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It sounds great. Do you use it? Curious to learn about people's experiences with it and things like it. Centralized control over DNS is flawed, and I would like

It sounds great. Do you use it? Curious to learn about people's experiences with it and things like it. Centralized control over DNS is flawed, and I would like to see more solutions to this problem deployed and in use. Unfortunately, many HNers will immediately scoff at the mere mention of blockchain.

infogulch 5y ago
I scoff at the plethora of pointless blockchains shoehorned into a problems where neither centralization nor trust are essential complexity of the problem domain. Most new blockchain tech claims that they'll solve centralization and trust (in a domain that doesn't have those problems) -- as long as you centralize on their platform and trust them. Most blockchain is a whitewash for new-age centralization. But DNS does have those problems inherent in the domain. It's one of the very few use-cases for blockchain that actually makes a modicum of sense.
evbots 5y ago
I use it, and own a small portfolio of names on chain. "base" and "faq" are a couple of them. It's been pretty interesting to watch the ecosystem mature. Just recently a small dev team released a desktop app that syncs name data to your local device and lets you browse sites with lookups to the handshake root before falling back to icann root https://impervious.com/fingertip.html https://impervious.com/fingertip.html
- Buttons840 5y ago
  So name squatting will still be a thing? Any solutions for that?
  - evbots 5y ago
    the way handshake addresses this problem is putting a cap on the total number of names that can be registered, and then users compete on fees in order to get their transaction mined to renew the name
    - Buttons840 5y ago
      Can't I make a few million accounts (or "wallets") programmatically, since it's a blockchain?
      - evbots 5y ago
        total number of names "total", not total number per wallet
        Buttons840 5y ago
        So there is an ongoing cost to owning a name and the cost increases as the global number of names registered/owned increases?
        evbots 5y ago
        yeah. right now it's ~$0 since there's no fee competition, but as soon as the total names registered gets close to the limit (66 million) then the cost of renewall will go up and it will be costly to squat. there are 1.85 million names registered currently.
verdverm 5y ago
It was actually one of the legit uses of blockchain. It actually replaces ICANN, not DNS. There are registrars that have built on top of HNS, but serving DNS requests still uses the same tools and tech. A couple of problems with it is that the do not prevent existing domains from transacting (unless you are in the top 100k) and the real big problem is the same guy who ruined Freenode, essentially controls handshake.
- Buttons840 5y ago
  Unless a blockchain based DNS is involved with a blockchain currency, I see nothing to stop the mad grab of all memorable, pronounceable, or legible names less than 40 characters long almost immediately. If I was so inclined to participate, I'd just grab a ton of blockchain DNS names, back them up, and hope I can sell one someday.
  - verdverm 5y ago
    yup, there was a lot of that on HNS and ENS
  - donmcronald 5y ago
    From a NamePros thread [1]: > artdao.eth bought for 59Ξ ($191711.65) > tara.eth bought for 6Ξ ($21797.16) > keira.eth bought for 15.0Ξ ($51192.90) > protein.eth bought for 10.0Ξ ($32484.00) > esports.eth bought for 2.76Ξ ($10699.55) > fidenza.eth bought for 30.0Ξ ($107111.40) > artblockscurated.eth bought for 7.0Ξ ($24992.66) There are tons of similar sales apparently. Some of it just doesn't make sense. $200k for artdao.eth? Really? The last two are apparently NFT related things. The only one in there I can maybe understand is esports.eth since $10k for an esports company to have a premium wallet address makes sense to speculate on given that market. However, they have domain validated integration of existing (ICANN) domains now, so I don't see much value in the .eth stuff. There's some value in avoiding confusion. Saying "send money to esports.eth" is less ambiguous than "send money to esports.com" because the latter could be confused with normal eTransfers. Beyond that though, what makes a .eth domain worth $10k+? 1. https://www.namepros.com/threads/ens-ethereum-domain-service-eth-domain-names.1085683/page-5 https://www.namepros.com/threads/ens-ethereum-domain-service...
ryan29 5y ago
I've looked at HNS and ENS a bit. I want a domain on both, but haven't bought any. The biggest problem is having to deal in crypto currency. In Canada buying and selling crypto currency is similar to dealing with stocks. You need to track it like an asset and both sales and transfers create taxable events. Imagine you want to buy a 2x4 at Home Depot. In the crypto equivalent world, you'd have to provide KYC / AML information to an exchange that supports Home Depot to get an account, buy Home Depot stock, use the stock to buy lumber, sell your excess stock, and claim any relevant losses / gains on your taxes. It's a hilariously bad user experience. Then on the ENS side the fees are insane. To buy a "$5" .eth domain right now shows me .001 ETH (they try to keep it around $5 USD) for the domain plus .083 (~$285) ETH for gas fees for ~$290 total. I went as far as signing up to an exchange to get a .eth domain and that exchange charges .008 ETH to transfer my money off the exchange which is another $30. So all in, right now it would cost me (up to) $320 USD to buy a "$5" .eth domain. Paying $315 in fees to buy a $5 good doesn't seem like the free market efficiency the crypto crowd is selling. To me it feels like a bit of a grift where whoever's getting those fees is taking a ton of money out of the system. Then if you jump over to the HNS side, the exchange I signed up with doesn't support HNS, so I would need to provide them (HNS) KYC levels of identity verification too and I'm not willing to do that because they're not listed in FINTRAC (Canada's AML regulator). I think Coinbase would be ok, but what a hassle!

