Decentralized DNS
Goals
- Allow decentralized functioning
- Prevent control by government
- Avoid cost of domain ownership
- Use existed technology if possible
DNS parts
- Maintaining global unique names (registration, holding, release)
- Name to IP address translation
- Identification of owner
Possible solutions
Alternative roots
Web of Trust (WoT)
Crypto-currency based
Notable example is Namecoin which is based on Bitcoin.
Pros
- It can guarantee uniqueness of names
- Network can operate autonomously with manual policy
- It is independent to a government policy
Cons
- Squatters can occupy general important names
- Network protocol is complicated and relies on cryptographic keys which can be broken on overpowered in future
- Domain name registration and renewal need to be paid
- Block chain size is ever growing with keeping old also false records.
- Network is vulnerable by 51% attack
- If private key and domain names are stolen then they can't be retrieved back without negotiation with thief.
- If private key is lost then domain will expire and can be registered by other entity.
Additional root namespace
To allow to have multiple root domains, new root namespace identifier have to be introduced to URL format.