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So much of the internet is about translating addresses from one format to another: Human readable to IP: DNS Private IP to Public IP: NAT MAC to Private IP:
by nroets 5y ago
So much of the internet is about translating addresses from one format to another:
Human readable to IP: DNS
Private IP to Public IP: NAT
MAC to Private IP: ARP
Public IP to AS: BGP
With a block chain DNS it may be possible to replace all of them with a single protocol, but it may well turn out to be an academic exercise.
- grlass 5y agoNamecoin [1] was an early fork of bitcoin, that did blockchain based DNS, with the ideas being actively discussed by Satoshi Nakamoto [2]. That deals with DNS (though how much has it been used?), but what about the layers of the stack? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namecoin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namecoin [2] https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1790.222 https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1790.222
- dgb23 5y agoThese are abstraction barriers that isolate locations, layers and protocols from each other. I don't understand this as translation but rather as a separation of concerns.
- oblio 5y ago> So much of the internet is about translating addresses from one format to another Most of computing is about mapping A to B and maintaining databases of those mappings :-)
- WorldMaker 5y agoAs the saying goes there are two hard problems in computing: naming things, cache invalidation, and buffer overflows. Most of these systems are about naming things and cache invalidation.
- RustyConsul 5y agobut if it's base zero, you still wouldn't get a buffer overflow ;)
- WorldMaker 5y agoUnless it needs to be a null pointer terminated array.
- PaulRobinson 5y agoThanks for not pushing back too hard on my (elderly?), ignorance, and giving me a chance to catch up with the current state of the art. This looks very interesting, and I am looking forward to spending time diving in for no more than a sense of curiosity. Thank you.
- alfalfasprout 5y agoProblem is the blockchain stuff usually ends up being computationally expensive for what it's trying to do. I could maybe see a use case for DNS but then either each computer has to have the full blockchain locally or rely on providers to do that for them in which case we're basically at the same model we have now (with root servers and DNS servers). Obviously you don't want to publish private IPs, etc. to other computers... so inside a local network you're not buying yourself much. For routing tables I could see more of a use case for blockchain technology since you can actually verify the routing tables and prevent BGP spoofing, etc.
- collinmanderson 5y agoI believe IPv6 intended to replace both ARP/MAC and NAT, but has mostly failed to achieve that.