outstrip that of those without content, and skyrocketed in Q1 2019 to a historical high of $9,800 compared to $4,800 the previous quarter. Domain names without content, meanwhile, remained flat with a median price of $2,500. This median price has now remained unchanged for six consecutive quarters.

The sum total value of domains without content continues to far surpass those with content, suggesting a much higher overall volume. According to the report, total value of domain names without content in Q1 2019 rose to $54.8 million, up from $45 million in Q4 2018. However, the sum total value of domains with content followed the trend of median prices for those domains, more than doubling from $7.1 million in Q4 2018 to US$15.2 million in Q1 2019.

The report also looks at sales of .com domain names by length. 2 and 3 character .com domain names spiked in the fourth quarter of 2018 to a median price of over $350,000 compared to their usual price of averaging around $20,000, and in the first quarter fell back to around $80,000. 4 character .coms also spiked in Q4 to around $8,000 but then slightly increased, while 5 character .coms also spiked in Q4 to around $3,900 falling in Q1 to around $2,800. 6 character .coms also spiked, but back in Q1 2018 and have remained around $2,800 since.

The report is available for download from the Escrow.com site here.

Escrow.com Steps Up Anti-Money Laundering Compliance Program With Former HSBC VP’s Appointment

Escrow.com has appointed former HSBC Vice President, Senior Manager Regional Regulatory Compliance Officer – West Coast, Fereba Ashufta, to lead its Anti Money Laundering Compliance Program.

Ashufta joins Escrow.com as BSA / AML Compliance Officer from HSBC, where she provided guidance in an advisory capacity to the Retail Banking and Wealth Management segment of the global banking and financial services firm.

Based in San Francisco, California, Ms Ashuftaâs new appointment sees her spearhead Escrow.comâs Anti Money Laundering Compliance Program, while playing an integral part in the effective management of Escrow.comâs regulatory relationships and obligations.

âAs a market-leading escrow service provider across the United States and further afield, regulatory oversight plays an essential role in our business and the assurance we continue to offer to our customers and marketplace partners,â said Jackson Elsegood, General Manager of Escrow.com.

âFerebaâs experience in the financial services sector combined with her deep knowledge of the regulatory compliance landscape makes her a great fit for Escrow.com and will help to bolster our core offering while further building the trust we have spent years earning from our customers.

âWeâre all very pleased to welcome Fereba to the Escrow.com senior management team. We look forward to working together with Fereba to continue building Escrow.com and further underpin the assurance and security Escrow.com and its suite of services offers businesses and individuals in the US and around the world,â Mr Elsegood said.

Ms Ashufta brings 15 years of banking experience with her to Escrow.com, along with a law enforcement and public safety background. In 2017, Ms Ashufta was nominated to attend the 8th Annual San Francisco Women in Leadership Symposium, hosted by the National Diversity Council.

DENIC Wins Domains Award At eco://award 2018 With Data Escrow Service

DENIC, the .de ccTLD manager, has won the Domains category at the 17th annual eco://award held in Cologneâs Wolkenburg on 28 November. DENIC won for their Data Escrow Service â a unique solution for registrars and registries to meet their contractual escrow obligations in accordance with European legal standards. DENIC also made the final 3 in the Domains category with their ID4me, a Single Sign-On solution

The prize-winning DENIC service offers an unprecedented backup option for domain data in Europe. By choosing DENIC as their escrow provider, European customers comply with their escrow obligations under European law. A combination of computer centres located in Europe as the only place for storing the data and the freedom to choose the place of jurisdiction and arbitration within Europe that make the DENIC Data Escrow Service unique. To become an accredited escrow provider, DENIC successfully passed ICANNâs multi-stage accreditation process.

The accreditation by ICANN authorises DENIC to provide data escrow services for registrars and registry operators of generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs). In addition, DENIC is a Designated Escrow Agent for registrars. This means that ICANN-accredited registrars can use DENIC’s escrow services free of charge, financed by ICANN.

