Cardano Foundation Charges Forward With ICANN Bid After Landmark 74.5% Vote for Blockchain Domains

Cardano's community just fired the starting gun on web decentralization.

The Governance Shakeup

With 74.5% of stakeholders voting yes, the Cardano Foundation now races toward ICANN accreditation—potentially creating .ada domains that bypass traditional internet gatekeepers. This isn't just another crypto project; it's a direct challenge to centralized naming systems that have controlled digital real estate for decades.

Why This Changes Everything

Blockchain domains could slash dependency on legacy registrars while giving users actual ownership of their digital identities. No more middlemen taking cuts for DNS management. No more worrying about domains getting seized. Just pure, cryptographic control—exactly what crypto promised back before Wall Street started treating digital assets like their personal casino chips.

The foundation's upcoming ICANN filing represents more than paperwork—it's a declaration that blockchain infrastructure deserves equal footing with traditional web architecture. Whether ICANN plays ball remains the billion-dollar question, but Cardano's community has made their position crystal clear: the future of web identity shouldn't belong to corporations.

Why These Domains Matter for Cardano

The Foundation believes that the acquisition of .ada and .cardano domains will help increase the visibility of the Cardano network in the larger internet space. The purpose here would be to provide projects and users’ domain names that belong directly to the ecosystem.

Should the ICANN applications be successful, domain choices such as vespr.ada and nmkr.Cardano will become available. The use of these domain names would help in wallet naming, the implementation of identity tools, and the incorporation of solutions like Veridian.

In fact, there are already talks with ADA Handles and Handshake about exploring the means by which the use of the blockchain naming solutions can be integrated with the classic DNS. Besides visibility, the Foundation considers the domains as an infrastructure layer.

This would increase the usability of the Cardano platform because it would connect the navigation systems in Web2 and the applications in Web3, enabling future functionalities such as tokenized domain names and the use of identities across platforms.

Community Oversight Measures and 2026 Application Timeline

The process in ICANN requires the applicant to prove technical superiority, operational capability, and a strategic plan. The one-time costs involved in the application process are estimated at $700,000, and this includes $500,000 in ICANN fees and $200,000 in application support.

The fixed annual costs are projected at $350,000, and these include ICANN obligations, development of the registry software, and related licensing, marketing, and overheads. The other cost, that of variables, would depend on the demand that would be generated once the domain names are

In order to facilitate public oversight, the Foundation plans to initiate a “Community Advisory Group” that will help the Foundation in guiding the management of the domains.

The Foundation also plans to release “operational figures” on a regular basis. Now that approval has been obtained from the community, the Foundation plans to apply in early 2026.