This discussion is about whether domain names can serve as identity not about me proving I can create a domain on the Internet.

However, here is a free subdomain I've done for you. I created http://hnretroid.mooo.com/, added an A record, and pointed it at 209.216.230.240, which is news.ycombinator.com.

You can also look at the article that appeared on the home page here at HN the very next day after this discussion you and I had. The article talks about Facebook suing one of these registrars for giving out free domain names to criminals, even after being shown that their customers were performing criminal activities with the domains. [1]

There will be another free domain service. There always has and always will be, unfortunately. There always will be something to fill that void. In the same way that legitimate actors write legitimate apps, criminals have their own ecosystems on which they rely for their income.

[1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2023/03/sued-by-meta-freenom-hal...