[righthand]

Quotas are sometimes applied to create value of a simple asset aka scarcity (or a bureaucrat tax). Think limited number of taxi medallions or street vendor or liquor licenses. That makes the medallion/license/gtld hold value.

[JoshTriplett]

> Think limited number of taxi medallions or street vendor or liquor licenses.

Those are not particularly compelling examples in favor of such a thing.

[righthand]

I’m not making an argument for quotas, just explaining why they usually are included. It’s a cheap way to add “market” value to something aka scarcity.

The issue would occur in the suggested system when ICANN decides to one day stop creating 250 domain names down to 25 domain names or some such change that increases the value of the gtlds to ridiculous numbers only the wealthy/well-connected can afford.

[Daviey]

Why is the goal to artificially increase the value of tld's?

[righthand]

Because capitalists run ICANN. Or because adding a monetary barrier reduces spam. If creating a tld is free then there is no system or at least no ICANN.