Refund & fulfillment policy.

Here's exactly how pre-registration, Founder Boxes, refunds, and the what-ifs work.

Free pre-registration

You can reserve interest in a .human name at no cost. That holds your priority claim and collects your name and email. It is not a purchase. Nothing is charged to your card at this step. Shipping address and phone are only collected if you buy a Founder Box (at Stripe checkout), or later in your .human portal before launch.

How Founder Box purchases work

After you reserve a name, you may optionally buy a Founder Box. We've set a funding goal to bring .human to life, but this isn't all-or-nothing. Your Founder Box purchase is collected when you buy, and it goes straight to work funding the registry launch. Whether or not we hit the goal, your purchase stands and your box is yours.

Every dollar from a Founder Box purchase is put toward the same thing: securing and launching .human so that the word stays in human hands.

What you get when you buy a Founder Box

There are two options:

• Founder Box ($50). A physical branded box with the items listed on the Founder Box page, plus a prepaid priority registration for a 1-year term, plus a place on the First Humans wall (first name and last initial).
• Limited Edition Founder Box ($250). A fuller physical box, capped at 1,000 units, plus a prepaid priority registration for a 5-year term, plus a place on the First Humans wall (first name and last initial).

Your box is produced and shipped to you on our fulfillment schedule after the campaign, no matter what happens with the ICANN process. Once it's on its way, it's yours to keep.

If you skip the Founder Box, you still keep your free name reservation. You can register and pay when .human goes live, or come back later for a box while inventory remains.

About your .human name

Your name reservation is a priority right to register an available standard .human name once the registry launches. It's your place in line, not a guarantee of one specific name.

If you bought a Founder Box, you have prepaid the registration term included with that box. If you only reserved for free, you have not prepaid a registration term.

A few honest details worth knowing up front:

• Your name is fulfilled if and when .human is awarded and the registry goes live (currently estimated for 2027–2028).
• If the exact name you want is already taken, reserved, or protected by a trademark holder under launch rules, your priority right applies to another available standard .human name of your choosing.
• Premium and single-word names are handled separately and aren't part of the Founder Box offer.
• If you reserved a name for free and do not complete registration when we invite you at launch, we will hold that name for one additional month, then release it back into the pool.
• If you purchased a Founder Box, we will register your reserved name on your behalf when the registry launches and pay the registration fee for the prepaid term included with your box.

Refunds

Free pre-registration has no payment, so there is nothing to refund.

All Founder Box purchases are final and non-refundable. Every dollar from a Founder Box purchase is put toward the same thing: securing and launching .human so that the word stays in human hands. Because your purchase goes to work immediately funding the launch, and because the physical box is produced for you, we're not able to offer refunds, cancellations, or exchanges, except where a refund is required by law.

Please choose your Founder Box thoughtfully before you buy. If you're ever charged twice or hit a genuine payment error, reach out at hello@humancenteredholdings.com and we'll make it right. That's a correction, not a refund.

If things don't go as planned

We're being upfront: we have applied, and we are in the running to secure stewardship of .human. That process runs through ICANN and is outside our control. Here's what happens in the two scenarios people ask about most.

If .human is not awarded

If stewardship is not awarded and the registry can't launch, your name reservation can't be fulfilled. If you bought a Founder Box, you keep your physical box. There's no cash refund. Your purchase helped make the run possible, and the box is yours. If you only reserved for free, there is no purchase to unwind.

If the launch takes longer than expected

Domain launches move on their own timeline. We'll keep you posted with honest progress updates along the way. If the registry still hasn't launched by our backstop date, you can choose to keep waiting and hold your reservation, or close it out. Founder Box purchases remain non-refundable either way; you keep the box.

If you reserved for free and do not register when the time comes

If you reserved a name for free and do not complete registration when we invite you at launch, we will hold that name for one additional month, then release it back into the pool.

If you bought a Founder Box

If you purchased a Founder Box, we will register your reserved name on your behalf when the registry launches and pay the registration fee for the prepaid term included with your box. You still need complete registrant contact details on file. No specific name is guaranteed if Sunrise, trademark, or reserved-name rules block the exact label you chose.

The short version

Reserving a name is free. Buying a Founder Box is optional: you're buying a real product and prepaying a registration term, not buying a financial stake. Your box is real and it's coming. Your .human name is a genuine priority reservation that depends on the launch succeeding. Founder Box purchases are final, and if the launch doesn't happen, you still walk away with the box. Thank you for being one of the first humans on .human.

The binding terms

This page is the plain-language policy for refunds and fulfillment. The Pre-Registration & Founder Box Terms are the binding agreement for your pre-registration and any Founder Box purchase.

Questions: hello@humancenteredholdings.com