Why we care about Namecoin?

• no registrars


• no registries


• no ICANN control


• new & different opportunities

What is DNS anyway?

• name resolution - Internet phone book


• resolvers and rootservers


• ICANN's role


• Internet's weakest link

Zookos Triangle

• Proposed in 2001:
  http://zookos.com/distnames.html


• Memorable + Secure: DNS?


• Memorable + Decentralized: nicknames


• Decentralized + Secure:
  PGP keys, Bitcoin addresses




more info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zooko%27s_triangle

So What's the Problem with DNS?

• repressive governments routinely attack DNS


• bad guys easily exploit gaping holes in DNS


• the weakest link in Internet infrastructure

ICANN Awareness

  from March 2014 draft from ICANN's Technology Innovation Panel

https://www.icann.org/en/about/planning/strategic-engagement/identifier-technology/report-21feb14-en.pdf

Centralization of DNS Creates Vulnerabilities

• central attack vectors, e.g. rootservers


• one private key to sign root certs, heavily guarded


• registry operators become targets for attack

Decentralized DNS Provides Political Benefits

• free from political corruption


• censorship resistant


• domains cannot be seized


• more resilient when under attack

A Few Notes About Bitcoin

• a currency, a payment system, a protocol


• central theme: remove need for trusted 3rd parties


• working example of blockchain technology

Blockchain Basics

• distributed consensus - every node on the network agrees


• immutable transaction records


• arbitrary data can be inserted

Namecoin Basics

• the original clone of bitcoin


• not a financial system per se


• instructions added to reserve and update names


• get started here: namecoin.info

Namecoin Blockchain is a Key/Value Store

• use any namespace you want, but one is predefined
• store up to 520 bytes per transaction currently

{
  "id" : "mikeward", 
  "email" : "namecoin@mikeward.net", 
  "gpg" : "F716D516", 
  "bitcoin" : "1Miked2o3mU8QwmwZK5e424XGUEvBtUHRS", 
  "dogecoin" : "D6JyuQKejdqDq9a6g1NgrmdWtZJCHZBtxc", 
  "namecoin" : "ND2RyspSY6cz9dYyK8Ju2nPHcW4JBhso8i", 
  "darkcoin" : "Xwa6AVf5EbQpLgvZEAHHFk28dQhaQkDvUd"
}
	

.BIT and Beyond

• .onion , .exit , .i2p , .gnu , .dns, .mike


• TOR team actively looking into best way to incorporate blockchain-based system into their browser to manage the domain names used by the network


• you should be able to type "torwiki" into the browser and it finds the .onion domain, no need to bookmark non-memorable names like "http://zqktlwi4fecvo6ri.onion"

Namecoin Wallet

• wallet is a misnomer


• stores namecoins


• manages domains


• you are your own bank,
  your own registrar
  so take precautions!

Registering .BIT Domain Names

1. get some Namecoins


2. get Namecoin wallet or namecoind


3. start registering names


4. lean back and smile

Let's Register a .BIT Domain

Namecoin Blockchain Explorer

Blockchain Explorer: http://nameco.in

Platform-specific Notes: Windows

Platform-specific Notes: Mac OSX

• I'm not aware of any browser extensions


• Namecoin-QT and namecoind are notoriously difficult to compile on OSX



(find someone who compiled it, use those exact versions of dependencies, hard code all paths in makefile, light incense, put a small pile of salt on your doorstep, chant in some ancient language and hope for the best)

Resolving .BIT Domains - All Platforms

• >MeowBit - program to resolve .BIT domains (Windows)
• firefox browser plugin - FreeSpeechMe
• .bit.pe proxy (e.g. yoursite.bit.pe)
• use web-based proxy like proxy.dot-bit.org
• nmcontrol
• point to .BIT resolver via hostfile
• various projects including DNSchain, NamecoinToBind

Resolving .BIT Domains - Windows

Resolving .BIT Domains - Linux

Resolving .BIT Domains - Linux

Questions?

The id Namespace

• decentralized identity systems avoid privacy issues (FB login anyone?)


"I think the architecture with these blockchains is going to get replicated for lots of different applications. It won't be Bitcoin. It'll be Namecoin for identity, it'll be Mastercoin for exchanges. There's all these new blockchains that are coming up that support different use cases. I think this architecture is really, really important." - Fred Wilson, veteran tech investor

Identity Management and Trust Online

• oauth (status quo) is a problem


• public key infrastructure (PKI) suffers from centralization


• take charge of your identity info!
  http://dns.dnschain.net/id/mikeward


• Yesterday at TechCrunch Disrupt veteran tech investor Fred Wilson teased that he was investing in the identity management space, and he has stated before that he believes Namecoin is the leader in this space.

Examples - bit.co.in

Examples - one-name

Opportunities?

WHERE ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES?

resources

• these slides: http://namecoin.mikeward.net/
• hangouts video will be posted soon
• great sites: namecoin.info & dot-bit.org

BTC http://bit.co.in/mikeward 1Miked2o3mU8QwmwZK5e424XGUEvBtUHRS

Namecoin NDczee7FJPKqJ1jNfqgEqigcAxsKGe2CQr

Doge http://bit.co.in/mike.doge

Open Discussion!