“SOLD”, Indelible Stamp of the First Non-Fungible Asset Trade in History (2011)
Introduction to Namecoin Naming System
Namecoin is the history’s second blockchain and first altcoin (forked from Bitcoin). It was created by Vincent Durham (aka ‘Vinced’) with the intention of providing the world with the first decentralized naming system (announced on April 18, 2011), giving people the ability to have full control over their online digital content and identity. Its main and earlier application was a decentralized DNS, but it was also built in a way to allow multiple use cases around names, community supported or not, leading to various pioneering decentralization experiments. It is designed to be used as a way to associate values/data with a specific name in a decentralized manner, to make it a .bit domain sometimes (if the d/ namespace is applied), an identity or even a proper blockchain collectible.
- Namecoin Genesis Code: Apr. 3, 2011
- Namecoin Genesis Block: Apr. 19, 2011 02:59 PM +UTC (block 1)
- Namecoin Genesis Name — ‘d/bitcoin’: Apr. 21, 2011 05:44 AM +UTC (block 142)
- Namecoin Genesis Explorer: Jun. 2, 2011 10:50: PM +UTC
To learn more about Namecoin, its consensus, and why it has attracted interest in a historical context over the past three years, you can read my other article here.
Namecoin Names’ Operations:
Here’s a quick explanation of the three types of Namecoin name operations, two of which can store and display custom text data on-chain within the name’s values (e.g. with ‘d/yahoo’).
- name_new (name reservation): triggers the first initialization of the name OR re-initialization if the name already exists in the Namecoin blockchain but its previous ownership has expired. This operation requires 12 blocks for validation to ensure no ongoing reservation, automatically broadcasting the name_firstupdate operation to confirm ownership if the condition is met.
- name_firstupdate (name & ownership initialization): creation of the name in the Namecoin blockchain if the name was never reserved before OR re-reservation validation if the name already exists in the blockchain but its previous ownership has expired. Also assign control over the name to the owner’s address.
- name_update: any name under control has a configuration command with an editable value (empty by default) that the owner can: 1) leave empty to just extend ownership (as any name_update automatically resets the ownership expiration to 36,000 blocks), 2) add custom text-only data (e.g. to assign a host or store custom data like an image URL or message), or 3) transfer the name to another peer by adding a Namecoin address.
Identification of the First Namecoin Name Transfer
As Daniel Kraft (Lead Developer of Namecoin Core since 2013) explains, it’s impossible to distinguish whether a name_update operation on the Namecoin blockchain is a simple ownership extension or a transfer to another peer’s wallet, as the system automatically generates and assigns a new address for each operation. He also mentions the potential identification of the first-ever name transfer/trade:
“You can of course try to analyze the Namecoin blockchain in a more sophisticated way, compare to old forum posts to find potential trades and so on, but you will not be able to really be sure about it”.
In other words, the only way to identify a potential name transfer or trade on the Namecoin blockchain is by finding a customized name_update value from the owner indicating a transfer, along with external information to corroborate it.
But why seeking the first non-fungible asset transfer or trade? To better understand the significance of ‘tradability’ in blockchain assets or NFTs, let’s just refer to what the Non-Fungible Token Wikipedia page says about it:
Tradability is a key aspect of blockchain assets/NFTs. Identifying the first-ever traded blockchain asset is something historically significant, as it would showcase the initial proof of concept for the use case and purpose of these.
‘d/radio’ Name & its ‘SOLD’ Value Investigation
‘d/radio’ was first initialized on the Namecoin blockchain on April 24, 2011. It is the earliest name to display a custom operation value suggesting a potential trade or transfer, as the owner updated the name with the value ‘SOLD’ on May 6, 2011.
To start this investigation, let’s take a look at the name’s name_firstupdate operation value, added by the registrant at the time of reservation, which shows ‘webpagedeveloper.me/namecoin’ (a now inactive URL that formerly redirected to David Parrish’s website):
“I’m taking bids on reserving names if you are interested”
This is an early clue that the registrant was clearly looking to sell names they had previously registered.
A post by the owner David Parrish (aka ‘dmp1ce’) on the BitcoinTalk forum on April 27, 2011 also shows a clear intent to sell names when he says:
“I’ll be trading them once the names are transferable”.
This also reveals another key detail: Namecoin names were not yet transferable at that time. We’ll revisit this point later in the article.
We also see that the alias ‘dmp1ce’ was listed at the top of the Namecoin sellers list on the official website on May 3, 2011. This isn’t surprising, as this person was the first to run the Namecoin blockchain on April 21, 2011, registering many premium names at the launch, including one-letter names and ‘d/bitcoin,’ the first Namecoin name and the first non-fungible asset ever created.
Then, as mentioned earlier, we find the intriguing ‘SOLD’ value manually entered by David Parrish (the initial owner and registrant) during the first name_update operation on May 6, 2011. You can view the transaction in the Namecoin blockchain explorer here.
If we examine all the names reserved by David Parrish (all of which include the ‘webpagedeveloper.me/namecoin’ URL in their name_firstupdate and name_update values), ‘d/radio’ is the only one with a name_update operation in the same ownership cycle that doesn’t mention the URL.
This suggests something particular happened with ‘d/radio’. Now, let’s explore what that might be.
As we can see, the name_update operation’s value following the ‘SOLD’ update, on June 12, 2011, shows: ‘{“map”: {“”: “173.79.250.133”}}’.
When looking for this ‘173.79.250.133’ IP address in a Namecoin name explorer, 8 names are found with this value in their operations (including ‘d/radio’).