“The eco Award confirms that our commitment to creating a strictly European escrow solution for the domain industry provides real added value,” said DENIC COO Andreas Musielak. The marketing of the escrow services is performed by DENIC’s wholly-owned subsidiary DENIC Services GmbH & Co. KG, which specialises in optimal customer service.

ID4me, a service from the German country code top level domain manager, was also a finalist in the Domains category. ID4me gives internet users full control over their digital identity and enables them to govern the use of their personal data. Unlike other Single Sign-On solutions, ID4me uses only open standards. DENIC is one of the initiators of ID4me and has made an inaugural contribution to the technical development of the domain-based application.

The other finalist in the Domains category was Hexonet with their Search and Help Me Find My Domain service. The service was developed with a view to reconsider domain name search technology. HEXONET’s new domain search framework is relevance- and speed-based, challenging the traditional search approach. In addition, we have launched a chat-like feature which is fast becoming a preferred interface.

Other winners in the German internet industry awards were KAMP Netzwerkdienste GmbH in the Hosting category for their KAMP Dynamic Hardware Pool. With DHP, companies can operate a secure virtual data centre that, combined with on-site colocation, offers the optimal IT platform for their specific application.

There were 7 categories, with the remaining 5 winners and their categories being:

CATEGORY Cloud:
Consultix GmbH for ProCampaign Lighthouse â the secure Customer Engagement Hub for individualized marketing campaigns, which fully complies with the requirements of the GDPR.

CATEGORY Data Centre Infrastructure:
ColocationIX GmbH for ColocationIX Ââ the data centre in the former nuclear shelter with the highest level of digital and physical security and an innovative fire protection and climate control concept.

CATEGORY ISP/Interconnection:
ANEXIA Deutschland GmbH for Backbone Europe â the massive expansion of the European network (n*100G), with the highest level of network quality and best routing.

CATEGORY Security:
Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity GmbH for R&S Trusted Gate â combining a Cloud Access Security Broker with a data-centric encryption system to make data more secure in the public cloud.

CATEGORY Innovation/Digital Business Models:
eyeo GmbH for Trusted News â which checks the trustworthiness of information on the Internet, and through which malware, fake news, and clickbait is visible at a glance.

There was also a Special Prize for Tim Cole who was honoured by eco with a special prize for his lifeâs work. For many years, the German-American author and publicist has immersed himself in topics relating to the Internet, e-business, the social web, and IoT.

âWhen Internet visionaries were still dismissed as crackpots in the early 1990s, he recognized the potential of the global data network and made a significant contribution to the commercial breakthrough of the Internet in Germany,â explained eco CEO Harald A. Summa in his laudatory speech. Cole has managed âto present technical developments in such a way that people not only understand them, but also â thanks to him â understand the consequences for their own actions and the implications for society.â

Efty Streamlines Checkout Process With New Escrow.com Integration

To further streamline its payment processes, Efty has integrated the recently introduced Escrow.com Platform application programming interface (API) into its online payment processes for buyers and sellers of domain names using its services

Escrow.com, the worldâs most secure payment system from a counterparty risk perspective, already underpins Eftyâs domain sales payments system with new integration while Efty has made a name for itself in the domain name sector with its popular commission-free, domain name sales platform.

In a statement announcing the integration Efty notes that Escrow.com has safely processed over US$3.5 billion in transactions with its secure escrow service. It released its API in public beta late last year, giving businesses and individuals the ability to build the functionality of the Escrow.com Platform directly into their online platforms.

Efty has become the latest prominent domain name industry player to adopt the full capabilities of the Escrow.com API. The integration protects both buyers and the sellers on the Efty site, with Escrow.com acting as a trusted third party, holding the funds for big-ticket items, allowing handover of the domain being transacted to occur prior to funds being released.

âEscrow.com has had a longstanding relationship with Efty, and together we have helped people sell and buy thousands of domains over the years,â said Escrow.com General Manager Jackson Elsegood. âWith this new integration of the Escrow.com API, Efty is able to tap into the full potential and latest functionality of the entire Escrow.com Platform.â

âThe new Escrow.com API allowed us to integrate Escrow Pay into Efty,â said Efty Head of Product Doron Vermaat. âWith Escrow Pay, we remove a lot of friction from the escrow process because buyers are now redirected to a wizard on Escrow.com where they can complete an escrow transaction in a few easy steps.

