81,000 UK-owned .eu domains suspended as Brexit transition ends

Published

2 weeks ago

January 5, 2021

Tens of thousands of website owners who are based in the UK might have started the year with an unpleasant surprise: Eurid, the registry manager of .eu domain names, has suspended .eu domain names registered by UK citizens as a result of the regulatory changes caused by Brexit.

Suspended domain names can no longer support a website or service like email, and owners now have three months to prove their right to run a .eu domain. This means updating contact data to transfer the .eu domain to an EU-subsidiary outside the UK; or declaring citizenship or residence of an EU member state.

Domain names will be re-instated as soon as contact data is updated, said Eurid – but only for the next few months. Those who, after 31st March 2021, still haven’t demonstrated their eligibility will see their domain name withdrawn, and made available again for general registration from January 2022 if no action is taken by then. Eurid said 81,000 domains, from 50,000 users, have been suspended.

SEE: Guide to Becoming a Digital Transformation Champion (TechRepublic Premium)

Eurid’s suspension of UK domains comes after a series of mixed signals from the European Commission, which decides on the rules that guide the registration of .eu domains. EU regulations currently stipulate that .eu websites can only be allocated to EU citizens – regardless of their place of residence – as well as non-EU citizens and organizations established in a member state.

In other words, once Brexit happened, UK-based .eu domains owned by UK citizens suddenly became non-EU websites hosted in a non-EU country.

In 2018, the European Commission put out a note suggesting that any .eu website established in the UK and owned by a UK citizen therefore might be cancelled as soon as the country exited the EU. At the time, according to Eurid’s archives, there were over 300,000 domains in the UK using a .eu domain; needless to say, the news didn’t go down all that well.

Eurid made it clear that it hadn’t contributed much to the European Commission’s initial decision, and indicated that it was only sent a link to the announcement on the day that it was published. The withdrawal of UK-based websites, warned the registry manager, “could happen as of 30 March 2019 in case no withdrawal agreement is reached between the UK and EU, or as of 1 January 2021 in the case that an agreement is reached.”

The Commission’s announcement was met with severe criticism, with .eu website owners claiming that revoking existing domains went against the right to property.

Late last year, Eurid finally indicated that new rules had been agreed with the Commission on the issue. From 1 January 2021, the European registry manager effectively stopped allowing the registration of a new domain name by UK registrants; but existing domains were granted more time to find ways to meet the new eligibility criteria.

From “immediately cancelled”, UK-based .eu domains were given relief in the form of a three-month “suspension” period, to give domain owners more time to update their contact data and eventually retrieve their .eu name.

SEE: 10 tech predictions that could mean huge changes ahead

Eurid’s latest memo is the third of a series of Brexit notices to UK registrants, just for the month of December; and it comes on top of myriad updates to official guidance since 2018. The uncertainty has ultimately come at the cost of the vast majority of UK-based .eu domains, which have shrunk from over 300,000 in 2017 to about 120,000 in the last quarter of 2020, to reach about 81,500 at the start of this year. Between 2018 and 2019, in fact, the number of .eu websites in the UK decreased by 46.7%.

It seems that most UK owners, therefore, abandoned their .eu name altogether, and resorted to setting up a new domain to which they re-directed their traffic – meaning extra work to adapt marketing, search engine optimization and customer service.

Eurid has specified that it will notify, on 1 April 2021, UK registrants who have failed to comply, before withdrawing their domain name. At the start of 2022, those domains will be revoked and become available for general registration.

Innovation

Source: https://www.zdnet.com/article/81000-uk-owned-eu-domains-suspended-as-brexit-transition-ends/#ftag=RSSbaffb68

Related Topics:EU News Regulations Tech Zdnet

Blockchain

Litecoin Price Analysis: 22 January

Published

1 hour ago

January 22, 2021

Republished by Plato

Disclaimer: The findings of the following analysis are the sole opinions of the writer and should not be taken as investment advice

The Bitcoin market registered an important price drop recently, one wherein the value of the digital asset dipped briefly under $30k on the charts. Although the cryptocurrency’s value later bounced back above the $30k-level, the said drop in price also contributed to major altcoins like Litecoin plunging on the charts.

Litecoin briefly breached the support at $125, following which it managed to recover from its sudden fall on the charts. At the time of writing, Litecoin was valued at $137.27, with the cryptocurrency trading close to its immediate resistance levels.

Litecoin one-hour chart

Source: LTCUSD on TradingView

From the attached chart, Litecoin’s price can be seen falling within a descending channel and hitting a low of $121.97. This low was followed by an immediate retracement as the market tried to stabilize. In fact, later, the price of the digital silver immediately pushed higher, which was why LTC was trading above $130, at press time.

Given the aforementioned drop, the digital asset may breach the resistance at $138 and be priced higher on the charts.

Reasoning

The 50 moving average moved above the price bars and acted as a resistance level for the price of LTC. The said fall pushed LTC into the oversold zone, with Bitcoin’s own depreciation on the charts contributing to growing selling pressure. However, as the price recovered, the Relative Strength Index also moved into the equilibrium zone. As this level looked like a consolidating range for LTC’s price, the emergence of bullish pressure may push it higher on the price scale.

