Domain names that exist on the blockchain are one solution to fighting censorship and protecting free speech.
Internet censorship is a basic policy of every country, especially Cuba, Iran, Syria, etc. These countries often block online information in their respective countries. But there is a way to bypass censorship, and that is to use a virtual private network to bypass, but general local governments usually have the right to choose to close the virtual private network, but this is also one of the solutions to Internet censorship.
The emergence of the blockchain may give another solution, which is to use decentralized domain names located on the blockchain to build websites.
Most people who are not very familiar with blockchain technology will associate blockchain with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin/Ripple, but completely ignore that blockchain has many technical functions, such as decentralized messaging services , marketplaces, and important decentralized domains that cannot be censored or completely removed.
According to a survey by a foreign organization, in the past five years, many decentralized domain name registrars have been established to help spread blockchain websites and block domain names.
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1. What is a decentralized domain name?
Centralized domain names are the majority of domain names that the Internet uses today. Such as .com, .net, .biz and hundreds of extensions are all domain extensions that most businesses and institutions use in their web addresses. These sites are controlled by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and purchased through domain registrars such as GoDaddy or Bluehost, and the content is then hosted by services such as Amazon Web Services.
Because these sites are only hosted in one location, the data can easily be removed if authorities believe their content violates laws or regulations.
According to statistics, in the year from 2018 to 2019, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, together with the Department of Homeland Security, Europol, Interpol and several police agencies, seized 30,500 domain names in 20 different countries. These domains sell bootleg movies and TV shows, clothing and pharmaceuticals, among other things.
This is especially true in more authoritarian countries where censorship goes beyond selling illegal products. Typically, these countries do not want the public to receive certain news reports, such as information about the spread of diseases, protests, and so on.
For decentralized domains, extensions such as .crypto, .eth, .bit, etc. are stored in different places, making them nearly impossible to delete or censor.
The great value of a blockchain domain name is that it does not require trust in a centralized institution like ICANN. Given the current trend of business globalization,Hair Ball Technologyimage description
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2. Establish a blockchain domain name company
The Unstoppable Domains company mentioned above acts as a blockchain domain name development company. It got a lot of development during the US election in 2016. Founder Kam mentioned in an interview at the time that the rise of authoritarianism in the United States is leading to more and more serious data review.
The Unstoppable Domains website is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Instead of using an application like Google Drive to run existing clients (the server model), Ethereum uses nodes, which are run by thousands of volunteers around the world who store information.
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3. Decentralized network
We have always had a question in our minds, the current theme of the Internet is actuallyWebsite, the website is mainly a domain name, so will the rise of decentralized domain names lead to the emergence of a decentralized Internet?
Martino, a bigwig in telecommunications technology, once saidBefore the global fiber optic network became decentralized, there was always some Internet centralization。
For the current Internet, the communication layer relies heavily on industry, so complete decentralization is not suitable for the current Internet infrastructure. A truly decentralized internet would be unable to prevent any information from reaching anyone else, of course. To achieve this goal, Fuqiu Technology believes that it will require a mesh network composed of billions of wireless devices, so that point-to-point connections can be transmitted across oceans.
Martino also said that at the software level, it is feasible to achieve the above goals, but at the hardware level, large-scale innovations in wireless communication technology are required.
In other words, it’s still too early to create a truly decentralized internet where nothing can be completely blocked or censored. It’s still a long way from reality.
Decentralized domain names do not mean that we will have a fully decentralized Internet in the future, but it is still feasible in terms of reducing censorship.
Maoqiu Technology believes that when using an encrypted Internet, the user is ultimately responsible for security, not the service provider. According to Martinos thinking, as long as the decentralized Internet belongs to the realm of science fiction, then the encrypted Internet will be the next step.