âAt Efty, weâre always looking for the most buyer-friendly workflow possible, and this new integration allows us to deliver on that while ensuring that sellers are protected from counterparty risk with no chargebacks, ever. At the same time, buyers can be assured that their money is safe and secure, held in trust, until they are satisfied they have received what they are paying for,â Mr. Vermaat said.

Escrow.com Launches Escrow Offer For Negotiating Domain Name Prices

Escrow.com announced Monday theyâve launched Escrow Offer, a new tool that allows people to negotiate prices for cars, boats, aircraft, domain names, jewellery, fine art and more through a Pay Now button

Escrow.com, billed as the worldâs most secure payment system from a counterparty risk perspective, describes Escrow Offer as a tool that can be easily integrated into the checkout payment system of websites, online stores, mobile apps, classifieds sites, or just about any online business that handles financial transactions over the Internet. It is meant to be an easy way to introduce the power of price negotiation into online platforms.

With Escrow Offer, online sellers can review offers, and either accept, reject or counter them. Negotiations proceed until a deal is reached and the secure escrow process begins.

âThe ability to negotiate on price has been at the centre of business interactions for big-ticket items for generations,â said Jackson Elsegood, General Manager of Escrow.com. âNow, weâre bringing that capability into the world of online transactions, giving businesses and individuals the power of negotiation in a safe and secure environment.

âEscrow Offer allows businesses to handle multiple offers and improve online conversion rates, while finding the best price at which to sell or buy an item,â Mr Elsegood said.

Escrow Offer comes on the heels of the launch of Escrow Pay in August, which lets businesses integrate the protection provided by the powerful Escrow.com API directly into their websites, mobile apps, online marketplaces, classifieds sites in one line of code.

With no minimum fee, and priced as low as 0.89%, the Escrow.com Platform API is cheaper than credit cards and many other payment methods, while providing the protection of an escrow service. Escrow Offer can be integrated via the Escrow.com API or through individual Make Offer buttons.

Escrow.com can be used for transactions involving anything of value, including domain names, vehicles, machinery, aircraft or any other item of value that a business or an individual might want to buy or sell safely and securely online. Escrow.com is ideal for transaction sizes from $100 to $10,000,000. Or more.

Escrow.com is the leading provider of secure online payments and online transaction management for consumers and businesses on the Internet, having safely processed over US$3.5 billion in transactions. Founded by Fidelity in 1999, Escrow.com reduces the risk of fraud by acting as a trusted third party that collects, holds and disburses funds according to buyer and seller instructions.

Escrow.com Introduces Escrow Pay: Secure Online Payment of Domain Names

Escrow.com has introduced a new streamlined checkout payment system for the buying and selling of domain names, as well as cars, boats, aeroplanes… anything of value, with one line of code added to a website

The service is called Escrow Pay and has no minimum fee and prices as low as 0.89%. Itâs being billed as the ideal solution for any website, mobile app, online store, classified site or marketplace that needs to take payments for any product or service of value. Escrow.com is ideal for transaction sizes from $100 to $10,000,000 or more.

Escrow Pay can be implemented with a single line of code and provides an integration of Escrow.comâs payment system for those customers that prefer a quick and easy solution over and above the powerful and fully featured Escrow.com API that was launched in December 2017.

Escrow.com protects both the buyer and the seller by acting as a trusted thirty party holding the funds, allowing the goods to be shipped and inspected prior to funds being released. This means that valuable items can ship across state or country lines before the transaction completes, improving liquidity and access to global markets safely. Greater liquidity means sellers can access more buyers and buyers more sellers, resulting in better choice, pricing and transaction completion rates. For sellers, Escrow.com greatly increases trust & safety and reduces fraud and with no chargebacks, ever.

