[itipanel] another "namecoin" mention

[Paul Vixie]

apparently, the centralized nature of DNS is not universally well loved.

> Another ambitious project, Namecoin, is a P2P system almost identical
> to Bitcoin. But instead of currency, it functions as a decentralized
> replacement for the Internet’s Domain Name System. The D.N.S. is the
> essential “phone book” that translates a Web site’s typed address
> (www.newyorker.com) to the corresponding computer’s numerical I.P.
> address (192.168.1.1). The directory is decentralized by design, but
> it still has central points of authority: domain registrars, which
> buy and lease Web addresses to site owners, and the U.S.-based
> Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or I.C.A.N.N.,
> which controls the distribution of domains.
>
> The infrastructure does allow for large-scale takedowns, like in
> 2010, when the Department of Justice tried to seize ten domains it
> believed to be hosting child pornography, but accidentally took down
> eighty-four thousand innocent Web sites in the process. Instead of
> centralized registrars, Namecoin uses cryptographic tokens similar to
> bitcoins to authenticate ownership of “.bit” domains. In theory,
> these domain names can’t be hijacked by criminals or blocked by
> governments; no one except the owner can surrender them.

see:

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/elements/2013/12/the-mission-to-decentralize-the-internet.html

-- 
Paul Vixie
Farsight Security