.hub

The mission of .HUB is to provide a namespace associated with the concept of a hub as a center of activity, connection, coordination, or exchange. The .HUB gTLD is intended to serve a broad range of registrants and users, including individuals, businesses, organizations, communities, projects, and other entities that identify with, relate to, or wish to be associated with the concept represented by the applied-for string. The purpose of .HUB is to enable registrants to establish online identities using domain names that correspond to this concept. To achieve this purpose, Empty Hand, LLC will make .HUB available for registration through registrars and other appropriate distribution channels; maintain a secure, stable, and reliable registry infrastructure; implement registration and operational policies that support the availability, security, and integrity of the namespace; and provide ongoing administration of the gTLD to enable registrants to register and use domain names within the namespace. The purpose of .HUB is sustainable over time because centers of activity, connection, coordination, and exchange will continue to play a fundamental and enduring role across society. As society, technology, and methods of communication evolve, organizations and individuals will continue to establish online identities associated with the applied-for string.

The .hub gTLD will provide a namespace for platforms, communities, and services that act as central points of activity - the meaning "hub" carries in everyday and business language. Its intended registrants include online communities and forums, resource and knowledge platforms, marketplaces, local and industry portals, and businesses positioning themselves as the central destination for a topic or audience (e.g., design.hub, sports.hub, city.hub). "Hub" is one of the most widely used aggregator terms in domain naming today, with hundreds of thousands of hub-named registrations spread across legacy TLDs lacking a dedicated home. The TLD will operate as an open registry with standard and premium tiers, distributed through the applicant group's retail channel and ICANN-accredited registrars on non-discriminatory terms. The applicant intends to operate the namespace responsibly, with proactive DNS-abuse monitoring and enforcement from launch. This purpose is sustainable over time: the aggregator-platform model is a permanent feature of the web, and the naming convention's breadth provides a durable registrant base across industries and geographies.

.hub is put forward as the domain for the network economy — a namespace where identity, geography, the metaverse, and artificial intelligence converge, serving as a universal namespace for people, organizations, and places, and, for AI agents and autonomous objects, a machine-readable identifier. The application is brought forward by Hub Culture Ltd — a 24-year-old organization. "Hub" is a widely recognized, cross-industry term — used for technology, data, climate, and transit hubs among others — that carries built-in recognition without being tied to a single trademark or narrow vertical. Demand is not speculative: Hub Culture's blockchain-based .hub domains, launched in 2025 on Unstoppable Domains' Web3 naming infrastructure, registered over 7,000 domains in about 10 months. .hub brings that demand onto ICANN's delegated namespace under the standard obligations of a Registry Agreement. Intended Registrants and Users The Registry Operator anticipates registrants and users drawn from: ● Individuals and organizations seeking an identity- or place-based namespace under .hub; ● Companies operating under a "hub" identity — technology, data, climate, and transit hubs among them; ● Hub Culture's existing community, including holders of blockchain-based .hub domains since 2025; ● Developers and platforms registering machine-readable identities for AI agents and autonomous objects; and ● Web3 wallet and identity-infrastructure providers integrating .hub resolution alongside DNS. Related Activities Hub Culture Ltd intends to operate .hub in parallel with .hub, its existing Web3 TLD counterpart, consistent with the framework ICANN's Technical Study Group on New gTLD Integrations with Alternative Naming Systems is developing: the two namespaces will maintain strict parallel control, so a name registered in one is only available in the other to the same registrant. Additional detail is provided in response to Question 222. Identifiers for AI agents and autonomous objects are an emerging use case without settled regulatory treatment. .hub's commitments are limited to naming infrastructure and do not certify that any registered AI agent or object is safe or compliant. The Registry Operator will apply the same legal-compliance obligations to .hub as to every other applied-for string, including sanctions screening and cooperation with lawful authorities. Sustainability Demand for .hub is anchored in two durable sources: an existing, already-monetized registrant base (7,000+ Web3 .hub domains since 2025), and the breadth of "hub" as a cross-industry term not tied to any single community or technology cycle. Hub Culture's 24-year history further supports continuity, giving .hub renewal incentives across multiple, largely uncorrelated use cases over the full term of the Registry Agreement and beyond.

