Alternative Roots: Difference between revisions

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==Reasons Alternative Root Projects Have Developed==
==Reasons Alternative Root Projects Have Developed==
# In 2005, [[Paul Vixie]], a member of the [[ISC]] F-Root team and involved in maintaining [[BIND]], a popular open-source implementation of DNS, suggested to [[RSSAC]] that [[ICANN]] create an alternate root zone so that the technical community could add features like [[IDN|internationalized domain names]], [[IPv6]], and [[DNSSEC]] without disrupting older DNS behavior.<ref>[https://circleid.com/posts/20160330_let_me_make_yeti_dns_perfectly_clear Vixie, Let Me Make Yeti-DNS Perfectly Clear, CircleID]</ref>
===Experimentation===
* In 2005, [[Paul Vixie]], a member of the [[ISC]] F-Root team and involved in maintaining [[BIND]], a popular open-source implementation of DNS, suggested to [[RSSAC]] that [[ICANN]] create an alternate root zone so that the technical community could add features like [[IDN|internationalized domain names]], [[IPv6]], and [[DNSSEC]] without disrupting older DNS behavior.<ref>[https://circleid.com/posts/20160330_let_me_make_yeti_dns_perfectly_clear Vixie, Let Me Make Yeti-DNS Perfectly Clear, CircleID]</ref>
* Advances in authentication: relies on a new security model of validation, which can reduce individual credential management.


===[[Data Privacy]]===
* Individual chooses relationships and connections, offering privacy and data protection, as all data and personal information are stored by the individual making the connections.<ref>Tyler Mason, GoDaddy Blockchain Domain Names Webinar, 12/1/2021</ref>
==Theories on Why Alternative Root Projects Fail==
==Theories on Why Alternative Root Projects Fail==
* Paul Vixie explains that “any set of DNS root name servers that serves any DNS root zone that did not come from IANA is an ‘alternate root’...[M]any attempts to fork the IANA name space and offer non-standard top level domains...has failed. Often that failure followed public ridicule by me. I think alternate roots of the ‘name space fork’ variety are a terrible idea for the global Internet, although I recognize the need for this kind of name space augmentation inside many enterprise networks...Vibrant competition among Internet name spaces is bad for all of us—bad for business, bad for freedom of expression, bad for national and personal security."<ref>[https://circleid.com/posts/20160330_let_me_make_yeti_dns_perfectly_clear Vixie, Let Me Make Yeti-DNS Perfectly Clear, CircleID]</ref>
* Paul Vixie explains that “any set of DNS root name servers that serves any DNS root zone that did not come from IANA is an ‘alternate root’...[M]any attempts to fork the IANA name space and offer non-standard top level domains...has failed. Often that failure followed public ridicule by me. I think alternate roots of the ‘name space fork’ variety are a terrible idea for the global Internet, although I recognize the need for this kind of name space augmentation inside many enterprise networks...Vibrant competition among Internet name spaces is bad for all of us—bad for business, bad for freedom of expression, bad for national and personal security."<ref>[https://circleid.com/posts/20160330_let_me_make_yeti_dns_perfectly_clear Vixie, Let Me Make Yeti-DNS Perfectly Clear, CircleID]</ref>
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For better or worse, there is a lack of governance in decentralized systems such as that making use of [[Blockchain]].<ref>Tyler Mason, GoDaddy Blockchain Domain Names Webinar, 12/1/2021</ref> However, the [[Multi-stakeholder Model|coordination]] required to encompass many voices and views and build consensus is glacial in contrast to the pace of pioneering and innovation in unregulated spaces.  
For better or worse, there is a lack of governance in decentralized systems such as that making use of [[Blockchain]].<ref>Tyler Mason, GoDaddy Blockchain Domain Names Webinar, 12/1/2021</ref> However, the [[Multi-stakeholder Model|coordination]] required to encompass many voices and views and build consensus is glacial in contrast to the pace of pioneering and innovation in unregulated spaces.  
===[[Cybersecurity|Security]]===
===[[Cybersecurity|Security]]===
====Blockchain models====
* Easy to copy and paste
* could use QR codes but only works with smartphones


===Functionality===
===Functionality===
people can view sites or send emails to people using domains in these alternative TLDs. This could be improved through the use of special helper applications, or if a custom configuration was made to their computer, or to their nameservers, or a custom configuration at an ISP upstream in the DNS hierarchy. None of these solutions were as comprehensive as being listed in the default nameservers that are seen when an operating system starts. Whilst technically trivial to set up, actually running a reliable root server network, in the long run, is a serious undertaking, requiring multiple servers to be kept running 24/7 in geographically diverse locations. During the dot-com boom, some alt-root providers believed that there were substantial profits to be made from providing alternative top-level domains. Only a small proportion of ISPs actually use any of the zones served by alt-root operators, generally sticking to the ICANN-specified root servers. This in turn led to the commercial failure of several alternative DNS root providers.
* Limited audience: few people can view sites or send emails and only to those also using domains in the alternative TLDs. This could be improved through the use of special helper applications, or if a custom configuration was made to their computer, or to their nameservers, or a custom configuration at an ISP upstream in the DNS hierarchy. None of these solutions were as comprehensive as being listed in the default nameservers that are seen when an operating system starts. Whilst technically trivial to set up, actually running a reliable root server network, in the long run, is a serious undertaking, requiring multiple servers to be kept running 24/7 in geographically diverse locations. During the dot-com boom, some alt-root providers believed that there were substantial profits to be made from providing alternative top-level domains. Only a small proportion of ISPs actually use any of the zones served by alt-root operators, generally sticking to the ICANN-specified root servers. This in turn led to the commercial failure of several alternative DNS root providers.
* Alternative name systems today are clunky, hard to reach, and expensive; they put the onus on browsers, which do not want to govern.<ref>Tyler Mason, GoDaddy Blockchain Domain Names Webinar, 12/1/2021</ref>


===Costs===
===Costs===