# Realms

Top-level Atomicals names, how they are claimed and resolved, and what a name actually establishes.

Page ID: protocol/realms/overview
Applicability: protocol-behavior
Authority: reference-implementation
Networks: mainnet
Verified: 2026-08-31
Locale: en
URL: https://bitcoinuniverseio.github.io/atomicals-and-arc-20/protocol/realms/overview/

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A Realm is a top-level Atomicals name, owned as a non-fungible Atomical. Whoever controls the
output carrying that Atomical controls the name.

## Claiming

A Realm is requested inside an `nft` mint payload as `request_realm`. The request is a candidate
until the rules resolve it into a verified winner.
See [candidates and winners](/protocol/core/candidates-and-winners/).

Reference commands: `mint-realm <realm>`, `get-realm`, `realm-info`, `find-realms`,
`summary-realms`, `resolve`. See the [CLI reference](/reference/cli/).

## What a Realm gives you

| It gives you | It does not give you |
| --- | --- |
| A globally allocated name | Any claim to a trademark or identity |
| The right to define Subrealm rules | Control over what people do with similar names |
| A resolvable destination for Paynames | Any guarantee that a lookalike is not deceiving someone |
| A transferable Atomical | Any protection against confusable characters |

## Ownership and transfer

Ownership is control of the output carrying the Realm Atomical. Transferring it is an ordinary
non-fungible transfer. Losing the output loses the name.

Practical consequences:

- Never hold a valuable Realm in a wallet that can spend its output for fees.
- Never leave a Realm on an output shared with other Atomicals. Splat first.
  See [splat and mixed outputs](/protocol/nft/splat-and-mixed-outputs/).

## Resolution and search

Resolution turns a name into the Atomical that holds it. It is computed at a chain position, so it
can change after a reorg. Always record the height and generation a resolution came from.

The Universe read model exposes realm resolution, hierarchy, and Subrealm listing. See
[NFT and Realm API](/reference/api/atomicals-nfts-realms/).

## Read next

| Topic | Page |
| --- | --- |
| Child names under a Realm | [Subrealms](/protocol/realms/subrealms/) |
| Using a Realm as a payment destination | [Paynames](/protocol/realms/paynames/) |
| How claims and payments are evaluated | [Claims and rules](/protocol/realms/claims-and-rules/) |
| Unicode, normalisation, and confusable names | [Unicode and IDNA](/protocol/realms/unicode-and-idna/) |
| Listing and buying names | [Marketplace](/protocol/realms/marketplace/) |