The blockchain auctions domains off to the highest bidder thru a blind Vickrey auction [1] wherein the winner pays the amount of the second highest bid.
After the auction completes, the coins are burned (provably destroyed).
Both the legacy ICANN system and new TLDs on Handshake [2] are working together in harmony.
To be clear, everything on the internet including the internet itself started as an experiment.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickrey_auction
[2] https://dns.live - Domain Adoption
The hns paid for winning an auction are destroyed.
> There are plenty of issues with ICANN, but it isn't a toy with a short term profit-maximization scheme attached.
Handshake is anything but a short term profit-maximization scheme! The Handshake developers took $10 million of VC money and donated it to free and open source foundations: https://handshake.org/grant-sponsors/
From the handshake FAQ: 'There are no social or technical guarantees with the renewability or ownership, this is an experimental system, please read the code to see details of how it currently works'. That's below the bit where they auction them off to the highest bidder. There are plenty of issues with ICANN, but it isn't a toy with a short term profit-maximization scheme attached...