I've been toying with the following idea, and I would like to know what other people think about it, if it sounds feasible, desirable, practical, or not...just whatever your opinions or thoughts are, I would be curious to hear.
To overcome DNS centralization, I propose the following paradigm shift:
- Allow multiple registrations of the same name.
- Use ordinal inscriptions on Bitcoin (see ordinals.com for info) to "register" the domain names directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.
- DNS servers (or their reincarnation) would accept record updates only from the owner, checking a signature against the Bitcoin blockchain.
- Propagation of DNS records could happen between DNS servers in a similar way as today.
- To resolve a domain name, DNS servers would return a disambiguation list of matches instead of a single match (if there are more than one).
- If there are multiple matches, the web browser or such would present the user with the choice, showing a popularity number and other registration information such as a description.
- For convenience, The user could have the option to "lock-in" their choice, not to be prompted again for that domain name.
These are obviously different semantics from how domain names work today as 100% unique identifiers, but why not? If it solves many problems such as:
- Squatting. The more people register a particular name (like google.com) for example, the less valuable that domain would become, by virtue of not being scarce.
- Scamming. The disambiguation would be presented with a "popularity" number (and other info) to easily distinguish who's who. The real google.com would stand out. (And if a competitor passes them up, they deserve to be recognized.)
- Ownership. The "new DNS servers" would validate record updates using a signature that can be checked against the owner of the inscription as recorded in the Bitcoin blockchain. This is made possible by ordinal inscriptions (see ordinals.com).
- Loss. If keys to a particular domain are accidentally lost (i.e. Bitcoin wallet keys are lost, or the inscription is accidentally given away in a transaction), the domain could be re-registered with a new ordinal inscription. Popularity would have to be re-earned, but that would be a fair penalty for losing the keys.
Please, shoot holes in the idea. I'd love to know the reasons you think nobody should waste time on it.