I don't know what's wrong with me but I
did not hear about this that apparently
the io domain is disappearing the Indian
Ocean does not exist anymore I was
unaware of that today we have something
a little bit different from Gareth
Edwards who typically Chronicles the
history uh the Forgotten history of the
Silicon Valley and has call them The
Crazy Ones when the British government
announced last week that it was
transferring sovereignty of the island
in the Indian Ocean to the country of
morat morus Gareth immediately realized
its online implications the end of the
io domain suffix can they just do that
what what about all the companies yeah
they do like wait they lose it because I
use frame.io yeah what about fly fl fly.
iio wait they're just all leaving it
can't actually be real in this piece he
explores how geopolitical changes can
unexpectedly disrupt the digital world I
don't care just say no just keep the
domain and we'll call it input output
and call it a day right like Google come
on people come on like this isn't that
hard we can just say hey here's a new
one
morous morous can have their sweet one
and then we can have our other one like
what the hell is this uh in this piece
he explores the geopolitical changes of
unexpected disrupt in the digital world
he his exploration of historical
precedents such as the fall of the
Soviet Union and the breakup of
Yugoslavia
damn we're going all I mean we're going
everywhere he uh dude Iron Curtain going
down uh offers valuable context for Tech
Founders users and observers read this
for a look at the the unexpected
intersection of international relations
and internet infrastructure Kate Lee all
right October 3rd the British government
announced that it was giving up
sovereignty over a small tropical atol
in the Indian Ocean known as the chagos
chagos islands the islands would be
handed over to its neighboring island
country of morus right am I saying that
correct morus about 1100 miles off the
Southeastern coast of Africa the story
did not make the tech press but perhaps
it should have the decision to transfer
the island to their new owner will
result in the loss of one of the tech
and gaming Industries preferred top
level
domains. this is crazy this is a BS
article is it a BS article uh whether
it's github.io gaming site itch.io or
even Google IO which arguably kicked off
the trend in 2008 IO has been a constant
presence in the tech lexicon its
popularity is sometimes explained by how
it represents the abbreviation for input
output or the data received and
processed by any system what's not often
acknowledged is that it's more uh than a
quippy domain it's a country code top
level domain cctld related to a Nation
meaning it involves uh politics far
beyond the digital world I would just
assume that mores mores would just keep
this I assume that there must be some
sort of trickle of income that they get
as a part of it because I know that like
registering AIO product cost
significantly more than something else
I'd be just confused if they couldn't
just keep it they already have their own
country code CC will they get too hey
they get to what's the problem here uh
since 1968 the UK and the US has
operated a major military base in the
chagos islands officially known as the
British Indian Ocean territory but the
neighboring nation of moraes mores are
you sure that morish mores oh man dude
Mor morous morous is it really morous
all right here let me just hear once
morous morous
morous morous morius okay morius has
always disputed uh British sovereignty
over them the the maian government has
long argued that the British illegally
retained control when maius gained uh
Independence it has taken over 50 years
but that dispute has finally been
resolved in return for 99e lease for the
military base the islands will become a
part of Marius UK is letting go of a lot
of territories first Hong Kong now now
doio uh once this treaty is signed the
British Indian Ocean territory will
cease to exist various International
bodies will update their records in
participation the international
standards for organization ISO will
remove the country code IO from its
specification the internet assigned
numbers Authority Ayana W which creates
and delegates top level domains uses
this specification to determine which
top level country domains should exist
once IO is removed the aana will refuse
to allow any new registrations without
IO domain oh any new registrations okay
well that's that's not nearly as crazy
it will also automatically begin the
process of retiring existing ones there
is no official official count of the
number of uh of extent IO domains oh
yeah I guess if they're trying to do
this I wonder how fast this process will
begin officially doio and countless
websites will disappear at a time when
domains can go for millions of dollars
it's shocking reminder that there are
forces outside the internet that still
affect our digital lives I mean it's it
shouldn't be that shocking I mean gdpr
is something that regulates uh Europe
but Americans often benefit or get hurt
by G PR itself depending on how you
think about it um but nonetheless like
just because a country can make a law
that actually affects the entirety of
the internet uh I very much doubt Ayan
will force. offline yeah my guess is it
will have a wrong a long run out but
what do you do when you want to re uh
renew it when we renew because at some
point you have to renew these domains
are they just going to not allow
renewals is there going to be one two
renewals before you're not allowed when
domains outlive countries the removal of
an entire country or territory from the
world map is incredibly rare so one
might ask is it
rare I mean historically speaking
countries get added and removed a decent
amount of times it's happened more than
