Naming Systems using Blockchains: On-chain and Off-chain

Discover why human comprehensible identifiers matter in web3, enabling safer transfers and clearer smart contract interactions by pairing on-chain and off-chain naming with traditional domain name system concepts.

Define domain names as human-readable text that maps to numeric IP addresses, enabling browsers to reach websites. For example, google.com illustrates how a domain name simplifies access.

Explain the structure of domain names, highlighting top-level domains, second-level domains, and third-level domains with examples like mail.google.com. Compare a fully qualified domain name to a root directory with subfolders.

Examine how top level domains guide DNS lookups and classify domains through generic, ccTLDs, sponsored, infrastructural, and reserved TLDs, with examples like .com, .gov, and .arpa.

Explore the domain name system as the internet's phone book, translating domain names to IP addresses so browsers load resources, with DNS servers acting as a centralized contacts app.

Learn how DNS queries travel through four servers—the recursor, root name servers, TLD name servers, and authoritative name servers—and how the IP address is supplied by the authoritative name server.

Explore how a recursive DNS resolver handles recursive requests by tracing lookups to the authoritative name server. Learn how it processes queries, including timeouts and errors.

Explore how the DNS root server and root zone file underpin top-level domains, delegation records, and authoritative name servers, and how this relates to blockchain-based naming systems.

Explain how a TLD name server handles all domains under a top-level domain, from root to the TLD and authoritative servers, with IANA managing generic and country code categories.

Identify the authoritative DNS server as the bottom of the DNS lookup chain that holds DNS resource records, responds with the IP address, and handles subdomains by adding name servers.

Explore the eight-step dns lookup process from a user query to the recursive resolver, root and tld servers, authoritative dns, and the http request that fetches the web page.

Describe the three dns query types: recursive, iterative, and non-recursive, and explain how recursive resolvers return records or errors, while iterative and non-recursive queries use best available or cached data.

Understand dns records and zone files on authoritative servers, including A, AAAA, CNAME, MX, TXT, NS, SOA, SRV, and PTR, and their ttl.

Explore how the DNS is organized, from ICANN and IANA to registries and registrars, including TLD management and the WHOIS and InterNIC systems.

Explore vulnerabilities in the DNS system, including DNS floods, DNS cache poisoning, DNS tunneling, DRDoS, NXdomain attacks, and phantom domain attacks.

Explore how DNSSEC uses digital signatures and public key cryptography to sign zone data, enabling origin authentication and data integrity on recursive resolvers.

Explore how certificate authorities and public key infrastructure establish trust in naming systems, using digital certificates to verify identities and prevent man-in-the-middle attacks.

Explore blockchain and web3 concepts through distributed ledgers where data is stored across nodes. Rely on consensus to ensure authenticity and trust as identical node copies confirm all transactions.

Explore blockchain as a distributed ledger where blocks of transactions are created and shared by network nodes. Learn how Merkle roots and consensus secure records and lock them from modification.

Compare externally owned accounts and contract accounts on Ethereum, where user-owned accounts rely on cryptographic key pairs and contract accounts run code on network, with contract deployments incurring transaction fees.

Explore how crypto assets exist on blockchain ledgers, held in user accounts with public addresses (hashes) and private keys that authorize and sign transactions.

Losing private keys equals losing crypto assets; wallets store private keys and come in hardware, mobile, or cloud forms. Multisignature wallets require a pre-determined number of signatures to authorize transfers.

Explore smart contracts as self-executing, immutable blockchain accounts that hold crypto assets and power decentralized applications, defining token behavior through their code and ensuring self-sovereign, tamper-resistant logic.

Explore how tokens function on blockchain networks as virtual media of value, representing fiat value, commodities, voting rights, DeFi liquidity pool shares, and users' rights to artworks.

Differentiate tokens into fungible and non-fungible (NFTs) on Ethereum, where ERC-20 creates fungible tokens and ERC-721 creates NFTs with unique token IDs and attachable asset metadata.

Explore how blockchains can improve the dns by replacing root and tld databases with distributed ledgers, tackling censorship and outages, while enabling privacy through https-based access and smart-contract resolution.

Explore Zooko's triangle, a trilemma in identity systems—human meaningful, secure, and decentralized—where only two properties can be achieved, as shown by naming and DNS examples.

Square Zooko's trilemma using blockchain immutability and consensus, as Aaron Swartz proposed with Bitcoin, to create secure, decentralized, human meaningful names.

Trace the evolution of blockchain naming systems from Namecoin and bitDNS to ENS and Handshake. Explore how these projects extend blockchain technology to domains, identities, and decentralized naming.

Discover how Stacks enables a decentralized domain system on Bitcoin, with on-chain BNS names and off-chain subdomains, anchored by smart contracts and DNS-like namespaces.

Ethereum Name Service maps Ethereum addresses to human readable names, enabling transactions with names like John.eth and resolving to addresses, content hashes, or metadata via a registry and resolvers.

Explore how Handshake uses a UTXO-based blockchain to host a new root server and offer blockchain-native top-level domains through Namebase, reshaping the role of ICANN with blockchain-based signatures.

Explore Emercoin and Unstoppable Domains, highlighting decentralized DNS, emerSSL, and NFT domains stored in wallets with hybrid proof-of-ownership, proof-of-stake, and proof-of-work. Discuss challenges faced by current naming solutions.

Explore blockchain-based domain systems and the push to decentralize DNS, then focus on accessibility and usability for everyday users, noting limited browser support, extensions, and questions about search engine compatibility.

Coordinate blockchain-based domain systems with each other and with ICANN to avoid domain conflicts. Centralized oversight allows reusing the same domain name across entities by coordinating top-level domains.

Balance censorship resistance in blockchain-based domain systems with effective takedown mechanisms for criminal sites.Propose a practical solution, informed by Joker's Stash, to address takedown challenges in blockchain-based domains.

Explore the distinction between anonymity and privacy in blockchains, where public transactions and the ENS naming system can enable tracking and identity triangulation.

Explore how the decentralized identity foundation builds an ecosystem for people, organizations, applications, and devices, advancing identity community through research and standards, founded by Microsoft, Blockstack, IDEO, IBM, and Accenture.