Domain names unlock new potential on blockchain

[Acorn Newsbot]

The best ideas emerge from a desire to make things easier. A powerful example of this is the Domain Name System (DNS), which emerged from a need for accessibility across the internet. By creating memorable names for IP addresses and a system that connected the two, the internet became accessible to all, allowing the benefits to be enjoyed by everyone with connectivity.

But that was over 30 years ago now. Despite the recent addition of new gTLDs to the domain name space, very little has changed in how domain names are used in three decades. For all of those of us operating in this industry, we must keep challenging ourselves to consider how the expertise we have acquired can be applied to improve the use and accessibility of new digital technologies.

Registry Minds+Machines (MMX), for whom Nominet provides the back end registry services, is fast proving itself as a leader in this space with a new and exciting re-positioning of .luxe as a means to ‘Let U eXchange Easily’ online. The top-level domain (TLD), which MMX operates, has now become the first open TLD that integrates with the Ethereum Name Service (ENS), enabling a .luxe domain name to be associated with an asset on the Ethereum blockchain and accessible across the internet.



Blockchain is one new technology that is rapidly demanding attention. This open, distributed digital ledger technology is making waves across the world as a new and hierarchy-free means of conducting transactions in the online space. Ethereum, the fastest growing blockchain, has 43 million assets, all of which are identified by 40-character alphanumerical string (or hash).

These strings are randomly-created and entirely unmemorable. While the ENS allows users to register .eth domain names for their assets, these are limited for use within the Ethereum platform and services. MMX is now offering .luxe for use across the ENS and as a means of integrating with the world wide web, applying one of the benefits of DNS to the blockchain space.

This is a significant first step in the innovation around domain name application, and we applaud MMX for applying DNS-thinking more widely than it is currently used. This new application of a TLD unlocks greater potential for blockchain and improves transparency and trust at a time when the technology is beginning to grow in its use across a range of industries.

We’re proud to play a part in supporting MMX’s work. This significant step serves as a reminder to us all that we must keep innovating, using the expertise we have available, to ensure accessibility remains at the centre of our digital future.

The post Domain names unlock new potential on blockchain appeared first on Nominet.

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[boxfish]

"with a new and exciting re-positioning of .luxe as a means to ‘Let U eXchange Easily’ online."

ffs, I'd love to see the suggestions that didn't get used

 

[martin-s]

I can see that crypto addresses could use a more human readable alternative, but this is a pretty poor attempt. Nominet being a mouthpiece for this BS blockchain effort bothers me a bit.

 

[BG]

Another interesting read guys >

Is BNS (Blockchain Name Service) necessary
What are DNS and BNS
The announcement of MMX’s partnership with Ethereum prompted a sensation in early August, and the recent announcement of supporting the .xyz domain on the ENS (Ethereum Name Service) caused the public’s attention to be casted onto the domain names once again. ENS lead developer, Nick Johnson, mentioned in his statement expressively:

“We’re very excited to be helping the advance in integration between existing DNS-based name services and the Ethereum Name Service, improving usability for blockchain applications and users.”
It reads blockchain domain names are enabling users to easily remember the identifiers associated with their assets, wallets, and services, in a hope to reach mass adoption for blockchain services.

So what are DNS and BNS
Let’s talk about DNS first. Domain Name System (DNS) is one of the foundations of the internet. It maps human readable texts (domain) to numbers (IP address) that computers use to communicate with each other. So when we are visiting a website in a browser, the computer actually will use the DNS we typed in, such as “facebook.com”, to retrieve a long string of numbers that are known as IP address. Without DNS, people will be visiting websites by typing complicated and meaningless IP addresses.

But most people probably don’t even realize they are using DNS on a daily basis to do their jobs, check their emails or simply browsing the internet. This is simply because names mean more than numbers, and it allows a mass user adoption within a short period, shaping the internet we are using today without people’s awareness.