Further, the Awesome Oscillator highlighted the momentum shifting towards the sellers’ side. The AO dipped under zero a couple of days back, and a short position of traders must have realized here as the market went on a downtrend. With the downtrend sustaining itself, all momentum in the market was lost.

Crucial levels to look out for

Entry: $138.03
Stop-Loss: $134.73
Take-Profit: $144.88
Risk-to-Reward: 2.39

Conclusion

The press time price level looked like a consolidating level for Litecoin. However, a northbound push for the digital asset may result in traders benefiting from a long position as they realize a profit at $144.88.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/litecoin-price-analysis-22-january

Blockchain

VanEck files for a ‘Digital Asset ETF’ with the SEC

Published

2 hours ago

January 22, 2021

Republished by Plato

According to a filing published today by the United States’ Securities and Exchange Commission, New York-based investment management firm VanEck intends to launch a Digital Assets ETF, one that will track as closely as possible, before fees and expenses, “the price and yield performance of the MVIS® Global Digital Assets Equity Index.”

The fund will invest in companies that generate at least 50% of their revenue from digital asset projects, or developing projects that have the potential to generate half of their revenue from the digital assets industry.

It should be noted, however, that the term “digital asset industry” is by and large a broad terminology for companies that operate digital asset exchanges, payment gateways, mining operations, software services, equipment, and technology. This may well mean that there is potential for companies like Coinbase to be included in the fund after a successful IPO.

The SEC filing also notes that this fund will invest in companies that hold a significant amount of digital assets on their balance sheets. This suggests that companies like MicroStrategy may be a part of its portfolio, considering its own billion-dollar Bitcoin holdings.

The New York-based investment firm isn’t a stranger to SEC filings. VanEck had previously submitted applications for Bitcoin-based ETFs with the SEC, with a majority of them being rejected by the regulatory agency for a host of reasons.

On the contrary, back in September 2019, VanEck withdrew its application for a Bitcoin ETF. Interestingly, the verdict on its most recent application for an ETF, titled “VANECK BITCOIN TRUST” is still undecided.

If the development comes to pass, it will be a huge step, especially since the said offering will be launching in a country where regulatory agencies have often been seen with a suspicious eye. In Europe, on the other hand, crypto-ETPs surpassed a billion Euros in assets in 2020, despite a regulatory ban on selling these products to retail investors in the U.K.

While a crypto-ETF is still yet to be officially approved in the U.S, many investment advisors have cited concerns saying that without a crypto exchange-traded fund, there is little incentive for registered investment advisors to put clients’ cash into crypto.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/vaneck-files-for-a-digital-asset-etf-with-the-sec

Blockchain

Stellar Lumens, Steem, Maker Price Analysis: 22 January

Published

3 hours ago

January 22, 2021

Republished by Plato

Stellar Lumens registered significant losses recently. However, since a lot of the asset wasn’t sold on the market, XLM could see some upside in the next day or two. STEEM also showed signs that it was poised for a bounce while Maker slipped under a triangle pattern and could move towards $1000 on the price charts.

Stellar Lumens [XLM]

Stellar Lumens, Steem, Maker Price Analysis: 22 January

Source: XLM/USD on TradingView

While Stellar Lumens did not show strength in the market with regard to its price, there was reason to believe that XLM was heading back towards the range high at $0.31. The trading volume was low over the past few days, and the OBV showed that there was not a significant volume of XLM sold over the past few sessions, despite strong losses.

The range lows at $0.223 offered some pushback and at the time of writing, XLM was trading under the mid-point of the range at $0.264.

While the momentum seemed bearish, rising above the mid-point and defending that level will be a reason to conclude that XLM is likely to move towards $0.31 once more.

Steem [STEEM]

Source: STEEM/USDT on TradingView

STEEM registered a local high at $0.22 earlier this month and set a lower high at $0.211 a few days ago. Since then, it has faced strong selling pressure, with the crypto trading at $0.177, at the time of writing.

It saw a candlewick below the $0.168-support level, but that was quickly bought up. The RSI registered a value of 38, indicating bearish momentum. Further, the Stochastic RSI was deep within the oversold territory.

Combined with the buying pressure that drove the price all the way up from the wick to $0.164, it could be that STEEM is poised to attempt a bounce to the $0.185-$0.19 region. The reaction there will set its next direction.

Maker [MKR]

Source: MKR/USDT on TradingView

The MACD was steadily falling further into bearish territory after MKR closed under a symmetrical triangle pattern and re-tested the $1400-level as resistance. The Directional Movement Index also showed that the -DMI (pink) and ADX (yellow) were both climbing past 20 on the charts to show that a strong downtrend was in progress.

The 38.2% level at $1200 could offer support to MKR, should it flip the level to support in the coming hours. Further downside for Bitcoin towards $27.7k will likely see MKR move towards $1000 as well.

Source: https://ambcrypto.com/stellar-lumens-steem-maker-price-analysis-22-january