This Swiss Startup is Rebuilding the Internet as we Know it Over the years, the Swiss startup continued to expand its features, with one of its standout integrations being the addition of Web 2.0 domains, such as .com or .ai, to its offerings

Since the foundation of the World Wide Web by Sir Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the internet as we know it has consistently evolved in user friendliness, features, and accessibility. What began as a simple way to share information globally – known as Web 1.0 – quickly evolved into Web 2.0, a collaborative space where anyone could create, share, and interact with content.

Since the late 2010s, the next iteration of the internet has started to evolve. Web 3.0 brings a completely new dimension, focusing on decentralization, ownership, and peer-to-peer functionalities. Nevertheless, this revolution is not without its challenges, as it lacks many of the practical and user-friendly features offered by its predecessor, resulting in low adoption rates wthus far.

In 2025, however, this finally appears to change. Earlier this month, Swiss-based company Freename announced the creation of a new protocol that aims to standardize how entities coordinate and assign domains, with previous features empowering traditional domains to be used for Web 3.0 features. These developments have spread like wildfire in the internet community, with many expecting a fundamental shift in Web 3.0 adoption over the coming months and years.

The Best of Both Worlds

Saying that Web 2.0 was a huge success would be a big understatement. It is arguably one of the most defining technologies since the invention of electricity, reshaping the daily lives of billions of people. With more than 86 percent of people globally having access to a smartphone, the world truly lives and breathes online culture.

Nevertheless, the astonishing success of interactive communication also gave rise to problems and moral dilemmas.. Big social media and internet service providers, such as Facebook and Google, have been criticized and even fined on many occasions for questionable data handling practices and outright privacy violations.

Regulating entities like the European Union attempted to put a lid on how these behemoths handle user data, but questions about privacy remain. And then there are also more and more voices complaining about restrictions on freedom of expression, which continues to be hotly debated in both Western democracies and in the East.

The Web 3.0 movement was born with the vision to give control back to the people. Users should retain full control over their data, their votes and actions should be immutable, everything should be completely transparent, and everyone should be able to participate.

Yet one major problem remains: it has never been particularly beginner-friendly. Decentralized wallets, which are used to transfer and store digital currencies as well as to verify ownership when accessing tools or publishing content, require the juggling of virtually endless numbers – leaving room for devastating human errors. In recent years, these issues have been increasingly solved, for example, via user-friendly mobile apps that introduced biometric verification and significantly simplified formerly complex processes.

Most crucially, however, the actual Web 3.0 domains that this new internet is built on were structured on a completely different dimension than Web 2.0. Without specific tools, Web 2.0 users could not access many Web 3.0 features, from browsing websites to accessing wallets. And this is precisely where Freename comes in.

How Freename Merges Web 2.0 And 3.0

Freename was one of the first so-called Web 3.0 domain registries founded in 2021. Users could acquire and manage domains such as hello.web3 that could then be linked to wallets and other decentralized services, including websites and emails. But this was just the beginning.

Over the years, the Swiss startup continued to expand its features, with one of its standout integrations being the addition of Web 2.0 domains, such as .com or .ai, to its offerings. With these new features, users could finally connect their traditional domains to Web 3.0 services, for example, to verify their identity, send and accept digital payments seamlessly, and send decentralized emails.

With Web 2.0 integration finally being a thing of the past, Freename wasn't done yet. Decentralization and open access, while central to Web 3.0's vision, also created a kind of digital Wild West. If anyone can simply issue decentralized domain names without any form of coordination, then confusions are bound to arise.

In the World Wide Web, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, better known as ICANN, was created to ensure that all traditional domains are uniquely identifiable and assigned to specific entities, accepted by all domain providers.

In October 2025, the startup then announced the acceptance of its latest patent by the U.S. Patent Office. According to the press release, the design describes a novel protocol that acts as a "single point to coordinate, standardize, and assign Web3 domains across multiple organizations and registries." The goal is nothing less than building the ICANN of the decentralized internet.

As Freename CEO Davide Vicini put it, his company aims to fundamentally redefine "digital identity and open the door to a future where every domain can serve as a secure digital passport for payments, communication, and AI interactions."

Is This The Big Bang?

Freename's groundbreaking advances appear to mark a turning point in the global adoption of Web 3.0 technologies. Nevertheless, while these additions are absolutely crucial to the long-term success of this novel technology, it would be overly enthusiastic to argue that it is the only change needed.

A revolution as big as this requires many cogwheels in a number of places to be recalibrated, potentially even multiple times. But if history has taught us anything, it's that once a critical threshold is crossed, global adoption can accelerate rapidly, weaving itself into the daily lives of billions before anyone fully realizes it.