Escrow.com is perfect for buying and selling cars, boats, airplanes, domain names, IP address blocks, websites, computer equipment, heavy machinery, jewelry, antiques, services, intellectual property and for import/export. The Aurora Space Station, the worldâs first luxury space hotel launching in 2021 uses Escrow.com for taking deposits for the $10 million experience.

Escrow Pay integrations are straight forward. With a single call to the Escrow Pay API, a partner may create a transaction and retrieve a link to the Escrow Pay checkout flow, which the buyer then may use to complete their transaction in a few easy steps. On completing this, the buyer is returned to a page on the partnerâs site. This means that an Escrow Pay button can be added to any type of page or application, including shopping cart checkout pages, classified listing pages, domain parking pages, and mobile apps. The Escrow Pay API may be used on its own or in conjunction with the fully featured Escrow Platform API.

Recent transactions secured by Escrow.com include the sale of 2 of the biggest premium domain names – crypto.com by famed cryptographer Matt Blaze and ice.com to the Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. Escrow.com is also the payment system powering a wide variety of e-Commerce businesses including Shopify Exchange, Shopifyâs marketplace to buy and sell businesses built on the Shopify platform, and Wingform, a marketplace for airplanes.

Escrow.com Reduces Minimum Transaction Fee to $10

In making their payment services more appealing, Escrow.com has reduced its minimum fees from $25 to $10 in a bid to target high volume transactions

In making their payment services more appealing, Escrow.com has reduced its minimum fees from $25 to $10 in a bid to target high volume transactions.

Escrow.com is the leading global provider of secure online escrow payments with over US$3 billion in payments secured.

Unlike credit cards or PayPal, Escrow.com does not allow chargebacks against sellers, and keeps buyers safe by guaranteeing that their funds will only be disbursed when they are 100% satisfied with the goods or services they have received.

âEscrow.com is the safest and most cost effective way to buy or sell anything online. We provide protection against fraud and chargebacks from $10, to offer an affordable alternative for online purchases,â said General Manager of Escrow.com, Jackson Elsegood. âOver 1 million users have transacted safely and easily using our online escrow platform to trade everything from motor vehicles to design services.â

Escrow.com offers 2 products specific to domain names. One is a secure domain name holding. is designed for Buyers and Sellers who agree to hold the domain(s) in escrow while the Buyer makes scheduled payments.

The fee for this service is our standard escrow fee plus a domain holding fee. The holding fee is dependent on the length of the holding period; $40/month if we are managing the DNS and $25/month if the Buyer will manage their own DNS. All contracts will have a minimum holding fee of $150 plus the escrow fee. Each transaction may include up to three domains without additional charges. Additional domains can be added to the contracts for the per year fee of $125 if we manage the DNS and $100 if managed by the Buyer.

The second is for the buying and selling domain names and websites securely online. The Buyer’s payment in a trust account until the entire transaction is complete. That way, Buyers can be confident the domain will be registered in their name and Sellers can be sure they’ll be paid. Fees vary depending on the value of the domain name and includes an escrow fee (starting at 0.89%) and a concierge fee (starting at 1.78%) for domain names valued at over $25,000.

DENIC Obtains ICANN Accreditation as New gTLD Data Escrow Agent

DENIC has been accredited as an Escrow Agent under ICANNâs new gTLD programme and thus officially authorised to operate a back-up storage service for the business data of domain registries (Registry Data Escrow, RyDE), the German ccTLD registry announced today

Following ICANNâs approval, DENIC became one of nine so-called Authorised New gTLD Data Escrow Agents as of 6 June. Three of these are resident in Europe. However, DENIC is the sole agent who, by special agreement with ICANN, is able to offer its escrow service both in compliance with the applicable European data protection regulations and in a manner that allows the place of jurisdiction for the contractual relationship between the registry customer and DENIC to be chosen freely by the parties.

The accreditation is part of several registries diversifying the services they provide on the back of declining growth rates, but not an actual decline, in registrations for many ccTLDs. Some such as the .ca registry operator has begun to provide backend registry services for .pt and .nz, nic.at and Nominet (.uk) provide registry services for new gTLDs and SIDN (.nl) has begun to diversify into other services within the Dutch market, some of which will be made available and beneficial to their registrars and registrants.

