Handshake (HNS)
| by research goldshell December 15, 2022 | REPORT |
66 | A innovative peer-to-peer root domain name system.
Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root DNS naming zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems.
Names on the internet (top-level domains, social networking handles, etc.) ultimately rely upon centralized actors with full control over a system that is relied upon to be honest, as they are vulnerable to hacking, censorship, and corruption.
Handshake aims to experiment with new ways the internet can be more secure, resilient, and socially useful with a peer-to-peer system validated by the network’s participants.
The HNS is Handshake’s native token and can be used to transfer, register, and update internet names. The community will be able to initiate auctions and place bids for top-level domains using HNS or trade their HNS as they see fit, with differing values per name.
What does Handshake do?
Handshake is an experiment on collaborating to create a decentralized network which results in a global allocation of names. Think of the handles or usernames you use on services such as social networks, and domain names identifying the URI for websites.
Nearly all of these services were provided by trusted third parties which prevent the web from truly being decentralized. Handshake provides a means, including key management and server/service authentication, for decentralized web services to experiment.
The Internet currently relies upon a single trust root DNS zone and an amalgamation of private companies providing trusted Certificate Authorities to secure the internet, Handshake is an experiment and exploration in alternatives.
By providing a way to do a decentralized lookup of name records, one can produce hashes and keys to identify resources over decentralized networks without a trusted Certificate Authority corporation.
How is Handshake different from other decentralized naming projects?
Many other decentralized naming systems did not allow for secure “light clients” (simple payment verification mode), forcing every potential user to run a full node, equivalent to saving all the domains in the world on your computer. Another key differentiator is that Handshake is the first to pre-reserve names for existing trademark name holders.
As of Oct 31th 2022, the total and maximum token supply of HNS is 2,040,000,000. The current circulating supply is 540,404,883 (~26.5% of the total token supply).
Appendix
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