Besides ‘d/radio,’ none of the other seven names’ values (from ‘d/kradradio,’ ‘d/krad,’ ‘d/rawdod,’ ‘d/blacksun,’ ‘d/xmms2,’ ‘d/xmms,’ and ‘d/kradio’) show evidence of being reserved by David Parrish, the initial ‘d/radio’ registrant, who, as we saw, always included ‘webpagedeveloper.me/namecoin’ in the name_firstupdate value.
This suggests that the registrant of ‘d/radio’ and the registrant of these seven names are two different individuals, indicating a possible ownership transfer between the ‘SOLD’ stamp and the ‘173.79.250.133’ IP address update.
To identify the hypothetical receiver of ‘d/radio’ on May 6, 2011, a web search using keywords linked to these names (‘kradradio,’ ‘krad,’ ‘rawdod,’ ‘blacksun,’ ‘xmms2,’ ‘xmms,’ and ‘kradio’) leads to David Richards (aka ‘oneman’ on GitHub or ‘rawdod’ on Reddit), creator of the Firefox Bitcoin mining extension ‘Krad Miner’, which he shut down around the same time in 2011. He was also working on a new project called ‘Krad Radio,’ making the ‘radio’ keyword logically appealing to him.
Furthermore, as mentioned earlier, David Parrish had notable visibility as a seller in the Namecoin community forums and on the official Namecoin website in the days leading up to this suspected trade. It’s reasonable to assume that David Richards contacted him for this purpose.
Parenthetically, after reviewing all 341 names initialized or updated before the ‘d/radio’ name_update ‘SOLD’ value on May 6, 2011 (you can browse them by date using an explorer like nmc.vision), none of the other names show a customized name_update value that could be interpreted as a trade or transfer. This makes ‘d/radio’ the earliest name to provide a clear evidence of a potential transfer/trade in its operations history.
Why is it the First Transfer/Trade?
Let’s get back to David Parrish’s comment from April 27, 2011: “I’ll be trading them once the names are transferable”. A post from Vinced (Vincent Durham, creator of Namecoin) on the bitcoin.org forum on May 4, 2011 5:28 AM +UTC says:
“A new release is up on Github. This release includes: — Name transfers can now be performed using name_update”.
We can corroborate this by looking at the Github release (commit e8ba3d6b7df8c4879be3e2fd2a49a588eb3ec8b2) mentioned by Vinced. While the current URL shows ‘July 5, 2011,’ the GitHub link preview correctly indicates May 4, 2011.
By using the git CLI to check the e8ba3d6b7df8c4879be3e2fd2a49a588eb3ec8b2 commit ID, we can confirm that it was pushed live on May 4, 2011, at 3:13 AM +UTC.
The old main Namecoin URL also shows that a major update has been released on May 4, 2011:
→ Transfer of a Namecoin name was not an implemented feature before May 4, 2011.
So now we know:
- The Namecoin name transfer feature wasn’t implemented until May 4, 2011, 3:13 AM +UTC.
- The first known name with a name_update operation suggesting a transfer/trade is ‘d/radio’ on May 6, 2011, 2:15 AM +UTC.
However, among the 341 names initialized or updated before ‘d/radio,’ three names had name_update operations between May 4, 2011, 3:13 AM +UTC (when the transfer feature was released) and May 6, 2011, 2:15 AM +UTC (‘d/radio’ ‘SOLD’ value). Their name_update values must be analyzed to ensure no evidence of a transfer/trade exists within this window.
• d/ns on May 4, 2011 3:17pm +UTC → We can easily confirm this wasn’t a transfer/trade, as Khal (Namecoin co-administrator in 2011) used the name to test a new DNS server allowing ‘d/’ namespace Namecoin names to function as .bit domains at the time (source) — NOT A TRADE
- d/reg on May 5, 2011 9:50pm +UTC → Same conclusion: the name_update operation’s value is a DNS setup, identical to the one used for ns.bit the day before, and officially announced by Khal on May 6, 2011. This indicates that reg.bit was also used for DNS testing by the Namecoin team or an early user — NOT A TRADE
• d/insure on May 5, 2011 10:55pm +UTC →The first name_update operation, happening just 6 minutes after the name’s initialization (name_firstupdate), shows the value ‘get insurance’, clearly related to the name ‘insure.’ After hours of reviewing forum archives from the April-May 2011 period, no evidence refutes this analysis or mentions insure.bit— NOT A TRADE
The Trade Proofs
During this lengthy blockchain investigation, I was able to get in contact with David Parrish, the original ‘d/radio’ registrant, who has been inactive in Namecoin since 2011. Initially, he didn’t recall selling any names at the time. The only potential record of this trade would be in his BitcoinTalk forum messages, but his account has been blocked due to long inactivity, and the admins declined to restore his access.
Understanding that he might not remember after 11 years, this is the moment I started investigating the 173.79.250.133 IP address to identify the potential buyer, eventually discovering it was David Richards, aka Rawdod. When I shared this information, David Parrish began to recall the transaction.
After I sent him the full investigation report, he finally recalled the event and shared screenshots of the trade conversation history with me.
By examining David Parrish’s (dmp1ce) Bitcoin address on the Bitcoin forum, we can confirm that 5 BTC was received on May 6, 2011, just 3 minutes after David Richards’ message stating ‘5 BTC sent’.
Disclaimer: I also tried to contact David Richards (the buyer of ‘d/radio’ in 2011) at the time of this investigation in 2022, but after hours of searching, I couldn’t find any active contact information. He seems to have been inactive since 2016. Hopefully, nothing bad happened to him. Regardless, given all the evidence gathered, his corroboration is not necessary.
Conclusion:
‘d/radio,’ through undeniable on-chain evidences and a thorough historical investigation, stands as the first confirmed non-fungible asset ever transferred/traded. By David Parrish to David Richards on May 6, 2011, for 5 BTC, on the first blockchain that allowed the existence of non-fungible assets.