After the prior consent on framework conditions reached in March this year regarding DENIC’s escrow services for registrars (Registrar Data Escrow, RDE), the recent agreement between ICANN and DENIC represents another milestone. This agreement was the final step towards DENICâs accreditation. The compliance process to verify that its systems meet all the technical and operational requirements for providing the RyDE service was successfully completed by DENIC in 2016.

Individual registry customer can decide upon contract conclusion whether potential disputes between them and DENIC shall be resolved by a German state court or by a Swiss court of arbitration. ICANN, who is the third party beneficiary to the contract, can enforce their rights vis-Ã -vis DENIC only in front of a Swiss arbitration court. There are no rules as to the applicable law in the contract. In the case of German customers, it be governed by German law.

As a neutral, not-for-profit cooperative, DENIC is neither a registrar nor a gTLD (backend) operator, and so does not compete with the potential customers of its Escrow Service. More than 20 years of experience in operating one of the largest TLD zones worldwide (.de) with over 16 million DUM today make DENIC one of the leading experts in domain management, at an international level. State-of-the art cryptography and multiple redundancies safeguard the secure transmission and storage of all domain registration data. Storage will be exclusively in data centres located in Europe (i.e. in Germany and the Netherlands), in compliance with European data protection regulations. Besides, DENIC’s certifications according to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 ISMS and ISO 22301:2012 BCMS standards guarantee maximum information security and availability.

Data Escrow is the act of storing data and information with a neutral third party in order to be held in custody by them. This measure is meant to ensure that business activities can be continued by an independent party in case of failure or insolvency of the registry or registrar, on the basis of the data stored as an external back-up copy. Domain data is also rated to be such type of relevant business data. ICANN therefore requires all its accredited registrars and registries to regularly deposit a copy of their generic domain (gTLD) registration data with an independent escrow agent. In case a registrar or registry no longer being in the position to provide its services, these data can then be handed over to a designated partner to be defined by ICANN and registrants are enabled to prove they are the registrant of a domain.

Due to the more stringent German and European data protection regulations, German and European registries have a growing desire to avoid transmitting their customers’ data to the USA or any place outside the German/European judicial area. Like DENIC’s RDE service for registrars already in place, DENICâs new RyDE service now also offers gTLD registries, in particular those domiciled in Europe, a perfect solution to meet their escrow obligations towards ICANN within the European legal framework by using an escrow agent based within the European Union, and makes it thus unnecessary for them to transfer their data to a country outside of the EU.

Efty Teams Up With Payoneer To Add Safe And Secure Escrow Transactions

Efty has announced theyâve partnered with global payments company Payoneer to add secure, licensed and global domain name transactions to the Efty platform through its escrow services

Efty has announced theyâve partnered with global payments company Payoneer to add secure, licensed and global domain name transactions to the Efty platform through its escrow services.

To celebrate the launch of this service on Eftyâs platform, Payoneer is giving away free escrow transactions to Efty users for the entire month of April, 2017.

Payoneer is a digital payments company that powers cross-border transactions to over 200 countries, in 150 local currencies. Itâs used by thousands of major internet brands, like Airbnb and Google as well as millions of small business owners such as online sellers in China and service providers in India, rely on Payoneer to power their cross-border payments.

A deep integration with Payoneerâs escrow API enables users to place Buy It Now (BIN) buttons on For-Sale landing pages and domain name marketplace, which will allow buyers to purchase their domain names with the help of the licensed and secure online escrow payment service. With itâs easy to use interface, Payoneerâs escrow service is one of the easiest and most secure ways for businesses to pay and get paid online.

Efty says lately theyâve seen an increasing demand for alternative domain escrow services from their users and feel that Payoneerâs world-class technology, seasoned team, and competitive pricing are the perfect partner to fill the gap and help with the core mission to help users sell more domain names without paying a dollar in commission. Payoneerâs global payment capability enables our sellers, who are based all around the world to receive payments quicker, in their local currency and at lower costs than with traditional payment methods

To promote Eftyâs partnership, Payoneer will waive the escrow fee for all Efty sellers for the entire month of April.