infogulch 5y ago

I scoff at the plethora of pointless blockchains shoehorned into a problems where neither centralization nor trust are essential complexity of the problem domain. Most new blockchain tech claims that they'll solve centralization and trust (in a domain that doesn't have those problems) -- as long as you centralize on their platform and trust them. Most blockchain is a whitewash for new-age centralization. But DNS does have those problems inherent in the domain. It's one of the very few use-cases for blockchain that actually makes a modicum of sense.

evbots 5y ago

I use it, and own a small portfolio of names on chain. "base" and "faq" are a couple of them. It's been pretty interesting to watch the ecosystem mature. Just recently a small dev team released a desktop app that syncs name data to your local device and lets you browse sites with lookups to the handshake root before falling back to icann root https://impervious.com/fingertip.html https://impervious.com/fingertip.html

Buttons840 5y ago
So name squatting will still be a thing? Any solutions for that?
- evbots 5y ago
  the way handshake addresses this problem is putting a cap on the total number of names that can be registered, and then users compete on fees in order to get their transaction mined to renew the name
  - Buttons840 5y ago
    Can't I make a few million accounts (or "wallets") programmatically, since it's a blockchain?
    - evbots 5y ago
      total number of names "total", not total number per wallet
      - Buttons840 5y ago
        So there is an ongoing cost to owning a name and the cost increases as the global number of names registered/owned increases?
        evbots 5y ago
        yeah. right now it's ~$0 since there's no fee competition, but as soon as the total names registered gets close to the limit (66 million) then the cost of renewall will go up and it will be costly to squat. there are 1.85 million names registered currently.

verdverm 5y ago

It was actually one of the legit uses of blockchain. It actually replaces ICANN, not DNS. There are registrars that have built on top of HNS, but serving DNS requests still uses the same tools and tech. A couple of problems with it is that the do not prevent existing domains from transacting (unless you are in the top 100k) and the real big problem is the same guy who ruined Freenode, essentially controls handshake.

Buttons840 5y ago
Unless a blockchain based DNS is involved with a blockchain currency, I see nothing to stop the mad grab of all memorable, pronounceable, or legible names less than 40 characters long almost immediately. If I was so inclined to participate, I'd just grab a ton of blockchain DNS names, back them up, and hope I can sell one someday.
- verdverm 5y ago
  yup, there was a lot of that on HNS and ENS
- donmcronald 5y ago
  From a NamePros thread [1]: > artdao.eth bought for 59Ξ ($191711.65) > tara.eth bought for 6Ξ ($21797.16) > keira.eth bought for 15.0Ξ ($51192.90) > protein.eth bought for 10.0Ξ ($32484.00) > esports.eth bought for 2.76Ξ ($10699.55) > fidenza.eth bought for 30.0Ξ ($107111.40) > artblockscurated.eth bought for 7.0Ξ ($24992.66) There are tons of similar sales apparently. Some of it just doesn't make sense. $200k for artdao.eth? Really? The last two are apparently NFT related things. The only one in there I can maybe understand is esports.eth since $10k for an esports company to have a premium wallet address makes sense to speculate on given that market. However, they have domain validated integration of existing (ICANN) domains now, so I don't see much value in the .eth stuff. There's some value in avoiding confusion. Saying "send money to esports.eth" is less ambiguous than "send money to esports.com" because the latter could be confused with normal eTransfers. Beyond that though, what makes a .eth domain worth $10k+? 1. https://www.namepros.com/threads/ens-ethereum-domain-service-eth-domain-names.1085683/page-5 https://www.namepros.com/threads/ens-ethereum-domain-service...

ryan29 5y ago

I've looked at HNS and ENS a bit. I want a domain on both, but haven't bought any. The biggest problem is having to deal in crypto currency. In Canada buying and selling crypto currency is similar to dealing with stocks. You need to track it like an asset and both sales and transfers create taxable events. Imagine you want to buy a 2x4 at Home Depot. In the crypto equivalent world, you'd have to provide KYC / AML information to an exchange that supports Home Depot to get an account, buy Home Depot stock, use the stock to buy lumber, sell your excess stock, and claim any relevant losses / gains on your taxes. It's a hilariously bad user experience. Then on the ENS side the fees are insane. To buy a "$5" .eth domain right now shows me .001 ETH (they try to keep it around $5 USD) for the domain plus .083 (~$285) ETH for gas fees for ~$290 total. I went as far as signing up to an exchange to get a .eth domain and that exchange charges .008 ETH to transfer my money off the exchange which is another $30. So all in, right now it would cost me (up to) $320 USD to buy a "$5" .eth domain. Paying $315 in fees to buy a $5 good doesn't seem like the free market efficiency the crypto crowd is selling. To me it feels like a bit of a grift where whoever's getting those fees is taking a ton of money out of the system. Then if you jump over to the HNS side, the exchange I signed up with doesn't support HNS, so I would need to provide them (HNS) KYC levels of identity verification too and I'm not willing to do that because they're not listed in FINTRAC (Canada's AML regulator). I think Coinbase would be ok, but what a hassle!