Hello Bruce,
(1) Registry implement auction mode for deleted names where there is more than one registrar wishing to register the same name
My preference today <registrar hat==on> is for registrars to "own" the "deleted front-end". My preference tomorrow <registry hat==on> may not be the same. I suspect I'll always want vgrs not to implement the auction mode.
(2) Auction funds to be placed in an escrow account ...
Fine. $6 for registry so they don't care. Done. Whoever owns it (the "deleted front-end") can pay for it, no point in tying it to some internal vgrs accounting bogosity. This opens a can of worms, in theory. First-come-first-served for new buys, and something else for expiry buys. However, we need to do some thing if we are going to remain with a secondary market with registrars remaining the sales channels. We have two groups pursuing different shared fates, the registrars with declining per-share values and the aggregators with constant sets-of-shares values. Between the arms race by competing aggregators and ICANN having unconditional revenue-generating accreditations, secondary actors (both aggregators and ICANN) are doing better off of the market than registrars. Cheers, Eric