Ready to unleash the future of the internet with DomainFi? Learn More
Ready to unleash the future of the internet with DomainFi? Learn More
Blog
By Fred Hsu (CEO & Co-Founder, D3)
25 years ago, I built my first domain company out of college that managed over 40M domains and watched an industry evolve through skepticism and innovation. Today, I’m seeing the exact same pattern with stablecoins. As Chris Dixon notes, “The internet made information free and global. So why is it still so hard — and expensive — to move money?”
The problem is obvious to anyone who’s built successful tech companies: everyone’s focused on the backend — the protocols, the liquidity, the regulatory frameworks. Meanwhile, they’ve completely missed what’s stopping mainstream adoption: stablecoins need a damn frontend.
Let’s cut through the BS – stablecoins should be everywhere by now given that the global payments market is projected to reach $20+ trillion in 2025. Whether it’s consumers paying for coffee or businesses sending vendor payments, the infrastructure is solid:
✅ Instant settlement across borders
✅ 24/7/365 availability
✅ Fees that make Western Union look like highway robbery
✅ No middlemen taking their cut
So why isn’t your grandma using USDC to pay her bills? Because we’re asking normal humans to send money to this:
0x7a250d5630B4cF539739dF2C5dAcb4c659F2489D
That’s not a payment address. That’s an anxiety attack waiting to happen. One wrong character and your money vanishes into the blockchain void. Game over. A North Korean hacker’s dream.
After building multiple companies with successful exits, I’ve learned one thing: complexity kills adoption. Period.
What if instead of crypto addresses, you could just send money to/from: fredh.sol
That’s exactly what we’re building with DNS (domain name system) support. For example, we’re working toward making future TLDs like .SOL the ultimate frontend for stablecoin payments — with strong ecosystem support
The existing Web3 naming systems are a complete disaster:
That’s why we’re building toward one universal domain system uniquely positioned at the intersection of Web2 and Web3, leveraging a universal domain system that works across all stablecoins across all chains. Think of it as the missing bridge between the $340B domain industry and the $50T+ future of finance.
We just closed our $25M Series A led by Paradigm with participation from Coinbase Ventures and industry heavyweights. Why? Because they see what I see – domains are the ultimate onramp to crypto.
When you can send stablecoins as easily as typing an email address, as easy as 2FA over SMS, mainstream adoption happens. Not for just humans but for AI agents too (be nice to your agents, too). The OGs from the domain world built incredible rails. Now we’re building the trains that everyone can actually ride.
As we solve the frontend problem for stablecoins, we’re simultaneously increasing the utility and value of domains as the biggest public keys on the internet. This is the essence of DomainFi – domains becoming more valuable, liquid, and composable as they serve real-world needs beyond just websites
This is why I co-founded D3 – to connect billions of users to Web3 through something they already understand: domains. You type them in your browser everyday, you verify them, you inherently trust them like electricity, plumbing and internet connectivity we sometimes take for granted. We’re not just creating new technology; we’re unlocking a new economy.
The revolution continues.
Fred Hsu is CEO & Co-Founder of D3, the company building DomainFi infrastructure to modernize, monetize, and innovate the domain industry. Previously, he co-founded Oversee (acquired by PE), Manage.com (acquired by Criteo), and Ember Entertainment (acquired by Gala Games).