How does Afternic Fast Transfer actually work?
When I first started buying domains, the Fast Transfer process seemed a bit magical, like something that
@GoDaddy
must have conjured behind closed doors at an ICANN convention in Prague circa 1998. In reality, GoDaddy only purchased
@Afternic
a decade ago in 2013, and the Afternic DLS Network was already well established and not at all supernatural.
It turns out that Fast Transfer uses the same mechanism as every other domain transfer – EPP Auth Codes, sprinkled with a bit of pre-approval (opt-in) to grease the ICANN transfer wheels. Afternic DLS and Sedo MLS are simply a collection of APIs that facilitate the exchange of auth codes from "losing" registrar to "gaining" registrar. The pre-approval legal bit (opt-in) allows the registrar to initiate and consummate domain transfers on your behalf, required as per
@ICANN
rules.
In order to participate in the Fast Transfer network, registrars must implement a relatively complex 12-step workflow, as seen here in the Afternic integration docs:
