9 ms·

Opera to support sites using the .crypto top-level domain

103 points by rguiscard 7y ago

PaulHoule 7y ago
How about ".scam"?
- Y_Y 7y ago
  You should be assigned one of these by default if you want a .crypto, and only migrated once you have positive proof you aren't a scam (if such a thing were possible).
dwnvoted2hell 7y ago
If Opera wasn't owned by some shady Chinese company, this might matter.
k__ 7y ago
Is it possible to add IPFS via extensions to Chrome and Firefox?
- diggan 7y ago
  Not only possible but already done! - https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-companion https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-companion - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs-companion/nibjojkomfdiaoajekhjakgkdhaomnch https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs-companion/nib... - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs-companion/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs-companio... And I think Brave already ships with IPFS-Companion installed.
  - techntoke 7y ago
    IPNS is so slow though, that publishing with IPFS is a whole different story.
    - k__ 7y ago
      Would you mind to elaborate for someone who knows next to nothing about IPFS/IPNS?
      - AgentME 7y ago
        Plain IPFS (without the IPNS part) lets you create links to files (or directories) where the link is based on the hash of the files, and when someone visits the link, their IPFS node will automatically look through the peer-to-peer IPFS swarm to find any nodes hosting the files. Anyone that wants to help host the files can pin the files in their node, and then their node will mirror the files and help serve them to others. It's basically Torrent magnet links rebuilt to be usable for web browsing. But one important detail about content-addressable storage systems like IPFS (and torrents) is that the linked content can never change. The link ipfs://QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Aardvark.html is immutable and will only ever resolve to that specific version of the page. That's fine if you're just sharing a specific version of a document, but it means that this system alone isn't enough if you want to host a site that you update. In order to solve that use-case, you need some mutable link to be involved, like what DNS provides. If you have a standard domain name, you can add a _dnslink TXT record to your domain that contains an IPFS link, and then when someone visits the domain, IPFS-compatible browsers will see the _dnslink TXT record, get the IPFS link from it, and follow that to get the content from the IPFS swarm (which includes anyone that's helping re-host the content) instead of asking some HTTP server for it. When you update your site, you can update the _dnslink TXT record, and browsers will be able to find the new content when someone visits the site. IPNS is an optional part of IPFS that allows you to make mutable IPNS links that may be updated. This is an attempt to make using an external system like DNS unnecessary to use for making updatable content. It lets you make IPNS links that instead of being based on the hash of the content, are based on a public key that's paired with a private key that you control. The owner of the private key is allowed to broadcast a signed message containing the immutable IPFS link that the mutable IPNS link should resolve to. Sounds great on paper, but it works really slowly for a number of reasons that might be fundamental to how it works. I'm not sure anyone really makes use of it in production. However, a lot of discussions/tutorials about IPFS present IPNS in a way that makes it seem like the standard way to use IPFS, and I think a lot of people get turned off when they see how slow it is and think it's unavoidable or that IPFS is like that in general. The wording of the previous post makes me a little worried the poster believes that too. I wish documentation around IPFS would stop emphasizing IPNS and instead emphasize the DNS integration. You can use DNS+IPFS instead of IPNS+IPFS and it works well; I assume more people use DNS+IPFS than IPNS+IPFS. And eventually we could use decentralized systems like Ethereum Name Service or ZNS instead of DNS once those systems are more popular.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
swiley 7y ago
The article doesn’t mention how the .crypto namespace is managed. That’s probably going to make or break this idea.
- jungong 7y ago
  Opera works with Unstoppable Domains for the .crypto domains. Maybe you can look it up at UD's website https://community.unstoppabledomains.com/t/unstoppable-x-opera-guide/589 https://community.unstoppabledomains.com/t/unstoppable-x-ope... to see how to manage the .crypto?
  - ryebit 7y ago
    Not OP, but nothing on there seems to explain whether UD is just running a database-backed DNS server which they could change at their whim / govt order, or whether ownership and DNS records are actually stored on-chain ala Ethereum's ENS, or NameCoin.
    - icebraining 7y ago
      Reading the website/github, the domains are stored on-chain, but UD provides an HTTP API (essentially a DNS-over-HTTPS resolver), and that could obviously be censored. It's not clear to me if Opera is reading directly from the chain or using UD's API, but I suspect the latter.
      - ryebit 7y ago
        If that's the case, then I think that qualifies as reasonably decentralized, at least for me. Theoretically, anyone could make a work-alike resolver service that used their own Ethereum node to query for results; in which case any attempts to censor UD could be routed around by pointing opera to a different dns-over-http server (assuming that is configurable, which is really up to opera, not the protocol). I do like that idea actually -- if I published a self-signed SSL cert for my domain on the Ethereum blockchain, that could be returned and used to validate my domain, without any sort of CA having to be involved. The only trust needed would be that the HTTP-DNS-Ethererum server itself wasn't lying about which public key owned the on-chain domain record.
lildata 7y ago
I'm glad, Opera is offering native support for Wallets, ENS & IPFS. It is a proof that they can still lead the way. There is also some progress made by Brave what will really help in term of market share. Unfortunately native support on Firefox is not there yet... https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807
uasm 7y ago
Broader question - is there some-kind of support planned for a DNS-like MX address mechanism, for receiving emails via the .crypto domain?
CydeWeys 7y ago
This is going to turn out to have been a huge mistake once the actual .crypto is added as a real TLD to root DNS come ICANN's round 2 expansion of new gTLDs.
- Wilya 7y ago
  Yeah. After the .dev disaster, you'd think people would have learned their lesson...
  - mercer 7y ago
    I have a .dev domain and completely missed this. What happened?
    - efdee 7y ago
      Many people were using the .dev tld as some sort of local tld.
      - beefhash 7y ago
        And I guess it was probably cheaper for Google to just buy the TLD and not fix their internal processes?
        untog 7y ago
        Well I think buying it was also to the benefit of everyone else using .dev locally. But oh well.
        efdee 7y ago
        Not really. Suddenly, .dev is a real TLD instead of a fictional one we use for local hostnames.
    - OskarS 7y ago
      Google owns the .dev TLD, and they bought it for entirely internal use. People got upset about this (any company owning a TLD for internal use only is pretty weird, and especially one as generic as ".dev") so they started to offer it to the public. The bigger issue is that a lot of people use .dev for internal/development uses, and it should therefore never been made into a "real" TLD in the first place. It's like deciding to sell "example.com" to someone.
actionowl 7y ago
Something crazy is going on inside Opera. My opera extension has been pending review since January 12th, Firefox, Chrome, and Edge have all accepted it.
- bdcravens 7y ago
  They're the smallest, so I suspect they have limited resources for projects/departments they can't profit from.
- rasz 7y ago
  There is no Opera anymore, just some Chinese scam vehicle https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loans/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loa...
Yizahi 7y ago
I tried to understand what IPFS is - it looks like that distributed file storage project from pre-bitcoin era but with added blockchain on top. So my question is - can you delete a file from this system?
- aarroyoc 7y ago
  IPFS doesn't have a blockchain, it's more like BitTorrent. Can you delete a file? Well, by definition all files in the universe are already defined there, as IPFS is content-addresable (the file hash is used as URL), This means that you can actually delete the file from your local IPFS client, but if someone manages to create the exact same file and put it on the network, people will access to the file using the same link.
- diggan 7y ago
  Someone else already explained what IPFS is. So let me offer a different way of seeing the whole "can you delete a file from this system?" thing. IPFS is a protocol, just like HTTP. So the question could be rephrased as "How do you delete a file from HTTP?" The answer is: you don't. Just as on the web and on the internet, you can link files from your machines. If someone downloads it, they can share it with others. If no one downloads it, and you stop sharing it, it's effectively deleted. Same goes for IPFS.
Proven 7y ago
If you care about privacy and security and use Opera, I don't think this will help improve it...

103 points by rguiscard 7y ago

PaulHoule 7y ago

How about ".scam"?