once in the last 100 years uh Yugo was
around 1990 yeah Slovakia and what did
what did it's Yugo I I can't and also
the Czech
Republic Czechoslovakia this is not that
old uh when domains outli countries okay
answer is simple history there are two
organizations responsible for domains
and internet addresses the I decides
what should and shouldn't be a top level
domain such ASC com.org uk. org.nz the
organization originated in the
University of sou Southern California
although was formalized in 1994 when it
won a contract put out by the US it
operated for several years as a small
research and management committee as the
internet grew it became clear that a
more formal setup was required by 1998
the aana became part of a new
organization the internet corporate and
assigned names and numbers I can I can
based in the US was given a broader
responsibility of overseeing the
operational stability of the internet
and ensuring International interests
were
represented okay more like I can't um uh
these two organizations seemed like they
have mundane roles but they have found
themselves making some of the hardest
decisions on the global internet on
separ on September 19 1990 the aana
created and delegated the top level
domain. suu to the USSR less than a year
later the USSR
collapsed all right all right USSR
will'll officially recognize you here
you oh darn you're already dead wow that
didn't that cheers to you USSR so the Su
domain was handed to Russia to operate
alongside with its own Ru the Russian
government agreed that it would
eventually be shut down but no clear
rules around its governance or when that
should happen were defined but ambiguity
is the worst thing for a top level
domain unkown unknowingly this decision
created an environment in which dosu
became a digital Wild West today it is
barely policed top level domain do we
want police top level domain I mean it's
an interesting question in of
itself is it nice that there's a domain
that exists out there that people can
say that some organization that we you
have zero interaction with can be like
you shall no longer exist Indian Ocean a
plausibly deniable uh deniable home of
Russian dark Ops and a place where
supremacist content and cyber crime
uh have found cover yeah I mean I mean
it it sounds terrible sounds like sounds
bad a few years later in 1992 the aana
learned a simply a s a similarly harsh
lesson at the end of the Balan Wars
which saw the breakup of Yugoslavia into
several smaller States in its aftermath
The Joint nation of Serbia and
Montenegro attempted to adopt the name
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia uh
slovania and Croatia objective claiming
that it implied Serbia and Montenegro
were yugoslavia's legitimate successors
the two country protested the UN you're
right country breakups are super rare
and don't happen also the
9s do that's like 25 years ago we're in
the 90s man anyways it's pretty funny as
the international issues over Serbia and
montenegro's name rumbled on throughout
the early 90s the Ayana remained unsure
about who should
control. uhu yugoslavia's top level
domain email access in the internet were
now integral to research and
international discussions and the
Ayana's ambiguity led to an
extraordinary Act of academic Espionage
this is wild you know I never really
thought about top level domains I always
knew that the AY like had some level of
control over it but damn I didn't really
think about this idea of having country
codes and then what happens when the
country goes bye-bye according to the
journalist uh K Kon Kev slovania
academics traveled to Serbia at the end
of 1992 their destination was the
University of Belgrade in the country's
capital by the way I lived really close
to Belgrade Belgrade Montana for quite
some time I was in between Bosman and
Belgrade for quite some time uh on the
arrival or on arrival they broke into
the university and stole all the hosting
software domain records for theu top
level domain oh my gosh they just stole
them what the hell does that even
mean what did what the hell does this
even mean they just broke it and stole
the records were they like print did
they just print them out like how do you
steal them everything they needed to
seize control like did it actually just
flip fit on some floppy discs bro damn
how are we going to get these records
out don't worry I brought four and a
half megabytes plenty of space to get
all these
domains illegal DNS Zone
transfer uh everything they needed to
seize control for the next two years
theu domain was unofficially operated by
Ares academic and research network of
slovania which repeatedly denied its
involvement in the original
Heist oh my gosh that is so funny
they're like hey uh arnanz
you somehow have all the data I don't
know what you're talking about no like
we we're looking at it you're operating
it I don't know what you're talking
about did you steal it all I don't have
floppy discs if that's what you're
asking bro I don't have any floppy I
would love to have one of these original
floppy discs from The Heist you know it
was floppy discs you know somebody ran
out of there with like a maybe they even
had like the big ones because what level
oh this was 1992 they I guess they
probably didn't have the big ones they
probably had the uh they didn't have the
floppy the five and a quarters they
probably had three and a halfs oh my
gosh those floppies oh nah n it wasn't
me nah right Arn has rejected all
requests by the Serbian institutions for
new domains is severely limiting the
country's ability to participate in the
growing internet Community the situation
became so messy that in 1994 Ayana
founding manager John Postell personally
stepped in and overrode Ayana's
regulations forcibly transferring
ownership of theu domain back to the
University of Belgrade uh 3.5 floppies
