What is .lds?
Brand TLDs operate under Specification 13 of ICANN's registry agreement. It lets a trademark owner keep every second-level name for itself, so you won't find .lds names for sale at any registrar.
.lds entered the DNS root zone on November 19, 2014, 11 years ago. It came out of ICANN's New gTLD Program, the 2012 application round that grew the root from 22 generic TLDs to well over a thousand.
IRI Domain Management, LLC also runs one other TLD, including .mormon.
On the technical side, .lds is served by 4 authoritative name servers, every one of them reachable over IPv6. It is also DNSSEC-signed: the root zone carries a DS record for .lds, which lets validating resolvers check its answers cryptographically. Registration data is published over RDAP and WHOIS (the WHOIS server is whois.nic.lds).
Same registry, other endings
1 other TLD shares this operator.
.lds FAQ
What country is .lds?
None. .lds is a generic top-level domain, so it isn't tied to any country.
Who owns the .lds domain extension?
IRI Domain Management, LLC operates .lds as its registry, under a registry agreement with ICANN.
When was .lds created?
.lds was delegated to the DNS root zone on November 19, 2014.
Is .lds a valid domain?
Yes. .lds is an active top-level domain in the DNS root zone, delegated in 2014, so .lds addresses work in every browser.
Can I buy a .lds domain?
No. .lds is a brand TLD under ICANN Specification 13, so names are reserved for IRI Domain Management, LLC.
Is .lds DNSSEC-signed?
Yes, the root zone holds a DS record for .lds.
Sources
Data from IANA root zone version 2026102000. Last changed August 15, 2023. Spotted something wrong? Tell us.
