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Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

opennamesystem.org

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Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#21

Post by itistoday2 »

jude- wrote: post #20
ryan-c wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneName and OpenNameSystem appear to be trying to avoid any association with Namecoin despite the fact that they use it. Both projects have no mention of Namecoin (they just say "blockchain") on their websites and a lot of the documentation isn't very clear on this. What gives?

I think the reason they don't say Namecoin explicitly is because at the end of the day, it doesn't particularly matter which *coin's blockchain gets used. At this point in the course of distributed system design, a "blockchain" can be thought of as a building-block for a system, and the matter of which particular blockchain gets used is an implementation detail.

> it doesn't particularly matter which 'coin's blockchain gets used.

Well, except that it does, because depending on the blockchain used, you are dealing with different consensus protocols, and most importantly, different people. Namecoin is a worthy project, has been doing its noble thing for quite some time, and deserves at least a mention if this project is going to be working off of the sweat its core devs have put into it (and continue to do so).

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#22

Post by eric_bullington »

harveygold wrote: post #15
eric_bullington wrote: post #12

This is a pretty direct challenge to keybase.io. I really, really like the keybase implementation, but the one thing I wished for keybase was that it was decentralized. This has that. However, in terms of the implementation itself, they still have a way to go before they match keybase.

> However, in terms of the implementation itself, they still have a way to go before they match keybase. Care to explain how? They're the team behind onename.io and clearly seem to have just as strong an implementation.

I totally agree that onename.io has done a good job integrating that site with Namecoin. However, with this new project ONS, I don't yet see a way to certify all the social identities that Keybase supports, not to mention the attractive user interface and convenient command line client of Keybase.

That said, it's a new project. I'm not saying onename.io won't accomplish this (I hope they do!). I'm just saying they have a lot to do to match what Keybase has.

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#23

Post by eric_bullington »

ryan-c wrote: post #17
eric_bullington wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first uses of blockchain technology for a non-financial application was an alternative domain name registration system called Namecoin, started back in 2010 and still active. Granted, that was an alternative domain name system, not an ICANN extension like this one. And it used a separate blockchain and coin (Namecoin), not the Bitcoin blockchain, which may be what you were referring to. Nonetheless, I feel…

This thing runs on Namecoin, though that is buried in the documentation.

Ah, you're right. I thought they had moved to the Bitcoin blockchain. But that's a whole can of worms, so it's probably best they stay on Namecoin.

Bar the big incident last year (which it did recover from), Namecoin has been pretty stable.

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#25

Post by eric_bullington »

jude- wrote: post #20
ryan-c wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneName and OpenNameSystem appear to be trying to avoid any association with Namecoin despite the fact that they use it. Both projects have no mention of Namecoin (they just say "blockchain") on their websites and a lot of the documentation isn't very clear on this. What gives?

I think the reason they don't say Namecoin explicitly is because at the end of the day, it doesn't particularly matter which *coin's blockchain gets used. At this point in the course of distributed system design, a "blockchain" can be thought of as a building-block for a system, and the matter of which particular blockchain gets used is an implementation detail.

>I think the reason they don't say Namecoin explicitly is because at the end of the day, it doesn't particularly matter which *coin's blockchain gets used.

I disagree. It matters a lot how much hashpower a given Blockchain has, else it can be easily destroyed (through forking) and/or interfered with (50% attacks). So Bitcoin has by far the most secure blockchain.

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#27

Post by itistoday2 »

andrewstuart2 wrote: post #24

In addition to creating a website for this, you really should submit it to the IETF as an RFC. Get more engineers looking at it and improving it. If it ends up getting enough backing, we might even have a new standard.

There are specifications that I'm sure will be submitted to IETF as RFCs (when they're ready). You can seem them on Namecoin's wiki (scroll to the bottom):

https://wiki.namecoin.info/index.php?title=Welcome

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#28

Post by napoleond »

ryan-c wrote: post #18
itistoday2 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Namecoin has been used for this purpose since 2011. It already has specifications for DNS and identities (and these have been iterated on for years now): https://wiki.namecoin.info/index.php?title=Domain_Name_Speci... https://wiki.namecoin.info/index.php?title=Identity As well as others (like hashes for software). Even OneName.io's u/ namespace is listed here: https://wiki.namecoin.info/index.php?title=OneName There…

OneName and OpenNameSystem appear to be trying to avoid any association with Namecoin despite the fact that they use it. Both projects have no mention of Namecoin (they just say "blockchain") on their websites and a lot of the documentation isn't very clear on this. What gives?

Are we looking at the same website, or have they changed it since you made your comment? "ONS currently uses namecoin as a key-value store but the system is blockchain-agnostic" is on the first screen after the fold for me.

Re: Open Name System: Extending DNS with the Blockchain

#30

Post by ryan-c »

napoleond wrote: post #28
ryan-c wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OneName and OpenNameSystem appear to be trying to avoid any association with Namecoin despite the fact that they use it. Both projects have no mention of Namecoin (they just say "blockchain") on their websites and a lot of the documentation isn't very clear on this. What gives?

Are we looking at the same website, or have they changed it since you made your comment? "ONS currently uses namecoin as a key-value store but the system is blockchain-agnostic" is on the first screen after the fold for me.

I'm 99% sure that wasn't there when I made that comment - I had done ^F namecoin to check.
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