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Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

privateinternetaccess.com

31–40 of 75 posts

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#31

The article and Namebase faq go into some details, but just so I understand, what are the practical effects of this beyond decentralization? - If I buy a TLD, will I own it in perpetuity, even after I die? - If we're encouraging people to register their own TLDs, won't we run into the same limited-name/squatter problems as normal domains? I get that names are being released at a trickle, but that seems like it would…

I have only skimmed the whitepaper, but I did not notice any mention of handling of the loss of the private key.

Sooner or later, any servers get hacked, and attackers can get the private data stored there. If this happens, is there any way to recover the TLD? Or are we going to end up with a network where many names point to ransomware pages?

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#33
post #5

Yeah, because I want to have to mine a token every time I update my DNS settings. -_- I get the "global, transparent, append only log" appeal, but for the reality of most people, I don't want to rely on a blockchain converging, or processing my update in a certain amount of time. And that doesn't even cover companies (I don't agree with this, but it is a reality), that consider DNS entries private, and don't want to…

I get the "global, transparent, append only log" appeal, but for the reality of most people, I don't want to rely on a blockchain converging, or processing my update in a certain amount of time.

From what I've heard, the "Layer 2" networks for even the most venerable of blockchains have the potential to reduce transaction times a couple of orders of magnitude.

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#34

The title is a bit misleading. This is not an alteration to the DNS system, but rather a brand new naming system.

> This is not an alteration to the DNS system, but rather a brand new naming system.

The existing TLDs will continue to be held by the existing TLD holders. So, as an example, news.ycombinator.com will still work!

This is truly a drop-in replacement of the DNS ROOT giving power back to the people.

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#35

The article and Namebase faq go into some details, but just so I understand, what are the practical effects of this beyond decentralization? - If I buy a TLD, will I own it in perpetuity, even after I die? - If we're encouraging people to register their own TLDs, won't we run into the same limited-name/squatter problems as normal domains? I get that names are being released at a trickle, but that seems like it would…

- Handshake TLDs need to be renewed every two years or the names go back up for auction. Renewals must include a recent block hash to prove that the name owner is still active and has _recently_ signed the renewal transaction. - Yes, names are rolled out over 52 weeks based on the hash of the name (modulo 52), which was designed to prevent squatting. The auction & renewals processes should help as well. - Yes, Handsh…

> Handshake TLDs need to be renewed every two years or the names go back up for auction. Renewals must include a recent block hash to prove that the name owner is still active and has _recently_ signed the renewal transaction.

Can't this just be automated?

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#37
This all looks and sounds really great but I have one big question. If this requires a proof of work chain, why not just build it on top of Bitcoin?

Then you wouldn't have to convince people to spin up a new node for a separate chain. This seems like an obvious choice to take advantage of Bitcoin's network effects and inherent chain security.

You could even lock up some bitcoin and issue bitcoin-backed Handshake tokens and continue operations as normal.

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#38
post #5

Yeah, because I want to have to mine a token every time I update my DNS settings. -_- I get the "global, transparent, append only log" appeal, but for the reality of most people, I don't want to rely on a blockchain converging, or processing my update in a certain amount of time. And that doesn't even cover companies (I don't agree with this, but it is a reality), that consider DNS entries private, and don't want to…

You don't do the mining, you pay a small fee to have others do the mining. By small I mean it costs me about $0.004 USD worth of eth to update my ENS domains.

A pretty small price to pay for the superior features.

For private info perhaps DNS will continue to work just fine for companies. Theoretically you can also host private block-chains and use that if you really wanted to.

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#39
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The DNS ROOT becomes controlled by the people instead of ICANN - it’s the end of ceased and censored domains. Additionally, HNS also fixes the problems the CA system has today. CAs can generate certificates for any domain - even if the domain owner didn’t request it. This has led to countless occurrences of abuse.

> The DNS ROOT becomes controlled by the people instead of ICANN - it’s the end of ceased and censored domains. Good luck with that. If there is no way to have a US court take ownership of a domain (or force someone to handover a bad faith registration), someone will either end up in jail for contempt, or it will just be banned. > Additionally, HNS also fixes the problems the CA system has today. CAs can generate cer…

But you first have to figure out who to put in jail for contempt and in order to ban it you'll have to take down the entire block chain.

I'm not totally sure how this one works but with ENS there are key holders that theoretically have the ability to do operations on any entry but it takes a certain number of them to all coordinate and agree.

Re: Decentralized DNS with the Handshake Naming System

#40
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The closest thing there is right now would be ENS - the E stands for Ethereum. ENS domain names can mainly be used for payment for now, so I'd be sending crypto to [domain].eth where the advantage is having a readable address instead of a random-looking string. You can also host web pages on it (which I believe is helped by their IPFS) but that has seen limited use as of yet.

I work at Namebase. Handshake is compatible with ENS actually because Handshake has reserved .eth for ENS names. Since Handshake decentralizes the top-level namespace, Handshake can serve as a gateway to other naming systems like ENS and Namecoin.

Um, please tell me more :)

It can do that or it does do that? Also, ENS doesn't typically resolve to an IP but instead a swarm hash or a block address, what would end up resolving in those cases?

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