Click here for a step-by-step guide on how to set up Payoneer Escrow for your Efty account today.

DENIC Expands Services Becoming Official Provider Of Data Escrow for ICANN-Accredited Registrars

A number of top level domain registries are looking for more business opportunities. Some such as nic.at have ventured into providing backend registry services for new gTLDs. Others such as SIDN, the .nl registry has expanded by co-creating a DNS billing service in the Netherlands and taking over an e-identity company with 12 million users.

And DENIC, the .de country code top level domain manager, has also been expanding. Last month they announced it had won the contract with EURid to provide shared use of its global anycast mesh for the .eu and Cyrillic script .ею (xn--e1a4c) TLDs.

This week DENIC had a further announcement. They are extending their business activities to include a back-up storage service for the business data of ICANN-accredited registrars (Registrar Data Escrow). On 15 March a contract was signed with ICANN that included several unprecedented conditions that are different from any previous agreement. Not only do the applicable law and place of jurisdiction terms allow for non-US legislation and venues, as far as the relationship between registrar and data escrow provider is concerned. But for the first time within the ICANN escrow context, full compliance with the applicable European data protection regulations is achieved.

The accreditation by ICANN as a Third-Party Provider for Registrar Data Escrow (TPP RDE) was obtained by DENIC last year. Now the details of the obligatory tripartite agreement between ICANN, DENIC and registrars as the users of the RDE service could be finalised. The contract stands out from other parties’ escrow agreements with ICANN by not being governed exclusively by Californian law but also allowing German law as the applicable legislation for the contractual relationship between a registrar and DENIC as escrow provider – provided ICANN is not affected. Moreover, the registrar and DENIC may define upon contract conclusion if, in case of dispute, they will seek redress in a German court or a Swiss court of arbitration.

During the recent ICANN meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, the first tripartite agreement was signed by Akram Atallah, President of ICANN’s Global Domains Division (GDD), DENIC COO Andreas Musielak and Marcus Fauré, Managing Director of the German registrar Global Village, on 15 March 2017. Global Village – together with another five registrars – had already used DENIC's Escrow Service in the last few months within the scope of a Friends & Family test scenario. The agreement with ICANN now cleared the way for concluding an official contract.

“Escrow Services is an interesting new business field for us. Providing a back-up service for sensitive data will further enhance our international reputation as a trustworthy partner,” said DENIC COO Andreas Musielak expressing his satisfaction about the latest development.

“Given the legal uncertainty with regard to data transfers to the Unites States, the DENIC Escrow Service is a very attractive option, also and in particular to all registrars based in Europe.”

“In the current tense political climate, protecting the data of European domain holders has become ever more important. I am relieved that, being a contracting partner of DENIC, I will now be able to store the data of my customers in a legally safe place in Europe, without having to entrust them to an enterprise that is competing with my own company,” said Global Village Managing Director Marcus Fauré. “With DENIC, I now have the ideal partner for the technical implementation by my side.”

DENIC’s Board is confident that the ongoing contract negotiations with ICANN for approving DENIC to also provide Registry Data Escrow (RyDE) for the New gTLDs will now come to a close soon, too. New gTLD registry operators are also subject to the obligation to use escrow services.

As a neutral, not-for-profit cooperative, DENIC is neither a registrar nor a gTLD (backend) operator, and thus does not compete with the potential customers of its Escrow Service. 20 years of experience in operating one of the largest TLD zones worldwide (.de) with more than 16 million domains make DENIC one of the leading experts in domain management, at an international level. State-of-the art cryptographic algorithms and multiple redundancies safeguard the secure transmission and storage of all domain registration data. Storage will be exclusively in data centers located in Europe (i.e. in Frankfurt and Amsterdam), in compliance with European data protection regulations. DENIC's certifications according to ISO/IEC 27001:2013 ISMS and ISO 22301:2012 BCM standards are another guarantee for maximum information security and availability.