06 September 2024 , 17:41
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Namecheap has a reputation for being one of the most competitive domain name registration options. According to Statista, Namecheap is the second-largest registrar in the world, registering approximately 8% of all domain names.
However, all this information is only the ceremonial part of the Namecheap facade. There is also a reverse side, which is carefully hidden and cleaned up, since Namecheap’s activities include both deception of customers and cooperation with Russia. The latter looks especially unflattering, since Namecheap has Ukrainian management, which in 2022 loudly declared about any break in cooperation with the Russians. And now on the registrar’s website there is a message that the company supports Ukraine.
Namecheap also stated that more than a thousand of the company’s employees live in Ukraine, most of them in Kharkiv. Against this background, accusations against Namecheap of cooperation with Russia look strange, but it seems that the old as the world rule "money is money" has won here too.
Even at the very beginning of the big war, when Namecheap announced the end of cooperation with Russian clients, interested parties drew attention to the fact that this break in relations was somewhat strange in nature and did not apply to everyone. For example, it was noted that "the company only asks users to change their registrar, but will not block domains."
After a bit of panic, it turned out that the domains were still working on Namecheap.
In addition, it turned out that Namecheap is not very honest in terms of providing the promised services. This, as it turned out, was the case both before February 24, 2022, and after. And it concerned not only clients from the Russian Federation, who explained their problems by the presence of "salo-eaters from Saloreikh" in Namecheap’s management, which, incidentally, is quite typical for Russians. But now we are not talking about the typical behavior of a typical Russian person, but about the fact that Namecheap received unflattering reviews for itself even without reference to the war.
But that was a long time ago, and what’s happening now? Here’s a link to the material titled "How to pay for Namecheap and top up from Russia in 2024?" It says the following: "How to pay for Namecheap from Russia? With the Pyypl card, customers can top up their balance and use it to pay for Namecheap services, ensuring a reliable and stable online presence. Topping up the Pyypl card via cryptocurrency and electronic payments provides flexibility and convenience, facilitating uninterrupted access to the necessary web resources." And a list of cards with prices is provided. The prices, as you can see from the screenshot below, or by clicking on the link above, are indicated in rubles.
That is, if the client wants it. And you can pay with a card and cryptocurrency, as long as the payment does not come directly from Russia. And Namecheap will gladly accept this payment, pretending that the client has nothing to do with Russia.
Here is another site that offers help with Namecheap payment:
As the poet said, "if the stars are lit, it means someone needs it"? So it is here - if they offer an alternative way to pay for Namecheap services for Russians, then this service is definitely in demand. And if the service is in demand, then they are not paying for pretty eyes, but for the fact that Namecheap continues to provide hosting to Russian citizens.
This is confirmed by review sites : "If anyone decides to use Namecheap, keep in mind that you can only pay for services with crypto. In my case, I use Bitcoin. Russian cards do not work for payment."
Is it a big problem to pay for something online with crypto? Even easier than with a regular bank card. So it turns out that formally Namecheap does not work with Russia, but in practice, everything is as before. And maybe even better, especially against the background of the real refusal of other registrars. Whose clients, as can be seen from the review above, simply switched to Namecheap.
To sum up, we can finish with another quote from a classic: “Don’t believe your eyes.” Many global companies have announced that they no longer work with Russia. But in reality, it turns out that not all that glitters is gold. Because saying so is one thing. But doing so is quite another. That’s exactly what happened with Namecheap. Which is especially sad given the fate of at least Kharkiv, where most of the Ukrainian Namecheap staff worked until February 2022. But, as the old wisdom says, money triumphs over evil. That’s exactly what happened with Namecheap: money triumphed over evil.