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Towards a Decentralized Internet Namespace

Published: 09 December 2024 Publication History

Abstract

The Domain Name System (DNS) has been providing a decentralized global namespace to support all Internet applications and usages over the last few decades. In the recent years, a number of blockchain-based name systems have emerged with the claim of providing better namespace decentralization than DNS. The community at large seems uncertain with regard to which of these systems is the best in providing decentralized Internet namespace control. In this paper, we first deconstruct the design of DNS, identify its three essential components and explain who controls each of them. We then examine the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) as a representative example of blockchain-based naming systems, gauge the degree of its decentralization. Finally, we conduct a comparative analysis between DNS and ENS to assess the validity and affordability of each design and the (de)centralization in their namespace control and name system operations.

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Handshake Domains. 2024. Handshake Domains Main Page. https://handshake.org/.
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Etherscan. 2024. Etherscan Main Page. https://etherscan.io/name-lookup.
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P. Mockapetris. 1987. Domain Names: Concepts and Facilities. RFC 1034.
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Namecoin. 2024. Namecoin Main Page. www.namecoin.org/.
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Markus Schäffer, Monika Di Angelo, and Gernot Salzer. 2019. Performance and scalability of private Ethereum blockchains. In Business Process Management: Blockchain and Central and Eastern Europe Forum: BPM 2019 Blockchain and CEE Forum, Vienna, Austria, September 1--6, 2019, Proceedings 17. Springer, 103--118.
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Ethereum Team. 2024. ENS DAO Landing Page. https://ensdao.org/.
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Ethereum Team. 2024. ENS Supported TLD List. https://docs.ens.domains/dns/tlds.
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Ethereum Team. 2024. $ENS Token. https://basics.ensdao.org/ens-token.
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Ethereum Team. 2024 d. Ethereum Consensus Mechanisms. https://ethereum.org/en/developers/docs/consensus-mechanisms/pos/.
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ENS Team. 2024 f. How does ENS work? https://support.ens.domains/en/articles/7900417-how-does-ens-work.
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Ethereum Team. 2024 g. What is ENS? https://support.ens.domains/en/articles/7900404-what-is-ens.
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Ethereum Team. 2024 h. What is the Ethereum Name Service? https://docs.ens.domains/learn/protocol.
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Ethereum Team. 2024 i. Who owns the root Registry? https://docs.ens.domains/registry/ens#who-owns-the-root-registry.
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Luc van Kampen. 2024. ENS Docs FAQ. https://docs.ens.domains/faq.
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Gavin Wood et al. 2014. Ethereum: A secure decentralised generalised transaction ledger. Ethereum project yellow paper, Vol. 151, 2014 (2014), 1--32.

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  • (2024)On Empowering End Users in Future NetworkingProceedings of the ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet10.1145/3694809.3700745(15-20)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2024

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cover image ACM Conferences
DIN '24: Proceedings of the ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet
December 2024
41 pages
ISBN:9798400712524
DOI:10.1145/3694809
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 09 December 2024

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Author Tags

  1. blockchain
  2. decentralization
  3. domain name system (dns)
  4. ethereum
  5. name service (ens)
  6. smart contracts

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  • (2024)On Empowering End Users in Future NetworkingProceedings of the ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet10.1145/3694809.3700745(15-20)Online publication date: 9-Dec-2024

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