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Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

namecoin.bitcoin-contact.org

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Re: Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

#3

Post by chalst »

This text uses language I've seen a lot in discussion around Bitcoin:

>It allows you to ... be the only person to be able to modify it (no possible external control)

Using the cryptographic algorithms believed to be the best does not make bad things impossible, for three reasons:

1. Encryption is rarely the weakest point in security. How do the authors of Namecoin know that I won't manage my keys incompetently if I use their software?

2. We don't know what unknown flaws there are in our most trusted algorithms. The worst flaws in RSA were discovered a long time after the algorithm were made public; perhaps we will find worse flaws in AES quite soon.

3. Moore's law tells us that keys have a lifetime. The Bitcoin reaction to this and other protocol problems involves something based on network majority consent. This does not sound safe to me.

I know that anyone who uses such language as "no possible external control" is either ignorant or careless. Even careless bothers me.

Re: Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

#6

Post by thwarted »

X-Istence wrote: post #4

So does this mean that to keep a domain I have to keep running the namecoin service thereby using up CPU time that could be better spent serving requests from users?

You could outsource that just like you can currently outsource DNS.

Re: Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

#7

Post by Groxx »

X-Istence wrote: post #4

So does this mean that to keep a domain I have to keep running the namecoin service thereby using up CPU time that could be better spent serving requests from users?

Not really. It's bitcoin-like, so "the network" of miners would collaboratively re-enforce your control of your domains. You'd only need to use up CPU (/GPU) time to create new name coins for free - you could also purchase them from people who had mined them previously, and hadn't used them.

Re: Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

#9

Post by polarized »

X-Istence wrote: post #4

So does this mean that to keep a domain I have to keep running the namecoin service thereby using up CPU time that could be better spent serving requests from users?

Running the service does not use very much CPU time. Mining is separate, and you don't even need to do that just to keep the domain up.

Re: Namecoin: distributed domain registration system based on Bitcoin

#10

Post by polarized »

rfugger wrote: post #2

Brilliant. This is an equally useful application of the block chain concept as the Bitcoin currency, and should be much less controversial.

Maybe but things like domain squatting and the inability to shut down domains pointing to illegal or controversial sites is likely to be quite controversial.
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