[CPWG] Are Blockchain Domains within the Mission of ICANN - WAS RE: Questions to the board about distributed DNS

[Evan Leibovitch]

This is getting really tired. And tiring.

this is a superficial view and ignores the question about why these
> alternate roots keep popping up and what makes Blockchain domains so
> different than previous alt roots.  And I believe it is a combination of
> factors.
>

TL; DR:
ICANN manages a resource that has proven valuable to some to exploit
commercially.
Said exploiters don't like the pace and/or limitations of ICANN's provision
of said resource, so from time to time they try to subvert ICANN and make
their own.
Eventually one of them may succeed.
Therefore, ICANN must do more to accommodate the needs of the exploiters so
that they don't try again.

As they said in previous generations, balderdash. The new-fangled domains
are different in neither purpose nor motivation, much as their hucksters
protest otherwise. This time it's DIFFERENT!

But rather than the quote about insanity incorrectly attributed to
Einstein, here one is reminded of an old cartoon segment
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc4IFIXcDcs>.

Anyone taking even a cursory view of the Internet can see that there are
numerous ways that end-users employ to find what they want on the Internet.
The real innovation comes not from those who seek to re-invent the
implementation of "memorable domain names", but totally circumvent it.
Search engines, QR codes, social media pages, all of these have been used
to connect people to their Internet destinations. And while they inevitably
flow through the DNS, they can easily use non-human-readable domains that
could be handled within a single TLD.

In other words, innovative work-arounds are already happening. Just not the
way the DNS exploiters would like.

Funny how the browsers that were such obstacles to alternate roots, had no
problems combining search and URL queries into a single entry field. If you
want "Joe's Pizza" near you, you don't have to guess at which domain you
need if search engines are location-aware.
 And when COVID came, when Joe's Pizza wanted to put their menus online
they used QR codes, not URLs.

What is so pathetic about the DNS wannabes, past and present, is that
they're at their core never more than poor counterfeits and always will be,
buzzwords notwithstanding. As poor as ICANN's processes may be -- and they
certainly are -- a would-be replacement that is exploiter-driven will never
be an improvement to anyone but the exploiters. Coincidentally, the
successful alternatives are the ones that have eliminated the role of the
DNS exploiters -- so successful, indeed, that these alternatives have come
into gatekeeper problems of their own. But that is a discussion for another
day (and probably another venue).

Cheers,
- Evan
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