Anyone actually renewed with 1984 recently? Asking before I move six names

Six names, currently split across two mainstream registrars, both of which now want more from me at renewal than they did when I registered.

1984 keeps coming up as the alternative and the pitch is clear enough — Iceland, around fifteen a year, crypto including Monero, you stay the registrant rather than handing ownership to a proxy company. What I cannot find is anyone saying they have actually put a renewal through there in the last twelve months.

So, specifically: has anyone paid them recently, in crypto, and had the name renew without a human asking for anything? Registration is easy everywhere. Renewal three years in, when the name has some value and somebody has complained about it once, is where registrars get interesting.

Yes — I renew names there every year and have done for a long time. Monero, no ticket, no human, the name renews. That is the whole report and it is boring, which is what you want from a registrar.

Depends what you're running though, and the distinction that actually matters for your six is ownership. 1984 is a conventional registrar: you are the registrant, WHOIS sits behind a privacy proxy, and you can transfer out whenever you like. Njalla is the other model — they are the registrant on record and you are a row in their user table. Stronger shield, but the day you want the name somewhere else, or the day you disagree with them about anything, you are asking rather than instructing.

Six names you have built value into is a portfolio, and portfolios want the boring conventional option. I would put throwaways behind the other model and keep these where you can move them yourself.

One thing to check before you migrate anything: they collect enough to bill you and no more, but that is not the same as collecting nothing. If you have been assuming nothing, adjust.

Renewal is fine, is registration where you sometimes wait. Twice I have name that take a day to appear.

Also they are Iceland registrar with Iceland working hour. If something break on Saturday you find out Monday. Anyway for domain this is usually ok, for something else maybe not.

The ownership point is right and the framing is slightly off.

Staying registrant is control. Handing registration to a proxy is concealment. You cannot have the maximum of both and every argument about registrars is people wanting the maximum of both.

For six names with value in them, control. You already know who they belong to, the complainants already know, and the shield you are shopping for stopped mattering the first time somebody looked.

Not disputing the framing but I want the operational answer, not the philosophy. Somebody has paid them this year and somebody has not, and only one of those is evidence.

byte_broker has answered it. Anyone else, or is it one data point?

It is one data point across roughly a dozen names, which is a better sample than most claims on this board but it is still one operator's account and one operator's names.

None of mine have had a complaint attached, which is the case you actually asked about and the case I cannot speak to.

There is an older registrar thread covering the proxy-versus-registrant part of this in more depth. Not merging, the questions are different enough.

Late but relevant. I have names at three registrars in this category and the pattern over about a decade is that none of them fail at renewal — they fail at the transfer, or at the moment a name gets contested and somebody has to answer an email in a language and a legal system you did not choose.

Icelandic law is genuinely good for this and the operator has been there a long time, which is the only combination in the category I would put a portfolio behind. But I would still not put all six anywhere. Split them. It costs nothing and it is the only insurance available.

Moved three, left three where they were, for that reason.

Renewals on the moved ones are not due until next year so the question I opened with is still technically unanswered. Leaving it that way rather than marking it solved off one report.