The proposed .hub top-level domain represents the broad concept of a hub - a central point where people, information, activities, or resources come together. The word is in everyday use across nearly every field, from team and customer hubs run by businesses to resource and program hubs run by organizations of all kinds. Intercap Registry proposes to operate .hub as an open namespace, available for registration by the general public without restriction. Intended registrants include individuals, creators, businesses, and organizations of all kinds that want a clear, memorable address for a central point for their content, services, or activities. Intended users are members of the general public seeking those destinations. Intercap Registry will make .hub names available worldwide through ICANN-accredited registrars, promote awareness and adoption of the namespace, publish its registration policies ahead of launch, operate the TLD openly, respond promptly to reports of abuse, and comply with applicable safeguards. Demand for this category is sustainable: the need for a recognizable central starting point is a standing feature of websites, businesses, and organizations across every sector, and is not tied to any trend, technology, or single company.

Link Freedom Group (LFG) aspires to become a best-in-class, vertically integrated domain name registration authority, see linkfreedomgroup.link. This TLD is part of a carefully curated portfolio of strings that LFG intends to pursue in ICANN’s 2026 New gTLD Program. In assembling this portfolio, LFG focused on securing meaningful, memorable, and commercially compelling strings that resonate strongly with end users and offer long-term growth potential. Over the past four years, LFG (Nova Registry) has successfully grown its flagship TLD, .LINK, from approximately 125,000 to more than 300,000 domains under management. This growth has been driven by innovative distribution strategies, the expansion of registrar partnerships, and a granular pricing model that has enabled .LINK to remain competitively priced while avoiding the significant fee increases implemented by some other registry operators. LFG’s experience in the domain name industry has reinforced one of the key lessons from the 2012 application round: long-term sustainability is strengthened through portfolio diversification. By spreading operational costs and mitigating revenue fluctuations across multiple TLDs, LFG is better positioned to withstand market volatility and invest in continued growth. Accordingly, LFG believes that even obtaining a subset of the TLDs for which it has applied will establish a diversified portfolio capable of supporting long-term economic stability, operational resilience, and sustainable growth.

1. Mission and purpose: The mission of .hub is to provide a namespace for the central gathering places of the internet: the portals, communities and platforms where people and information converge. Intended registrants include organizations naming portals, intranets and resource centers; community operators; coworking, logistics and innovation hubs; and brands using "hub" to name a central destination. Intended users are the visitors, members and customers those destinations serve worldwide. Following delegation, the applicant will, as registry operator of the .hub TLD, conduct a phased launch, implement all ICANN-required rights protection mechanisms, and distribute the TLD through ICANN-accredited registrars, supported by marketing and outreach to build awareness and adoption among the intended registrant and user groups. The TLD will be operated under a comprehensive DNS abuse prevention and mitigation framework covering the full range of abuse types, combining proactive and reactive controls. Abuse reports will be investigated and actioned in line with applicable policy requirements. The objective is to maintain .hub as a high-quality, trusted namespace for registrants and end users. 2. Sustainability: "Hub" is a common English noun in continuous commercial use for well over a century, and naming the central place where a service or community lives is now standard across industries. Because the term names a function rather than a technology, demand is stable and renews with each generation of businesses coming online.

