Namecoin – A DNS alternative based on Bitcoin:
“Namecoin https://github.com/vinced/namecoin is a naming system based on bitcoin with a few modifications. It is inspired by the bitdns discussion and recent failures of the DNS.
The quick facts:
- This is a new blockchain, separate from the main Bitcoin chain
- Name/value pairs are stored in the blockchain attached to coins
- Names are acquired through new transaction types – new, first-update and update
- Names expire after 12000 blocks unless renewed with an update
- No two unexpired names can be identical
- Block validation is extended to reject transactions that do not follow the above rules
- The code is here: https://github.com/vinced/namecoin
Initially, two name spaces are defined – DNS and personal. The DNS name space is targetted towards a new distributed TLD, possibly .bit.
Here is how you can help:
- Compile and run namecoind.
- Do some mining. The starting difficulty is 512, so CPU mining is still viable.
- We need proxies, browser plugins and DNS servers created to act as a bridge between Namecoin and users.” http://www.bitcoin.org/smf/index.php?topic=6017.0
