Why should i pay for registering a domain name?

[Justin]

There are the R's. The registry, the registrar, and the registrant. The registry, such as ICANN, controls their top level domain (tld), such as .com or net. This includes the pricing, who can register it, timeframes, etc.

Then there is the registrar, such as http://webneto.com. Basically a registrar is an accredited vendor that can sell you the namesake, yourdomain.tld.

Then there is you, the registrant. You purchase a domain name from the registrar which gets it from the registry.

I mean sure, you can get to a website if it has a dedicated ip address, http://192.186.241.139 but who would actually remember that big long number to visit your website.