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Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

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Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#21

Post by SideshowBobb »

gomox wrote: post #6

I have been looking at *coins for a while and the implications of the blockchain-based concensus system are interesting. The system really maps the real world onto computers very well, in that it reduces what used to be technical issues to "political" issues. These systems work on concensus, and as such, require a significant amount of interested parties to work in the expected way. They are very much subject to netw…

I've always felt that increasing the number of use-cases for Bitcoin would be the key to establishing Bitcoin's intrinsic value. When everyday people think to themselves, "I need Bitcoin to do X", and X is something real like signing into a Web service, then people will finally understand the need for Bitcoin.

Building on top of Bitcoin is the easiest and simplest way of accomplishing this, because otherwise every new app has to build and maintain its own blockchain in a low level language like C++. In which case, core Bitcoin development gets increasingly fragmented and everyone and their mother has an altcoin that then needs to be marketed on its own right to miners and to the public.

While it's true that the Bitcoin blockchain would grow in size if more apps built on top of it, the Bitcoin blockchain will grow in size regardless of what anyone thinks or does. It's already 15GB, which is a far bigger burden on consumers than what they're used to.

There's always a huge backlash amongst Bitcoin developers whenever someone tries building anything on top of Bitcoin. Timestamping or notarization? You'll get yelled at for the mere suggestion of including this "trash" in the blockchain. Very, very unfortunate IMO and a huge mistake by the Bitcoin development community.

I honestly think it's because they'd rather stick their head in the sand about the blockchain. The fact that the Bitcoin blockchain is growing faster and faster disturbs them because it means not everyone can run a full node on their Macbook. I don't think it's any reason for concern.

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#24

Post by quasque »

I expect it will obsolete ICANN as effectively as AlterNIC, New.net, OpenNIC, etc.

The technical fact that it is blockchain-based really doesn't make much difference as it's incredibly unlikely to be adopted worldwide, due to the network effect of the already-established domain name system.

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#25

Post by VikingCoder »

rakoo wrote: post #17
ericmsimons wrote: post #2

How long does it take to resolve a namecoin key=>value pair? Considering the variable speed in these sorts of decentralized networks, is there a noticeable lag when you initially request a .bit website?

All the blockchain is local. The time taken to resolve a key->value pair is the time your software takes to decode information from your disk; it's nothing compared to DNS. Change propagation, on the other hand, is as long as blocks can travel from peer to peer.

Hmm - if your ISP has a good DNS, and has a cache hit on your DNS request, versus if you have to seek your HD, the DNS might be much, much faster.

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/interactive_laten...

Round trip in same datacenter: 500,00ns.

Disk seek: 4,000,000ns.

You have to lean on the numbers pretty hard to make the DNS faster, but it's possible it could be faster than your local disk.

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#26

Post by al2o3cr »

VikingCoder wrote: post #25
rakoo wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All the blockchain is local. The time taken to resolve a key->value pair is the time your software takes to decode information from your disk; it's nothing compared to DNS. Change propagation, on the other hand, is as long as blocks can travel from peer to peer.

Hmm - if your ISP has a good DNS, and has a cache hit on your DNS request, versus if you have to seek your HD, the DNS might be much, much faster. http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/research/interactive_laten... Round trip in same datacenter: 500,00ns. Disk seek: 4,000,000ns. You have to lean on the numbers pretty hard to make the DNS faster, but it's possible it could be faster than your local disk.

Pretty sure the intersection of the set of people who worry about DNS performance and the set of people who are still running servers exclusively off spinning rust is nigh-vanishing...

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#27

Post by wmf »

gomox wrote: post #19
elidourado wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the major Bitcoin mining pools also mine Namecoin. The current Namecoin hashrate is around 60% of the Bitcoin hashrate. http://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/hashrate-btc-nmc.html

Well, that's a lot! I didn't expect it to be significant compared to the bitcoin pool. Do you know how that came to be? i.e how did they convince everyone to start mining namecoin? Or was it just good timing WRT bitcoin?

Merged mining has good incentives since it basically gives free money; for the same work of mining Bitcoin you can mine Bitcoin and Namecoin simultaneously.

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#28

Post by elidourado »

gomox wrote: post #19
elidourado wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the major Bitcoin mining pools also mine Namecoin. The current Namecoin hashrate is around 60% of the Bitcoin hashrate. http://bitinfocharts.com/comparison/hashrate-btc-nmc.html

Well, that's a lot! I didn't expect it to be significant compared to the bitcoin pool. Do you know how that came to be? i.e how did they convince everyone to start mining namecoin? Or was it just good timing WRT bitcoin?

I'm not too sure. A lot of people in the cryptocurrency community are saying that something like Namecoin is going to be the second major blockchain-based technology after payments, so maybe it just got the right kind of press at the right time, as you say.

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#29

Post by elidourado »

Article author here. Just wanted to add that if any of you work for companies that send engineers to the IETF, there is an Internet-Draft RFC that would normalize the use of several P2P pseudo-TLDs such as .gnu, .zkey, .onion, .exit, .i2p, and yes, .bit, which is what Namecoin is squatting on. Would be great to see everybody supporting it.

http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-grothoff-iesg-special-use-p...

Re: Can Namecoin obsolete ICANN (and more)?

#30

Post by elidourado »

mrfusion wrote: post #23

Has anyone created an easy to use name coin registration system so non-technical people can register names? It seems like that would be a good opportunity?

There is https://dotbit.me/ , but who knows how reputable that site is? Just as Bitcoin needed something like Coinbase, the Namecoin ecosystem needs a web wallet with reputable backing.
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