How to Vault your Namecoin Assets

What is Namecoin?

Namecoin is the first Altcoin that released on April 17th, 2011 and is a fork of Bitcoin. It is based of off the Proof-of-Work Consensus Mechanism, is limited to 21 Million coins, and participates in Merged Mining with Bitcoin. Namecoin, originally BitDNS, began as an idea between Gavin Andresen and Bitcoin Creator(s) Satoshi Nakamoto in November 2010 on a BitcoinTalk Forum in an attempt to decentralize various Namespace properties including domains and identities.

The native currency of Namecoin is NMC, operates from the SHA256 mining algorithm, and cuts its rewards every 210,000 blocks (or about 4 years). The current fee to register a record on the blockchain costs .01 NMC and expires every 36,000 blocks (or about 200 days).

The first token registered to BitDNS is “bitcoin.bit” and was registered on April 21st, 2011. Since that first registered domains, various expirments have been registered to the Namecoin blockchain including Domains, Punycodes, Identities. Beginning in 2014 users had the ability to register images to the blockchain via a Dapp known as OneName. Beginning in 2021 NFT Archaeologists and NFT Collectors discovered numerous similar items that were registered at the time and have retroactively curated collections of similar likeness including Twitter Eggs and Blockheads.

Checkout the entire Namecoin NFT timeline here!

What you’ll Need to Purchase Namecoin Assets

Accessing the Namecoin ecosystem is not a simple task. As one of the oldest blockchains in existence the software that will allow you access to the features of Namecoin lack some of the modern properties and UI/UX features you have come to familiarize yourself with in today’s crypto ecosystem. Some of the wallets are limited and a degree of fundamental blockchain understanding will need to be met. Listed below are suggested tools required to access Namecoin natively.

To registed Namecoin Assets you will need:
-Namecoin Wallet (Core or Electrum)
-Namebrow.se (Block Explorer)
-NMC (Native currency)

Now that you have all of the tools, here is a guide that will direct you to community communication channels and resources.
-Namecoin NFT Resource Guide by Jake Gallen
-How to Wrap your .bit Domain by .bit Community
-Namecoin Identities Website by Identities Community
-Trading Namecoin with Emblem Vault by Desktop Commando

How to Vault your Namecoin Assets

1) First, you’ll need ETH to pay for gas fees.

2) Second, Emblem requires 250 $COVAL to mint a vault.

3) If you don’t own any $COVAL tokens are available for purchase on Uniswap or Coinbase.

4) Now you’re ready! Click “Create” and let’s get started!

1) Once the create tab is open click on “Next” to begin labeling your vault.

0) Lucky for us, the .bit, Namecoin Identities, and PunyCodes communities have created templates that will autofill any information required for “Vault Name”, “Vault Descrption”, and Image. If you are vaulting either asset we recommend using their excellent community tools.

1) Emblem Vault recommends the Namecoin “Vault Name” to be established as so:

NAME OF ASSET | FIRST DATE OF REGISTRATION | BLOCKCHAIN

EXAMPLE: d/sexinthecity | Nov. 21, 2013 | Namecoin .bit Domain

2) Emblem Vault recommends the Namecoin “Vault Description” to be established as so:

Example: INSERT ASSET

First Registration Date: INSERT FIRST REGISTRATION DATE

INPUT ANY RELEVANT FACTUAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE SPECIFIC TOKEN, PROJECT, TEAM, OR SIGNIFICANT INFORMATION HERE. THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THE AMOUNT OF DETAIL THAT CAN BE SHARED IN THE VAULT DESCRIPTION.

EXAMPLE: Asset: d/sexinthecity

First Registration Date: November 21, 2013, 8:56AM, UTC

Launched on April 21, 2011. Namecoin .bit domains are known to be history’s very first Non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Owning this NFT gives ownership of the sexinthecity.bit domain and can be unwrapped to be used as server hosting content. Furthermore, you can use domain names to store details such as bitcoin addresses, profile/splash images, occupations, etc.

Namecoin is the first fork of Bitcoin and the first altcoin in existence. It’s a special purpose blockchain designed primarily for decentralized domain names and digital identity.

All Namecoin assets expire after 36,000 blocks (~9 months). Therefore, it’s necessary to keep a balance of 2 NMC in this vault so the asset can be renewed automatically for over +50 years.

3) Click “Next” to move to additional vaulting steps.

1) Click on “Choose File”.

2) Choose an jpeg, jpg, gif, or MP4 file from your computer.

3) Click “Create Vault”

1) You’ll now notice that the owner of the vault is 0x0000.. which is what should be displayed. This means that the vault has been created but has yet to be minted on to the blockchain.

2) This is where your vaulted tokens will be displayed. Since the vault hasn’t been minted and tokens haven’t been sent to the vault yet, the vault will remain empty displaying “refreshing” until done so.

3) Click “Mint Vault”.

1) Click “Sign Message”.

2) Check Gas Fees and estimate the appropriate amount of gwei required measured against the amount of traffic on the Ethereum Network (this example is 13 gwei) You can EthGasStation.info for help!

3) Click to “Confirm” the transaction and mint your Emblem Vault.

Sending Namecoin Assets to your vault

Now that you have created a vault, you need to send your Namecoin Assets to the vault. Failure to do so may get your vault flagged for removal.

1) Click “NMC” under “Deposit Addresses” to view your Namecoin wallet address.

2) Click on your address under “NMC Address” to copy your wallet address.

IMPORTANT: Namecoin assets expire every 200 days and must renew with an amount of .01 NMC. Emblem Vault has built an Auto-Renew feature that will name_update your asset within 1000 blocks of expiration. In order for Auto-Renew to trigger there must be AT LEAST 0.6 NMC inside of the vault. It is recommended to vault at least 2 NMC to prevent your asset from expiring.

There is also a button to renew manually that will appear inside of the vault within 1000 blocks of expiration.

Disclaimer: Auto-Renew is a one-of-a-kind feature that does not exist within any other blockchain tooling. Due to Namecoin’s mechanics and infrequent updating bugs may occur. It is highly recommended to set a calendar update and check on vaulted assets to ensure misconfiguration has not occurred.

Tip: Namecoin is a Proof-of-Work Blockchain. Time between sending your assets from Namecoin Core to your Emblem Vault could take minutes to hours depending on mempool congestions.

Once your Namecoin wallet address is copied head over to Namecoin wallet of your choice. (Core or Electrum)

1) Open up Electrum and click “Manage Names”.

2) Click on the Namecoin Asset you wish to send to the vault.

3) Click on “Configure Name..” which will open a windowthat will allow you to transfer the asset.

4) Paste the NMC address which you copied from the Emblem Vault in the area that says “Transfer to:”

5) Click “OK” and accept the registration update.

Tip: You will also want to send at least 0.6 NMC into the wallet so that the auto-renew function will trigger when expiration time is low.

Now head back to your vault and click “Refresh Balance”. After a Namecoin miners process your transaction (which sometimes can take upwards of 2–6 hours) your assets will display inside of the vault. Congrats, you have successfully vaulted your very own Namecoin Assets!

Bonus Tip: If you have any plans to crack open the vault in the future to bring your asset back on-chain then we recommend also vaulting some $NMC inside. This will save you an additional step if you plan to move your asset from it’s imported wallet to a different location.