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                      Some musings on decentralized DNS

Less than twenty-four hours since I released my DNS (Domain Name System)
resolver library [1] and I'm getting requests for Ruby [2] bindings.

Heh.

While I suspect I can write Ruby bindings, it might help if I actually, you
know, knew the language first. It might be something to do over this holiday
season.

Also, as a joke, I was asked if I could work on that distributed DNS
replacement thing [3], but I think I'll pass on that.

It's not as if DNS isn't already distributed—it is, but there is a central
authority overseeing domain names that also help manage the servers that run
the top level of DNS—the so called root servers [4]. So it's probably more
accurate to say the project is a “decentralized DNS replacement thing” and
therein lies the problem—how are naming conflicts resolved?

With the current system, it's “first come, first served” when it comes to
names (way back in 1998, I tried registring spc.com, but found out that Time
Magazine [5] got there first—and they still own it; I then tried conner.com,
but there was a hard drive manufactorer that owned that name; now it looks
like bookseller [6] owns that domain) and if there are conflicts, ICANN
(Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) [7] will step in to
mediate the issue.

But in a decentralized DNS system, how is this handled? I want the .area51
TLD (Top Level Domain), but (hypothetically speaking here) so does Bob Lazar
[8]. Who wins? How is this resolved? The government?

That's the cause of this attempt to decentalize DNS. The courts? Golden rule
there (“he who has the gold, makes the rules” although it could be said
that's the case now).

It's more of a political (or maybe social) issue than a technical issue, and
thus, I don't see it going anywhere any time soon.

[1] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2010/12/06.1
[2] http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/
[3] http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-based-dns-to-counter-us-domain-seizures-101130/
[4] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Root_nameserver
[5] http://timeinc.com/aboutus/
[6] http://www.conner.com/
[7] http://www.icann.org/
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bob_Lazar

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