ACachr2·Nov 17, 2016
I mean, I was being a bit facetious, but there are actual proposals for blockchain backed DNS.
[1] https://github.com/okTurtles/dnschain
In The .blog Bait and SwitchokTurtles
dnschain
CoffeeScript2014–2016
okTurtles / dnschain
dnschain
A blockchain-based DNS + HTTP server that fixes HTTPS security, and more!
11Distinct people
48Mentions
1Explicit recommenders
1.7KGitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A blockchain-based DNS + HTTP server that fixes HTTPS security, and more!
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use was verified in the last source check.
What people are saying
I think http://www.blockaid.me/ has been doing this, too, and I believe there were others. Some other approaches I've seen are based on Namecoin somehow. DNSChain for example…
higherpurpose used a recommendation phrase. One indexed comment matches. This is a phrase match, not a verdict.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
No other repository is repeatedly linked in the same discussions.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 8–Nov 15 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/15/2026, 3:38:16 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year48 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2014-03-31 19:23:56 UTC to 2016-11-17 21:39:30 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | 2014-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 24 | 1 | 23 |
| 2015 | 2015-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 18 | 0 | 18 |
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 6 | 2 | 4 |
What Hacker News says
6 sourcesDNSChain – A blockchain-based DNS and HTTP server
92 points · Open discussionDNSChain: secure decentralized alternative compatible with traditional DNS
11 points · Open discussionWell that definitely answers my question. Thank you. What about something like certificate blockchain?
e.g. https://github.com/okTurtles/dnschain
In Microsoft silently adds Amazon root certificates to its CTLAlso, guys, please do research before starting new projects. There are already MULTIPLE identity verification services out there specifically designed to use blockchains. By all means, work on new projects, but if there are formal standards out there, make your implementation 1) interact with those seamlessly, and 2) consider long and hard as to what you're bringing to the table over existing, more mature projects. It's counter-intuitive, but actually developing nothing is better for decentralization than developing a competing project w/r/t user adoption and community fracture.
https://okturtles.com/ is the most successful of them so far. I am not a crypto expert (even less of a blockchain expert) but the code looks pretty good, and the ecosystem is pretty mature.
It has 1) its own aux. DNS service which is tied to your key (somewhat li
Read the rest
ke Tor routing via onion but with acceptable latency), 2) decentralized IdP via block chains, 3) a browser plugin, 4) a whole lot more (see the Github linked below.
https://github.com/okTurtles/dnschain/blob/master/README.md
Whaaaaat. No way man. Especially if this gains critical mass before it's production-ready for whatever reason (who knows why Farmville and GroupOn hit when they did -- right place, right time) it's nothing short of irresponsible especially without a way to effectively declare the system compromised and pull the plug.
Not only that but there are real social implications in having a system that even drops the word "end-to-end encryption" in its phrasing with the whole "Why Johnny can't have crypto" adoption problem. The average engineer rarely reads the docs, my mom would never read the README.md despite the fact that it explicitly says it's not production ready. That bitter taste is left in ones mouth for years (eg. people still associate Microsoft with unstable, insecure junk a la WinME (or unstable junk like Vista RTM [SP1 was fairly sta
Read the rest
ble, but Vista still is a joke]). If this is Johnny's first exposure to crypto and he's using it to Tinder girls on the side, he's never going to trust crypto again.
Push comes to shove rolling your own crypto is completely irresponsible. There are plenty of 'alternative internet' solutions out there that are doing the responsible thing and following the conventional protocols (i.e., using libraries that have been heavily vetted by those with graduate degrees in cryptography, have protocols to revoke/expire your keys in place, WoT's, etc.)
RE: Designing and building the rest -- just like one should use someone else's crypto libs, there are already tons of 'alt-internet' infrastructures that exist which do something similar. It doesn't have the novelty of a mobile app, but most of them do have the cryptographic security to make up for it. Just to name a few-- https://cryptosphere.io/ uses libsodium, https://github.com/okTurtles/dnschain is based on GPG and standard PKI, https://wiki.enigmabox.net/ (I've only audited the cjdns server but it looks real solid, granted my specialty of mathematics is a whole different branch so I'm not even close to an authority, other than I know enough not to roll my own). Then of course there's all of the Moxie-type projects out there which I'll be damned if they've got any holes in there, the dude is of DJB meticulousness
Edit: Yeah basically what Thomas said below me, re: the responsible thing to do is to advertise it as a product with no cryptography in place. Apologies for the knee jerk reaction, but secure communication is something I've felt awfully strongly about, as exhibited by my post history pretty clearly.