.gunpowder
Is .gunpowder a real TLD? Who’s applying to run it?
Nobody is chasing .gunpowder, as of 7 October 2026. One applicant claimed it and is out. We keep the entry on the record either way.
- Journey To The West
A novelty word ending with a heritage story but no obvious buyer group; a fun hack for a few brands, not a serious address.
novelty-minded brands adjacent to the word — pyrotechnics and fireworks outfits, gunpowder green tea sellers, hot-sauce and gaming/history projects — plus heritage-themed showcases
In Journey To The West's published portfolio of 323 strings submitted in the ICANN 2026 round. Their catalog line: “One of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China.”
The 2012 applications making the most similar bet. Chosen by AI from every string in that round, without being told what happened to any of them.
Both bet that a narrow, evocative product/substance noun — not the category head term (.wine/.drinks, .guns/.ammo) — can carry the identity of a small, passionate, regulation-shadowed trade-plus-enthusiast base.
Same bet on a specific physical-object noun serving a hobbyist-and-retailer niche where volume is inherently small, so the economics depend on premium pricing to a few thousand devoted registrants rather than mass adoption.
Parallel only in betting that a culturally charged subculture noun pulls identity-level adoption from its scene, but tattoo names a practice and community while gunpowder names a commodity input, so the buyer and the job differ.
What a .gunpowder domain is
.gunpowder is not a TLD yet. It is a string on our record of the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round, filed under Culture. Nobody is chasing .gunpowder today. The applicants that claimed it are out.
Is the .gunpowder domain extension real yet?
.gunpowder is not yet a domain extension you can register: nothing resolves under it, and no registrar sells names in it. Nobody has applied for it on the public record; the ICANN 2026 new gTLD round is the process that would decide whether it becomes one.
When can you buy a .gunpowder domain?
You can’t yet. A .gunpowder name can only be registered once the string is delegated (added to the DNS root) and its registry opens. Last round's closest parallel to .gunpowder was .vodka, delegated on 31 March 2014.
Is .gunpowder a real TLD?
Not yet. .gunpowder is not in the DNS root, so nothing resolves under it. It’s here because an applicant claimed .gunpowder and is no longer in it. We keep the entry, and every entry on this page links to its source.
- Journey To The West · now abandonedICANN
- Journey To The West · first recordedJourney To The West Corporation
“.gunpowder · Invention & Heritage · “One of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China.””Journey To The West Corporation
- Band 10-29 (vanity/narrow). It sits above 1-9 because a small real market exists by analogy: single-word novelty gTLDs (e.g. .ninja, .pizza-style strings — analogy, no figures) do attract a trickle of brand-hack registrations, and 'gunpowder' has genuine commercial adjacencies (gunpowder green tea, pyrotechnics, gaming). It stays below 30-49 because there is no volume driver: the word carries a weapons connotation that many mainstream brands and some registrars/platforms treat with friction, the heritage framing ('Four Great Inventions', per the catalog) suggests a showcase positioning rather than a demand-led namespace, and no category exists where .gunpowder would be the expected primary identity. Main market uncertainty: whether any adjacent niche (fireworks, tea, gaming) adopts it visibly enough to seed even a thin aftermarket, versus registrations staying at pure-novelty levels.