Y_Y 7y ago
You should be assigned one of these by default if you want a .crypto, and only migrated once you have positive proof you aren't a scam (if such a thing were possible).

dwnvoted2hell 7y ago

If Opera wasn't owned by some shady Chinese company, this might matter.

k__ 7y ago

Is it possible to add IPFS via extensions to Chrome and Firefox?

diggan 7y ago
Not only possible but already done! - https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-companion https://github.com/ipfs-shipyard/ipfs-companion - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs-companion/nibjojkomfdiaoajekhjakgkdhaomnch https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ipfs-companion/nib... - https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs-companion/ https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ipfs-companio... And I think Brave already ships with IPFS-Companion installed.
- techntoke 7y ago
  IPNS is so slow though, that publishing with IPFS is a whole different story.
  - k__ 7y ago
    Would you mind to elaborate for someone who knows next to nothing about IPFS/IPNS?
    - AgentME 7y ago
      Plain IPFS (without the IPNS part) lets you create links to files (or directories) where the link is based on the hash of the files, and when someone visits the link, their IPFS node will automatically look through the peer-to-peer IPFS swarm to find any nodes hosting the files. Anyone that wants to help host the files can pin the files in their node, and then their node will mirror the files and help serve them to others. It's basically Torrent magnet links rebuilt to be usable for web browsing. But one important detail about content-addressable storage systems like IPFS (and torrents) is that the linked content can never change. The link ipfs://QmXoypizjW3WknFiJnKLwHCnL72vedxjQkDDP1mXWo6uco/wiki/Aardvark.html is immutable and will only ever resolve to that specific version of the page. That's fine if you're just sharing a specific version of a document, but it means that this system alone isn't enough if you want to host a site that you update. In order to solve that use-case, you need some mutable link to be involved, like what DNS provides. If you have a standard domain name, you can add a _dnslink TXT record to your domain that contains an IPFS link, and then when someone visits the domain, IPFS-compatible browsers will see the _dnslink TXT record, get the IPFS link from it, and follow that to get the content from the IPFS swarm (which includes anyone that's helping re-host the content) instead of asking some HTTP server for it. When you update your site, you can update the _dnslink TXT record, and browsers will be able to find the new content when someone visits the site. IPNS is an optional part of IPFS that allows you to make mutable IPNS links that may be updated. This is an attempt to make using an external system like DNS unnecessary to use for making updatable content. It lets you make IPNS links that instead of being based on the hash of the content, are based on a public key that's paired with a private key that you control. The owner of the private key is allowed to broadcast a signed message containing the immutable IPFS link that the mutable IPNS link should resolve to. Sounds great on paper, but it works really slowly for a number of reasons that might be fundamental to how it works. I'm not sure anyone really makes use of it in production. However, a lot of discussions/tutorials about IPFS present IPNS in a way that makes it seem like the standard way to use IPFS, and I think a lot of people get turned off when they see how slow it is and think it's unavoidable or that IPFS is like that in general. The wording of the previous post makes me a little worried the poster believes that too. I wish documentation around IPFS would stop emphasizing IPNS and instead emphasize the DNS integration. You can use DNS+IPFS instead of IPNS+IPFS and it works well; I assume more people use DNS+IPFS than IPNS+IPFS. And eventually we could use decentralized systems like Ethereum Name Service or ZNS instead of DNS once those systems are more popular.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

swiley 7y ago

The article doesn’t mention how the .crypto namespace is managed. That’s probably going to make or break this idea.

