Discord has long been the hub for gamers and students alike. Initially starting off as a web based chat service, it has amassed 196.2 million monthly active users in 2023. One of the most recognizable features of discord has been its ability to grant almost all users with their preferred username. This was possible through a four digit discriminator that gave thousands of people the possibility to have the same username. However Discord believes this to be an issue.
Now Discord is doing away with their beloved discriminators. Usernames are limited to lowercase characters (a-z), numbers (0-9) and two special characters (period and underscore).
Discord is also giving their usernames by precedence. First users that are employees of Discord get to claim their desired username, followed by server owners of partners of verified servers and then Nitro subscribers will receive the option early to choose their username.
This has already created a black market for high value discord usernames such as “gold”. This is also giving other users access to names of famous personalities such as “mrbeast”. This has led to impersonating as well as selling of highly desirable nicknames. Once the update goes out to all users, it is very likely that Discord will be in a frenzy as everyone will fight for cool usernames. As of right now, all that we can do is wait and monitor the Discord username black market and hope that your username isn't taken by friends wanting to impersonate or other users.