Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’ • Hacker News Board

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#51

Post by angio » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:12 PM UTC

emacdona wrote: post #31

emacdona wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Followed by this: 'Handshake is “is effectively a decentralized domain name server,” Roquerre said.' -- thus implying that DNS is NOT decentralized? The article is pretty bad. For his sake, I hope they are taking his quotes out of context. Because I had a quick look at https://www.namebase.io/ -- and it does look interesting. It appears that they have decentralized the REGISTRY by putting it on the "Handshake" blockc…

But now that I think about it, the registry IS already decentralized. IE: .com is managed by an organization separate from .org. And the whole reason for "renting" from .com is because .com owns the space. If you "buy" a TLD on the Handshake blockchain, do you lose the ability to rescind delegations under that TLD once people have "bought" them?

The creation of new root TLD is decentralized, you can request a new one and then a bidding process for it starts where everyone can bid for it.

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#52

Post by conradev » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:13 PM UTC

emacdona wrote: post #22

oefrha wrote: post #5

> “The DNS is like a phonebook for the internet. The addresses in the phonebook are the server IP addresses. DNS was created to give IP addresses human-readable names so with our platform, you’re finding the IP address through Handshake, not through a certificate authority ,” Namebase CEO Tieshun Roquerre told CoinDesk. (Emphasis mine.) Did this Namebase CEO just state on record that he doesn’t know how DNS works?

Followed by this: 'Handshake is “is effectively a decentralized domain name server,” Roquerre said.' -- thus implying that DNS is NOT decentralized? The article is pretty bad. For his sake, I hope they are taking his quotes out of context. Because I had a quick look at https://www.namebase.io/ -- and it does look interesting. It appears that they have decentralized the REGISTRY by putting it on the "Handshake" blockc…

Yes! There are DNS bridges that read from Handshake’s registry that you can use, like NextDNS:

https://www.namebase.io/blog/how-to-access-handshake-domains...

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#53

Post by zoobab » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:14 PM UTC

rasengan wrote: post #33

pluc wrote: post #25

> sci-hub.hns/ could not be resolved by HNS.to. Please try another Handshake resolver.. Can't censor what you can't reach, checkmate.

Resolves for me: $ host sci-hub.hns sci-hub.hns has address 186.2.163.57

Next step is to censor the IP address.

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#54

Post by rasengan » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC

obblekk wrote: post #38

I’m supportive of free distribution of scientific knowledge, BUT HN has a significant bias against believing in the power of legal systems. No matter how good the technology, it can eventually be censored if the law is strong enough. In the past, it was hard to separate “useful” internet activity from “illegitimate” because things were changing quickly. Today, a government might say its simply illegal to use end to e…

I do understand your point, but it’s hard to win the hearts and minds of anyone if you’re censored and cannot be heard.

Secondly, this is hacker news. Our culture is to route around these kinds of things. ;)

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#55

Post by d33lio » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC

obblekk wrote: post #38

I’m supportive of free distribution of scientific knowledge, BUT HN has a significant bias against believing in the power of legal systems. No matter how good the technology, it can eventually be censored if the law is strong enough. In the past, it was hard to separate “useful” internet activity from “illegitimate” because things were changing quickly. Today, a government might say its simply illegal to use end to e…

I think it's fair to say that there's an equal belief implicitly in the power of legal systems - but only when it's convenient for a point OP is making.

Thinking how a quick decision now will possibly turn in ten years down the road is how we can retain our rights but still move our democracy forward. A perfect example is championing the destruction and banning of all right leaning social media / twitter users... but when SciHub gets banned all the sudden its a travesty of free expression. Unfortunately, this line of reasoning is not a two way street. Even as a staunch liberal try my best to not let my anger at the other side get the best of me and play into the hands of the corporatists and statist who actually want to recreate what many refer to as fascism (melding of the state and corporate powers).

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#56

Post by zerkten » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC

BrawnLongHaul wrote: post #7

dmingod666 wrote: post #3

Beyond those institutions that have a financial interest in this. What would be the motivation for someone like twitter to ban scihub?

We can only guess their motivations and who pulls their (Twitter's) strings behind the scenes. I am not sure that most of us here will ever find out.

> We can only guess their motivations

I don't understand this perspective, but I guess my own is built from experience. We can never know exactly what Twitter discussed internally before taking this action, but there is lots of external evidence and signals as to what happened. It's unlikely to be different from the action taken by most other corporations with legal teams.

Small organizations with outside counsel can surprise us with their decisions since there are more concentrated opinions and higher risk taking. Perhaps GitHub and youtube-dl is the only outcome that has surprised me recently.

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#57

Post by wolco5 » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

obblekk wrote: post #38

I’m supportive of free distribution of scientific knowledge, BUT HN has a significant bias against believing in the power of legal systems. No matter how good the technology, it can eventually be censored if the law is strong enough. In the past, it was hard to separate “useful” internet activity from “illegitimate” because things were changing quickly. Today, a government might say its simply illegal to use end to e…

Encription was banned in the US but it didn't work out so well.

Parler build itself on Amazon which was the big mistake the next company won't follow.

It's a wakeup call to anyone using the cloud that one day it might decide you are not welcome.

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#58

Post by sudobash1 » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC

oefrha wrote: post #5

> “The DNS is like a phonebook for the internet. The addresses in the phonebook are the server IP addresses. DNS was created to give IP addresses human-readable names so with our platform, you’re finding the IP address through Handshake, not through a certificate authority ,” Namebase CEO Tieshun Roquerre told CoinDesk. (Emphasis mine.) Did this Namebase CEO just state on record that he doesn’t know how DNS works?

> The DNS is like a phonebook for the internet

We are going to have to come up with a new metaphor soon. I haven't seen a phonebook in ages. Honestly I would be more likely to tell my kid "Phonebooks were like DNS for telephone numbers."

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#59

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

pluc wrote: post #43

rasengan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resolves for me: $ host sci-hub.hns sci-hub.hns has address 186.2.163.57

Doesn't resolve for me on Cloudflare DNS: $ host sci-hub.hns Host sci-hub.hns not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) And the web frontend is unable to render anything, echoing that message I quoted above.

[deleted]

Re: Sci-Hub Is Now on the ‘Uncensorable Web’

#60

Post by rasengan » Tue, Jan 12, 2021, 3:19 PM UTC

pluc wrote: post #43

rasengan wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Resolves for me: $ host sci-hub.hns sci-hub.hns has address 186.2.163.57

Doesn't resolve for me on Cloudflare DNS: $ host sci-hub.hns Host sci-hub.hns not found: 3(NXDOMAIN) And the web frontend is unable to render anything, echoing that message I quoted above.

Cloudflare doesn’t yet resolve handshake names, but hopefully this changes soon.

Paging @jgc !