are still mil uh military grade Tech
yeah absolutely they're really fantastic
don't copy that floppy hey would you
copy a floppy would you download a car
if you could hell yes I would brother uh
in 2006 Montenegro declared independence
from Serbia with the digital Revolution
now firmly underway dude dude what
happened to countries this doesn't
happen very often you're telling us a
story where it happened like six
times trust me Bros it never happens
also n 18 years ago it happened and also
several times in the 90s you wouldn't
download a DNS would you uh the aana was
determined not to let chaos rain again
or once again it created two new top
level domains do RS for Serbia and me
for Montenegro both were issued on the
requirement thatu would officially be
determinated it would take until 2010
for this to happen okay look at that
though look at that that's that's big so
in 4 years was taken
down but the Ayana eventually got its
way burned by experience the
organization laid down the new stricter
set of rules and time scales for top
level domain expiration that exist today
in these rules that will soon be applied
toio domains they are firm and they are
clear once the country code no longer
exists the domain must cease to exist to
ideally within 3 to 5 years holy cow
fly. i.com just got real expensive uh
like a tenant being told that their
landlord is selling up and they must
move every individual and Company who
uses doio domain will be told the same
there has to be an exception right oh
aana straight up said they might not
remove doio they might
not is that is that good for you uh we
might not do it by the way right now is
a great time to take like hi.com hi.com
everything io.com is a good time to do
it right now the endurance of physical
uh history IO has become popular with
startups particularly those involved in
crypto I think it's actually just
popular involved in everything not just
crypto right crypto is not some
exclusive hold onio I would say that
effectively every single startup that I
know does this in fact I almost built a
logging and error detection platform in
2012 helm. I think I owned it for a
while I'm not sure uh these are
businesses that often identify with one
of the original principles of the
internet the cyers space grants uh a
form of Independence to those who are uh
who use it yet it is the long tale of
real world history that might force them
a major change the Ayana May fudge its
own rules to allow doio to continue to
exist money talks and there is a lot
tied up in IO domains see I would just
assume this has to happen it would be I
just cannot imagine a world where doio
actually get destroyed however the
history of the USSR because is not tied
to any country right does not mean USA
net online.net so I would just be
shocked if they're just like I mean I
know it's it it it kind of is it kind of
is but that's an implicit relationship
right it's three letters and it's and it
just means commercial rules are
different for three
letters I love like that's that's the re
that's the reasoning I would love to be
in a meeting where there's like a group
of like all the execs from like fly IO
Google IO GitHub IO and they're all in
there and they're just like hey we need
our country to
exist and then the a people being like w
i
mean there's only two letters
I I can't do
it it's too L
it's it's two letters we can't sorry
it's policy man I don't know if you if
you look right here at the chart the
chart says three letters general
admission so anyone can get in but two
you see that two that's two letters
that's C that's countries that's not you
see
that the chart says
so I don't know man what am I supposed
to
do that's it Elon Musk is gonna buy an
island and Save doio
Ison Island Ison ocean let's go um
anyways I think it's really simple to
think of things as much more static than
we realize that all these things just
exist they're not big deals people don't
really take them seriously but it
actually is more serious than you
realize by the way because like look I
own the primagen dotv okay well it's not
up right now but I do own the prime.tv
my guess is that I I honestly just to
like throw this out there I really
somehow think that Ayanna is going to
make a concession and I think that this
is going to just cause a
whole this is my prediction ayanna's
going to C have a concession to IO and
then this is going to cause an entire
huge issue where they're just like
everybody else is like what the hell is
this you took away my country code but
then you don't take away this country
code because there's money behind it and
it's just going to like [ __ ] is going to
go wild people are going to be super
upset and it's going to like honestly I
think it's probably better that they
should make IO domains uh go away like
literally yeah dude concession to IO
equals reigniting the Balan
Wars it is quite ridiculous so we'll see
there's about 1.6 million domains in
doio whoa I know it feels like it's a
nothing Burger but this could cause a
whole a whole like it doesn't I'm not
even sure which direction it's going to
go and I feel like both directions are
bad right cuz if you take away doio you
have all these companies that are
affected and then that's going to cause
a whole set of problems or the inverse
which is that they do let it and then
all these other countries are like WTF
you C can't like we agreed you can't do
that this is the rules you can't create
a standard enforce a standard and then
decide not to because there's money or
else people get pissed I know that like
does happen it's called the law but the
law is three letters see it's three
letters it's not two letters and so
since the law is three letters you can
usually skirt around it by having more
money okay it's different you wouldn't
understand um but this one's two letter
so a gen