Last August, a draft of the Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP) profile underwent Public Comment in an effort to give the entire ICANN community a chance to provide feedback on this important document. The ICANN organization worked with a discussion group of gTLD registries and registrars to create this proposal. We've published the profile and invite you to review it at the RDAP webpage. The RDAP implementation process has now started, and we have updated our implementation timeline accordingly.
RDAP enables users to access current registration data and has several advantages over the current protocol (WHOIS) including: support for internationalization, more secure access to data, and the ability to provide differentiated access to registration data. The profile, which follows the requirements of the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data, aims to provide technical instructions to gTLD registries and registrars on how to implement the RDAP service in a consistent way.
The input gathered via Public Comment was provided to the discussion group of gTLD registries and registrars. They submitted the finalized profile this week to the ICANN organization.
We look forward to the next steps of the RDAP deployment. As you may recall, the Temporary Specification for gTLD Registration Data requires all gTLD registries and registrars to deploy an RDAP service after notification from ICANN. Additional resources and information about the RDAP profile development can be found at the RDAP webpage. We thank the discussion group of gTLD registries and registrars for their contributions, and the community for their participation to achieve this critical milestone.