3 ms·

I do not think your assumption is correct here. If you and I and 1,000,000 of our friends decided to create our own root name servers and co-opt the .com domain

by evgen 8y ago

I do not think your assumption is correct here. If you and I and 1,000,000 of our friends decided to create our own root name servers and co-opt the .com domain for our own purposes then there is nothing that would/could stop us and all existing software would work as expected (modulo the fact that DNS mappings would use a different source of truth than that used by most other participants on the network.) The fact that we all tend to agree upon the same root servers means that we share the same source of truth regarding tld mappings, but there is nothing that says we all need to use these same root servers.

Jedi72 8y ago
In practice, men with big sticks dressed in blue coming and fucking up your day prevents this.
- bpicolo 8y ago
  It's essentially just building an intranet. That's not illegal
paulddraper 8y ago
The same goes for inventing your own paper currency, no?
- evgen 8y ago
  Close. There is nothing illegal (in the US) about creating your own currency as long as it is convertible to USD. With domain names there is no such requirement to interoperate with the existing root nameservers and ICAAN tlds. In your private .com there is no requirement that the facebook.com A record map to facebook IP addresses so you could collectively decide to map it to 127.0.0.1 and no one could do anything to stop you.
  - CryptoPunk 8y ago
    That's like saying anyone could open their own Facebook, and therefore Facebook is not centralized. The DNS is centralized, even if domain names are used in conjunction with decentralized protocols like TCP/IP, and even if anyone is free to create their own instance of a DNS. The only sense in which it's decentralized is in relation to the legal right to operate one. It is a free market institution, instead of government-instituted monopoly.
- duchenne 8y ago
  Except that even if you use your own paper currency, you have to pay taxes in your country's oficial currency. Taxes are usually a significant amount of every transaction. So, the new system will very quickly bleed out. Because of that and other reasons, it is in practice impossible to make your own paper currency.

by evgen 8y ago

Jedi72 8y ago

In practice, men with big sticks dressed in blue coming and fucking up your day prevents this.

bpicolo 8y ago
It's essentially just building an intranet. That's not illegal

paulddraper 8y ago

The same goes for inventing your own paper currency, no?

evgen 8y ago
Close. There is nothing illegal (in the US) about creating your own currency as long as it is convertible to USD. With domain names there is no such requirement to interoperate with the existing root nameservers and ICAAN tlds. In your private .com there is no requirement that the facebook.com A record map to facebook IP addresses so you could collectively decide to map it to 127.0.0.1 and no one could do anything to stop you.
- CryptoPunk 8y ago
  That's like saying anyone could open their own Facebook, and therefore Facebook is not centralized. The DNS is centralized, even if domain names are used in conjunction with decentralized protocols like TCP/IP, and even if anyone is free to create their own instance of a DNS. The only sense in which it's decentralized is in relation to the legal right to operate one. It is a free market institution, instead of government-instituted monopoly.
duchenne 8y ago
Except that even if you use your own paper currency, you have to pay taxes in your country's oficial currency. Taxes are usually a significant amount of every transaction. So, the new system will very quickly bleed out. Because of that and other reasons, it is in practice impossible to make your own paper currency.