jungong 7y ago
Opera works with Unstoppable Domains for the .crypto domains. Maybe you can look it up at UD's website https://community.unstoppabledomains.com/t/unstoppable-x-opera-guide/589 https://community.unstoppabledomains.com/t/unstoppable-x-ope... to see how to manage the .crypto?
- ryebit 7y ago
  Not OP, but nothing on there seems to explain whether UD is just running a database-backed DNS server which they could change at their whim / govt order, or whether ownership and DNS records are actually stored on-chain ala Ethereum's ENS, or NameCoin.
  - icebraining 7y ago
    Reading the website/github, the domains are stored on-chain, but UD provides an HTTP API (essentially a DNS-over-HTTPS resolver), and that could obviously be censored. It's not clear to me if Opera is reading directly from the chain or using UD's API, but I suspect the latter.
    - ryebit 7y ago
      If that's the case, then I think that qualifies as reasonably decentralized, at least for me. Theoretically, anyone could make a work-alike resolver service that used their own Ethereum node to query for results; in which case any attempts to censor UD could be routed around by pointing opera to a different dns-over-http server (assuming that is configurable, which is really up to opera, not the protocol). I do like that idea actually -- if I published a self-signed SSL cert for my domain on the Ethereum blockchain, that could be returned and used to validate my domain, without any sort of CA having to be involved. The only trust needed would be that the HTTP-DNS-Ethererum server itself wasn't lying about which public key owned the on-chain domain record.

lildata 7y ago

I'm glad, Opera is offering native support for Wallets, ENS & IPFS. It is a proof that they can still lead the way. There is also some progress made by Brave what will really help in term of market share. Unfortunately native support on Firefox is not there yet... https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1354807

uasm 7y ago

Broader question - is there some-kind of support planned for a DNS-like MX address mechanism, for receiving emails via the .crypto domain?

CydeWeys 7y ago

This is going to turn out to have been a huge mistake once the actual .crypto is added as a real TLD to root DNS come ICANN's round 2 expansion of new gTLDs.

Wilya 7y ago
Yeah. After the .dev disaster, you'd think people would have learned their lesson...
- mercer 7y ago
  I have a .dev domain and completely missed this. What happened?
  - efdee 7y ago
    Many people were using the .dev tld as some sort of local tld.
    - beefhash 7y ago
      And I guess it was probably cheaper for Google to just buy the TLD and not fix their internal processes?
      - untog 7y ago
        Well I think buying it was also to the benefit of everyone else using .dev locally. But oh well.
        efdee 7y ago
        Not really. Suddenly, .dev is a real TLD instead of a fictional one we use for local hostnames.
  - OskarS 7y ago
    Google owns the .dev TLD, and they bought it for entirely internal use. People got upset about this (any company owning a TLD for internal use only is pretty weird, and especially one as generic as ".dev") so they started to offer it to the public. The bigger issue is that a lot of people use .dev for internal/development uses, and it should therefore never been made into a "real" TLD in the first place. It's like deciding to sell "example.com" to someone.

actionowl 7y ago

Something crazy is going on inside Opera. My opera extension has been pending review since January 12th, Firefox, Chrome, and Edge have all accepted it.

bdcravens 7y ago
They're the smallest, so I suspect they have limited resources for projects/departments they can't profit from.
rasz 7y ago
There is no Opera anymore, just some Chinese scam vehicle https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loans/ https://www.androidpolice.com/2020/01/21/opera-predatory-loa...

Yizahi 7y ago

I tried to understand what IPFS is - it looks like that distributed file storage project from pre-bitcoin era but with added blockchain on top. So my question is - can you delete a file from this system?

aarroyoc 7y ago
IPFS doesn't have a blockchain, it's more like BitTorrent. Can you delete a file? Well, by definition all files in the universe are already defined there, as IPFS is content-addresable (the file hash is used as URL), This means that you can actually delete the file from your local IPFS client, but if someone manages to create the exact same file and put it on the network, people will access to the file using the same link.
diggan 7y ago
Someone else already explained what IPFS is. So let me offer a different way of seeing the whole "can you delete a file from this system?" thing. IPFS is a protocol, just like HTTP. So the question could be rephrased as "How do you delete a file from HTTP?" The answer is: you don't. Just as on the web and on the internet, you can link files from your machines. If someone downloads it, they can share it with others. If no one downloads it, and you stop sharing it, it's effectively deleted. Same goes for IPFS.

Proven 7y ago

If you care about privacy and security and use Opera, I don't think this will help improve it...