> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.soran.domains/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# What is Soran

> Soran — the Soroban Registry for Assigned Names. Namespace infrastructure on Stellar: your brand as a namespace, names for your users, ownership guarantees enforced by an immutable contract.

**Soran** stands for **So**roban **R**egistry for **A**ssigned **N**ames — a name registry built as an immutable smart contract on [Soroban](https://developers.stellar.org/docs/build/smart-contracts), Stellar's contract platform.

In one sentence: **Soran lets a business own a namespace on Stellar and issue verifiable names to its users — `alice.yourbrand` instead of `GDHNO4WK…5UBU` — with ownership guarantees no one can break, not even Soran.**

## The problem

Money on Stellar moves to 56-character addresses. One wrong character and the funds are gone — no undo, no support line. So every wallet builds its own contact book, every exchange prints memo warnings, and every business explains to its users why paying someone looks like defusing a bomb.

## What Soran is

Soran is **namespace infrastructure** — think payments-infrastructure economics, not a consumer domain shop:

<Steps>
  <Step title="A business claims a namespace, once">
    `yourbrand` is won through a public, timelocked claim window — evidence-backed, objection-guarded — and lands **in the business's own wallet**. It is an on-chain asset, not a subscription.
  </Step>

  <Step title="It issues names to its users">
    `alice.yourbrand`, `bob.yourbrand` — one call per name, or thousands from a CSV. Names are **free from Soran, forever**: only Stellar's own network fees apply — about \$0.05 per user per year, paid to the network.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Every wallet resolves them — trustlessly">
    Any wallet or app resolves `alice.yourbrand` to a Stellar address **straight from the chain** with the [SDK](/sdk/installation). Soran's servers are not in the trust path. Reverse lookup shows verified names instead of addresses in history — unspoofable by construction.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## What makes it different: the guarantee is the product

The Soran Registry is **immutable** — deployed once, no admin key, no upgrade path. That is not a limitation; it is the entire point. It makes one sentence true that almost no naming system can say:

> **Every name declares what can happen to it, the contract enforces the declaration, and anyone can verify it.**

| Guarantee         | What the contract enforces                                                                                    |
| ----------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| ● **Permanent**   | Can never be reclaimed or expired — by the issuer, by Soran, by anyone. The one-way door is enforced in code. |
| ◔ **Reclaimable** | The issuer can take it back — and says so, on chain, up front. Honest power, visibly held.                    |
| ◐ **Timed**       | Ownership until a visible date. Never a surprise expiry.                                                      |

A wallet can render that guarantee as a glyph next to every name. A user about to send money can read the trust level at a glance. That legibility — *provable* promises, not terms-of-service promises — is what a brand can safely build on.

## Sovereignty: the part that keeps everyone honest

Your namespace lives in **your wallet**. The contracts are permissionless: you can claim, issue, resolve, and transfer with nothing but your own keys and any RPC node — no Soran account required, ever.

Everything Soran operates — the console, hosted resolution, webhooks, the cross-tenant directory, the escrow marketplace — is a **convenience layer around an asset you already own**. Useful enough to pay for, never able to hold your names hostage. If Soran vanished tomorrow, every name would keep resolving.

That is by design: the permissionless escape hatch is the ceiling on what Soran can ever charge, and the reason "trust us" never has to appear in this documentation.

## Proven, not promised

* **Live on public testnet** — every flow in these docs runs against real deployed contracts ([status](/api/status))
* **Measured economics** — issuing a name costs \~0.081 XLM once; keeping it live costs \~0.16 XLM/year in Stellar storage rent — **about \$0.05 per user per year**, paid to the network, not to Soran
* **Names free forever** — Soran monetizes optional hosted services and marketplace settlement, never your user growth

## Start here

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="Wallets & apps" icon="wallet" href="/quickstart">
    Send-to-name and verified reverse lookup in an afternoon with `@sorandomains/lookup`.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Businesses" icon="building" href="/concepts/claiming-a-namespace">
    Claim `yourbrand`, choose your guarantee, issue names from the console — or from code with `@sorandomains/owner`.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Backends" icon="server" href="/api/overview">
    The public HTTP read surface — with the SDK verifying every hint on chain.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Ownership guarantees, in depth" icon="shield-check" href="/concepts/ownership-guarantees">
    Permanent, reclaimable, timed — and how permanence is proven on chain.
  </Card>

  <Card title="The trust model" icon="scale-balanced" href="/concepts/trust-model">
    Exactly what is trustless, what is hosted, and what happens if Soran disappears.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>