1. Mission and Purpose of the Applied-for gTLD The word "hub" carries an immediate and widely understood signal: this is where things come together. That single idea gives .hub a clear reason to exist as a naming layer for organizations built around convergence. A coworking brand, a developer community, a regional innovation center, or a partner network can use a .hub address to communicate its role as a central meeting point in one short word. The purpose of .hub is to give these convergence-oriented organizations a web address that mirrors what they actually are. A membership network can turn its name into a recognizable presence with something like members.hub or a city-specific address that tells visitors exactly where activity is centered. Startup accelerators and incubators can anchor cohorts, events, and resources under a name that reads as a destination. Technology teams positioning a product as the central place where data, tools, or people connect can adopt a .hub name that reinforces that role at first glance. Because "hub" is short, memorable, and instantly legible, the namespace helps registrants stand out online and turn a name into something meaningful without lengthy explanation. The extension supports discoverability for organizations whose value lies in bringing people, services, or resources together, making it easier for members and partners to find and trust the central point they are looking for. Intended Registrants: Coworking operators, innovation centers, startup accelerators, technology and developer communities, transit and logistics organizations, membership networks, and companies that position a product or team as a central gathering point for users, partners, or resources. Related Activities Supporting the Purpose: • Awareness-building among community operators, innovation districts, and network-driven organizations • Registrar distribution to reach small operators and established institutions alike • Registrant education on how a concise, purpose-signaling address can anchor a network • Community outreach to coworking, developer, and logistics ecosystems 2. Sustainability of the Purpose Over Time The hub-and-spoke pattern recurs as new networks and communities form, so the namespace stays relevant across sectors and as an organization's ecosystem grows. Whenever many parts need to interact efficiently, a coordinating core emerges to reduce the cost and friction of those interactions. Transport networks route through hubs because direct links between every point are wasteful. Communities form around gathering places because shared access concentrates value. The hub-and-spoke pattern is embedded in aviation, shipping, telecommunications, energy distribution, and knowledge networks precisely because it is efficient, and efficiency pressures do not diminish over time. A hub is the piece of infrastructure that lets everything else scale. What reinforces continued relevance is the range of contexts where the model recurs. A logistics operator, a research consortium, a maker space, and a creator community all describe their center of gravity with the same word, because the underlying function is identical even when the domain differs. This breadth means the concept does not depend on any single sector remaining strong; if one category evolves, others continue to rely on the same organizing logic. The meaning is anchored in structure, so it carries forward as new kinds of networks form. The concept also resists substitution. Alternatives such as "center" or "portal" carry narrower or dated connotations, while "hub" reads as active, connective, and current across both physical and organized digital contexts.

The mission of .hub is to provide a memorable namespace for individuals, businesses, communities, platforms, and organizations that bring people, information, resources, or services together. Intended registrants include community hubs, business and innovation centres, knowledge portals, local initiatives, creator communities, and digital platforms. The registry intends .hub to be broadly available, reliable, and secure, subject to registration policies, abuse-prevention measures, and ICANN requirements. The mission is sustainable because “hub” has broad, enduring relevance across sectors and regions, supports diverse use cases, and can be distributed through the registrar channel using established registry-service infrastructure and responsible marketing.

".HUB" is proposed as an open namespace for anything that serves as a central point of access or connection for a defined community, subject area, or service category. The registrant population is intentionally wide: community organizations, neighborhood resource centers, industry portals, professional associations, nonprofits consolidating social services, coworking spaces, and digital platforms aggregating tools for a specific discipline are all, in the plainest sense, hubs. What unites them is function rather than sector: they exist to bring people and resources together in one place. The string is deliberately scoped toward aggregation, access, and connection rather than authentication, login infrastructure, or technical routing, in order to maintain clear end-user expectations about what a .HUB address represents. Registration is open and non-exclusive; no vertical, organizational type, or subject area is privileged over another.

1. Mission and purpose. This gTLD will be operated as an open, unrestricted generic top-level domain. Its purpose is to expand naming choice in the DNS by making this term available at the top level for any lawful use chosen by the registrant. Registrations will be available to all registrants on a first-come, first-served basis through ICANN-accredited registrars, subject only to the Registry Agreement, ICANN Consensus Policies, and applicable law. The applicant will not operate this gTLD on an exclusive basis. 2. Intended registrants and users. Intended registrants are individuals, businesses, and other organizations worldwide seeking a short, meaningful domain name. There are no eligibility or name selection restrictions beyond those required by the Registry Agreement, ICANN Consensus Policies, and applicable law. Intended users are internet users worldwide who access domain names registered in this gTLD. 3. Related activities. The applicant is an established registry operator under contract with ICANN for 35 gTLDs, including .xyz. It has in place a qualified Registry Service Provider, distribution agreements with ICANN-accredited registrars across multiple regions, and all required rights protection mechanisms and DNS abuse mitigation practices. For this gTLD the applicant will onboard the TLD to its existing registry platform, conduct a Sunrise Period and Trademark Claims Period, launch General Availability through its registrar channel, and maintain ongoing registrar enablement, abuse monitoring, and compliance reporting. 4. Sustainability. Operation is funded by recurring registration and renewal revenue and does not depend on any single registrant, sector, or campaign. This gTLD will run on the applicant's existing shared registry infrastructure, so incremental operating cost is low and no minimum registration volume is required for viability. The applicant has operated gTLDs continuously since 2014.