What Should Handshake TLD Owners Do After Namebase and Namecheap?

If your Handshake assets are still held through a centralized platform, the first step is practical: secure what you can withdraw, preserve your backups, and learn how to manage your assets without depending on one company. The Namebase wind-down and the falloff of the previous Namecheap-supported path are painful, but they also expose the concentration risk that a decentralized protocol was supposed to help us avoid.

I was inspired to make this video and article after a Handshake community member asked me directly:

prizepool 🕳️💎 (@hiddenftreasure)

Hi @michelini would be happy to hear your take on namebase wind-down / namecheap falloff for handshake and the proper steps for managing a tld caught in the middle of it all.

It is a fair question. There is short-term pain, uncertainty, and a lot of work ahead. My view, however, is that this transition can make Handshake healthier over the long term if we respond by building and using more independent tools.

First: Protect What You Can Control

If you still have eligible coins or names on Namebase, visit sunset.namebase.io and review the current withdrawal and transition instructions as soon as practical. Verify every destination carefully, preserve seed phrases and proof files offline, and use a small controlled transaction when learning a new wallet or process.

Staked TLDs and registry relationships can involve additional dependencies, especially when active second-level domains must be protected. Do not assume that a normal coin or name withdrawal process applies to every TLD. Document your TLD, current custody, SLD obligations, renewal state, backups, and the exact migration path offered to you.

Namebase Was Important, but Namebase Was Never Handshake

I started with Namebase, as many people did, and I appreciate how much it did to onboard users into Handshake. But Handshake is an open protocol. It was never supposed to exist only as a database or product controlled by one private company.

This distinction is not new. In 2022 I wrote about why Namebase is a user of Handshake rather than Handshake itself. A company can make a decentralized protocol easier to use, just as Coinbase can make Bitcoin easier to buy. But convenience and custody are not the same as the protocol.

When most users choose one centralized interface, the ecosystem becomes centralized by habit even if the underlying protocol remains permissionless. The current disruption is the consequence of that concentration.

Use Decentralized Tools on a Decentralized Protocol

SkyInclude has tried for years to teach people about Bob Wallet, direct protocol use, and other open tools. We now help maintain an updated community fork through bobwallet.org. You can also begin with the resources at learnhns.com/start.

Self-custody is not automatically easy or risk-free. You become responsible for backups, seed phrases, renewals, proofs, software updates, and operational security. But the ability to choose, inspect, fork, and replace tools is one of the main reasons to use an open protocol in the first place.

You do not have to use our wallet fork. You can use another audited wallet, run your own software, contribute to an existing open-source project, or build a new tool. AI agents can now help people understand code and prototype interfaces, although security-sensitive software still needs careful review and testing.

What We Are Building—and the Tradeoffs

We built HeadlessDomains as another way to operate and sell Handshake names, with more agent-oriented infrastructure. To be transparent, HeadlessDomains is also a centralized service layer built on top of Handshake. The goal is not to pretend every interface is decentralized; the goal is to preserve choice and avoid making any single interface equal to the protocol.

TLD operators can review the beta partner path at partners.headlessdomains.com. We are testing it with TLDs in our own network before encouraging broader use.

We also acquired EZDomains before the full impact of the Namebase transition was known. We have since adapted it into another registrar path for .ez, .coffees, .use, and .giveaways. Former holders can review the recovery process at my.ezdomains.io/recover. This is an evolving migration process, so users should expect manual review and verify the current support instructions.

Why This Pain Can Produce a Stronger Community

Critics of Handshake have long pointed out that a large share of its names and user activity depended on Namebase. That criticism had truth in it. When too much activity sits behind one company, the practical experience can remain centralized even when the protocol is decentralized by design.

Now the community has to confront that weakness directly. We need more wallets, more registrars, more marketplaces, more documentation, more independent infrastructure, and more people who understand how the protocol works.

I did not join Handshake to keep every name in a private company database forever. I joined because I believe the root zone can be more open, permissionless, and resilient. This transition is difficult, but it can push us closer to that original purpose.

My Recommended Steps

1. Review your Namebase account now. Withdraw eligible assets through the official sunset process and verify each destination.
2. Inventory every TLD dependency. Record custody, renewals, SLD holders, proofs, backups, and the exact transition path before moving anything.
3. Learn self-custody. Test Bob Wallet or another reviewed option with a small amount before relying on it.
4. Evaluate multiple service providers. Understand which parts are centralized, what you control, and how you could exit.
5. Support open tools. Test, document, audit, contribute, or build. Do not wait for one company to create every solution.

I am optimistic about Handshake over the long term, but optimism is not enough. The community has to do the work: protect users during this migration, be transparent about tradeoffs, and build systems that do not recreate the same single point of failure.

What tools, documentation, or migration support do you think Handshake TLD owners need most right now?