Coding to a multi-million dollar business in Park.io while on track for another via Handshake — with Mike Carson and Steve Webb

Some would say they are the “King and Prince of .IO Domains”, while others have not a clue who either gent is if they were to pass them on streets — including me, and I grew up with one of them. 😬

The gents I speak of are none other than Mike Carson — serial entrepreneur, software developer, and founder of Park.io, and the guy I grew up with and reconnected with at NamesCon Global 2020 in Austin, Texas, Steve Webb — partner and researcher, developer, and marketer at Park.io.

Both are down to earth and very unassuming gentleman that blend into an environment about as good as a chameleon. Heck, had either gentleman not wore Park.io gear or had NamesCon lanyards and name badges, I would have not ever known the Park.io founder and partners were ever in the building.

They certainly don’t make much of a splash in person, but online is where they shine and make their presence known in a mighty and fierce way with one of the hottest domain extensions this last and this decade: .io.

On a recent podcast, I was afforded to opportunity for a rare interview with Mike as well as have Steve return to the show — first guest appearance, The Hidden World of Drop Catching, Appraising ccTLDs, .IO Popularity and more with Steve Webb.

Mike Carson
Founder & Partner of Park.io
Photo courtesy of DomainSherpa.com

We learned and laughed our way through how the introverted Mike scripted, coded, and stumbled upon founding what has become a multi-million dollar business in Park.io.

With Steve running the show on Park.io operations and support, Mike shares how is newly found time of leisure led to him reading Hacker News and embarking upon another scripting and coding journey, Gateway.io, centered around Handshake.

No, not physical handshaking. You know handshaking is now a thing of the past thanks to COVID. Nonetheless, the handshake Mike is fascinated by is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root DNS naming zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems.

Last but not least, Mike and Steve closeout the show revealing need-to-know tips, tricks, commission structures and steps to take for people to own a TLD, also known as a top-level domain — including emoji (WHAAAAATTTT???) 😳 , using NameBase.io.

So without further ado, get ready to be educated, entertained, and empowered to embraced the next big thing expected to revolutionize the domain industry: handshake domains. Hit play and enjoy!