Yes this could turn the whole domain industry on its head... if it works.
The idea is that anyone can apply to manage their own extension (the bit after the dot - eg 'com.au') and then 'sell' domain names to other people.
Eg a company could apply to run .kids. So anyone in the world who has a kid related website could register mycompany.kids for example. There's talk of a state government supported .sydney which would be for sydney based businesses to showcase their websites.
The opportunity is grabbing the premium generic domains (these releases are called 'landrushes' for good reason) for potential resale down the line. Eg you register lawyers.sydney, cars.sydney etc.
The thing will be whether the public will take to them.
The cost of running a registry is considerable. Costs US$200K to apply (non-refundable). If multiple entities apply for the same one, the right to run the registry will be auctioned off to the higher bidder.
The cost to manage a registry will be a further $200K pa minimum (no marketing).
So to make back your US$400K investment in the first year, you'd need to convince a lot of people to buy domain names. Say 25,000 people paying $20pa (allowing for a margin for the registrar).
That, IMO, is a big ask when most people already have a domain and, rightly or wrongly, are quite happy with it.
The other thing is confusion. There's a real chance that the public might just be so confused they don't take to it at all and it's a big flop with the existing extensions remaining strong.
It will be very interesting that's for sure...