How DNS works
DNS has been working for years and the mechanism behind includes several processes. The initial request for the IP address is made to a recursive resolver that is usually operated by an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or other third-party providers. It will provide proper information back if it has the IP address in its cache. If not, this search query the root name servers (ICANN), which knows all the information about top-level domains, such as “.com”, “.org”, “.io”. Once it finished looking at the first part of the request, it goes to a top-level domain server (TLD) for the second-level domain information, which are the names that come before the TLD, such as “google”, “facebook”, “youtube”. The request then moves on to the Domain Name Server that can analyze an incoming DNS query and return a response of the site and its IP address. This whole process takes only milliseconds to complete.

Due to the convenience DNS brings, people started to participate and made Web 2.0 into an interactive and global sharing period. However, security wasn’t the biggest concern when building this name system, opening up a huge room for authorities and hackers to take full control of our internet. For instance, governments like China has been macro-controlling their network by blocking specific IPs while Turkey’s government has banned Twitter completely. These situations illustrate that we are depending heavily on a centralized services.

On the other hand, BNS (Blockchain Name Service) functions similarly to DNS, but on a decentralized network known as blockchain.

What is BNS (Blockchain Name Service)
DNS and BNS work in a similar way. The former allows people to connect any website with a comprehensible text address, while the latter replaces the default complicated hash used in blockchain into human readable names to interact with the decentralized network. However, due to the architectural difference behind the centralized and decentralized network, BNS does have some other functions that distinct itself from DNS, including enabling users to send cryptocurrencies, interact with smart contacts, and visit dApps.

What happens in the decentralized network like blockchain is that it uses a lot of unreadable “hash” to store its contents and resources. Take crypto wallet as an example, we will see that its public key (wallet address) and its private key (password) are a long combination of random numbers and alphabet, something like “0xA5e1DA5eE7E…”. As a result, cryptocurrency users often are prone to make mistake when transferring these digital assets.

Another scenario we could look into is the decentralized file storage, where users can store various contents and host their DWebs (decentralized websites). IPFS, also known as InterPlanetary File Storage, is a protocol and network designed to create content-addressable, peer to peer method of storing and sharing hypermedia in a distributed file system. Similar to how cryptocurrency wallet works, it uses a blockchain based hash table to store files in a decentralized network, by taking the core of BitTorrent and forming a merkle directed acyclic graph (DAG). So in order to access any decentralized content hosted on IPFS, users are required to remember the hash (comes after the TLD) in order to retrieve its interrelated contents, something like “https://ipfs.infura.io/ipfs/QmV1dgc34EUC3cmx…”, which is merely impossible.

As mentioned briefly above, BNS provides a viable solution for this kind of complexity and frustration that users encounter when using the decentralized solution. With BNS, users can transfer digital assets at human readable text address at “mywallet.eth” instead of the default address. Same could be applied in accessing DWebs with simple names like “mydwebs.eth” instead of the ipfs hash.

How BNS works
BNS could be designed in several ways, but the core principle behind are composed with three unique smart contracts: registry, registrar, and resolver. “Registry” is an uncompounded contract mapping registered names to owners and resolvers. “Registrar” owns domains in the registry and allocates subdomains. “Resolver” maps a name to the corresponding resource such as multi-hash, wallet address, and so on.

Continue reading the full article here > https://medium.com/portalnetworkofficial/is-bns-blockchain-name-service-necessary-f3484564142

Best, BG

 

[RobM]

Surely there would be speed issues and also propagation issues? The whole point of having centralized information is for speed of retrieval and, when you make changes, only those records have to update and you are then dependent on providers caches. If *everyone* can store the info temporarily there are surely a lot more areas to update? Maybe I'm missing the point. Anyway with nominet involved I'm sure it'll all run efficiently and be state-of-the-art... now if only they could have customer support at weekends.

 

[martin-s]

IF this is going to happen, surely it'll be using .pay ?