Decentral Domains.

The Backbone of the new, decentralized Internet.

Disrupting Cyberspace.

Why .com when it could be .yourname?

Decentral Domains.

The Backbone of the new, decentralized Internet.

Disrupting Cyberspace.

Why .com when it could be .yourname?

Welcome to the New Internet

Domain names on the blockchain are decentralizing the domain name space.

The part to the right of the "dot" is called the top-level domain (TLD).
The part to the left of the "dot" is called the second-level domain (SLD).

Organizations with big money are able to apply for their own TLD in the traditional domain name space through the central governing body ICANN. But to do this, an organization would need to pay enourmous sums of money.

So here we are with blockchain technology disrupting the domain name space.

Reduce the Need to Trust

Handshake is a decentralized naming protocol, where every participant is validating and managing the domain name system. This creates an alternative to existing, centrally managed Certificate Authorities and naming systems that can fall prey to hackers.

Own Your Name on the New Internet

This disruption to the Internet now makes it possible to own your own name. You can now get domain extensions like ".yourname", which you can then utilize further with "linkedin.yourname", "email.yourname", "paypal.yourname", "bitcoin.yourname" etc. Think of this as your username on the new internet; a way to own your own identity on the internet - all engraved in the blockchain.

Namebase.io made it possible for anyone to get their own Handshake TLD through a very user-friendly interface. You will, however, need a Namebase account and get some HNS tokens.

Own Your Name on the New Internet

Namebase.io made it possible for anyone to get their own Handshake TLD through a very user-friendly interface. You will, however, need a Namebase account and get some HNS tokens.

Relevant and Human Readable Names

It is interesting to note that even Google is starting to move some of their domains off of the ".com" extension and onto their own ".google" extension (see about.google.com). If we think about it, this also makes a lot of sense, since the extension ".com" does not give us any valuable information about the domain, whereas the extension ".google" or ".yourname" already tell us that the domain has a relevance to Google or in the case of .yourname, you as a person or your company.

Compare the URLs

Which one would you prefer?

Again, if we look at what Google is doing, we see that these domains can also open up new possibilities by executing lines of code:

The URL "sheets.new" opens up a new google sheet.

The URL "link.new" creates a new bit.ly short link.

The ".new" extension is an example from the traditional domain name space, but by opening up access to domain extensions, Handshake enables limitless possibilities for creative ways to use the browser search bar for all of us.

Endless Possibilities

Did you know that you can also have emoji TLDs?

Try it out by going to the URL of the Banana Juice 🍌🧃 emoji. Copy the emoji URL here:

https://🍌🧃/

Then paste the URL into your browser address bar like this:

If your browser does not yet support the decentralized internet by default, read here on how to enable your browser to access decentralized domains on the blockchain.

Is that cool or is that cool?

The same is true for character sets of other languages. The way this works is that the emojis or special characters are translated to something called a "punycode". Punycode is a special encoding used to convert these special characters including emojis. So for our Banana Juice example:

Banana Juice Emoji

Punycode for Banana Juice Emoji

Other examples:

"Friendship" in Chinese

"Travel agent" in German

Ps:

Fair Auction Mechanism

Handshake TLDs are obtained through Vickrey-style auctions, whereby the highest bidder wins the name but only pays the 2nd highest bid. After a name has been won through an auction, the secondary market is available for domain name buying, selling and trading. If there is no other bidder for your domain name, you may be lucky to receive a TLD for free. This makes getting your own domain extension very accessible withouth the application fee of $185,000 that would be required through ICANN, the central regulating body for the traditional TLD extensions.

However, I probably do not have to tell you that domain extensions can be very sought after and valuable. Just recently Namecheap won the auction of the .s TLD for a record 4.7 million HNS tokens (about $750,000).

If you want to secure your own top-level domain name or identity on the internet, the easiest way to start and bid on a Handshake domain auction is through Namebase.

Accessing the New Decentralized Internet...

...is quick and simple!

While most browsers do not yet support the decentralized domain name extensions on the Handshake blockchain per default, this is easy to fix. These are the recommended methods:

A lightweight, decentralized, and open-source resolver for the decentralized name space.

For Windows, MacOS and Linux.

A first-class browsing experience for a decentralized internet built open-source with web technologies and secured without third-parties.

For Windows, Mac and iphone.

HDNS is a DNS resolver for Handshake websites that you can start using in seconds.

For Windows, MacOS, Linux, Routers, iOS, and Android.

For a much deeper dive on the Handshake blockchain, you can learn more here.

Domain names are just the beginning!

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No central control. No censorship. No yearly fee. Your own top-level domain (like a .com). Own your own namespace on the internet. Use second-level domains as you like. Yours and only yours. Burned into the blockchain. You decide what to do with it.