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Handshake has looked interesting for awhile now but what is the point of a blockchain based DNS? Isn't a big selling point of DNS having the fastest possible re

Handshake has looked interesting for awhile now but what is the point of a blockchain based DNS? Isn't a big selling point of DNS having the fastest possible response times?

sk55 5y ago
Using blockchain prevents the domain from being seized. This is helpful for service providers so they can maintain uptime and it also helps users who might rely on a service.
- ahtihn 5y ago
  It also means you can lose control of your domain permanently if you make any mistakes with your keys.
mike_d 5y ago
The lookups are near instant just like regular DNS, it just becomes un-censorable and not controlled by a central body.
lifty 5y ago
I had a bit of a disappointing moment recently when I found out that only top level domains are uncensorable in handshake. Such a let down.
- kelthuzad 5y ago
  Since everybody including you, can own as many top level domains as your heart desires, this should be no problem.
jillesvangurp 5y ago
No, the selling point of DNS is mainly that everybody knows how to work with this bit of technology from the 1970s. Mostly it's fast because modern implementations do a lot of caching and only occasionally query parents in their hierarchy. You can use the same strategy to make pretty much any alternative implementation fast as well. And of course slapping some sort of DNS compatible facade on that is not rocket science either. So, you don't even lose the backwards compatibility. Better still, you can fall back to existing DNS too. The key challenge with DNS is that it is hierarchical and that there's a root with an owner. That owner is an entity that we just have to trust to do the right things in terms of certificates, security, not censoring entries, implementing fair policies for allocating names, etc. Whether you trust the current owners is of course a bit political. Mostly I have no big issues with that myself but it is annoying to have to bribe certain companies for the privilege of using our registered trademark as a domain name. Literally the only service these companies deliver is 'maintaining' a record of that. A blockchain can replace this with distributed ownership of a tamper proof ledger of ownership of domain names. Building an index of these names is not that hard. Any old search engine or database can do that. But the key part is administering ownership in a fair and transparent way. It's one of those use cases where using a blockchain actually makes sense without devolving into some pyramid scheme for creating lots of wealth for some. When you think about it, existing DNS works exactly like a pyramid scheme (by design even). Millions of people are paying in the order of 10$ a year for a cheap database record in an ancient hierarchical database. The only value these companies deliver is monopolizing ownership of common endings like .com, .io, etc. And the only reason we need those is because it's an ancient hierarchical database. With a blockchain, we get rid of those companies and potentially also the top level domains. I see no reason why google, twitter, etc. could not be top level domains.
- Melatonic 5y ago
  I agree on most points and this is why I for the most part run my own DNS.
charcircuit 5y ago
The block time would be more comparable to a record's TTL, and not how long it takes to look up that record.
- Melatonic 5y ago
  Good to know - this is is the kind of info I was looking for!

Handshake has looked interesting for awhile now but what is the point of a blockchain based DNS? Isn't a big selling point of DNS having the fastest possible response times?

sk55 5y ago

Using blockchain prevents the domain from being seized. This is helpful for service providers so they can maintain uptime and it also helps users who might rely on a service.

ahtihn 5y ago
It also means you can lose control of your domain permanently if you make any mistakes with your keys.

mike_d 5y ago

The lookups are near instant just like regular DNS, it just becomes un-censorable and not controlled by a central body.

lifty 5y ago

I had a bit of a disappointing moment recently when I found out that only top level domains are uncensorable in handshake. Such a let down.

kelthuzad 5y ago
Since everybody including you, can own as many top level domains as your heart desires, this should be no problem.

jillesvangurp 5y ago

No, the selling point of DNS is mainly that everybody knows how to work with this bit of technology from the 1970s. Mostly it's fast because modern implementations do a lot of caching and only occasionally query parents in their hierarchy. You can use the same strategy to make pretty much any alternative implementation fast as well. And of course slapping some sort of DNS compatible facade on that is not rocket science either. So, you don't even lose the backwards compatibility. Better still, you can fall back to existing DNS too. The key challenge with DNS is that it is hierarchical and that there's a root with an owner. That owner is an entity that we just have to trust to do the right things in terms of certificates, security, not censoring entries, implementing fair policies for allocating names, etc. Whether you trust the current owners is of course a bit political. Mostly I have no big issues with that myself but it is annoying to have to bribe certain companies for the privilege of using our registered trademark as a domain name. Literally the only service these companies deliver is 'maintaining' a record of that. A blockchain can replace this with distributed ownership of a tamper proof ledger of ownership of domain names. Building an index of these names is not that hard. Any old search engine or database can do that. But the key part is administering ownership in a fair and transparent way. It's one of those use cases where using a blockchain actually makes sense without devolving into some pyramid scheme for creating lots of wealth for some. When you think about it, existing DNS works exactly like a pyramid scheme (by design even). Millions of people are paying in the order of 10$ a year for a cheap database record in an ancient hierarchical database. The only value these companies deliver is monopolizing ownership of common endings like .com, .io, etc. And the only reason we need those is because it's an ancient hierarchical database. With a blockchain, we get rid of those companies and potentially also the top level domains. I see no reason why google, twitter, etc. could not be top level domains.

Melatonic 5y ago
I agree on most points and this is why I for the most part run my own DNS.

charcircuit 5y ago

The block time would be more comparable to a record's TTL, and not how long it takes to look up that record.

Melatonic 5y ago
Good to know - this is is the kind of info I was looking for!