@alex @xianc78 the unfortunate thing is that ENS has a URL field but not an "ip address field". in another post I mentioned that I can still do it, but I am 100% sure that Brave wouldn't recognize it.

@alex @xianc78 I don't understand what they were thinking when they made something that they wanted to work similarly to DNS but doesn't map to DNS at all.

@Moon @xianc78 Yeah, same.

If we solved it in Brave, they would merge it. ENS+Tor support was created at a hackathon.

@alex @xianc78 I guess nothing is stopping me from proposing to them how I see it working. Basically, the "contenthash" field supports a super-flexible format that, typically is only used for IPFS CIDs, but can also hold a binary format that contains both an IPv4 and IPv6 address simultaneously. I've been investigating this precisely because I want to close the gap and make ENS useful to us. Right now the official ENS website can only put IPFS and Swarm URLs in there.

The field wasn't meant to hold an IP address, but the format they used supports it so I am gonna pester some people to see if they think it's a good idea.

@Moon @xianc78 Please do. This is probably the most important problem concerning NFTs and the Fediverse and you’re right at the center of it.

@alex @xianc78 well shit, when you put it that way I can't just let it drop. I guess I'll do it for sure, then.

@alex @xianc78 @Moon ENS has centralized governance so if it ever gains wide adoption it will likely suffer from censorship too. Also Brave browser doesn't run local ethereum node, it just uses eth.link gateway from Cloudflare. So it's even less censorship resistant than DNS but much more fragile.
I think if you want full control over your name, there's no real alternative to public-key based name systems like .onion

@silverpill @alex @Moon Brave is controlled OP like just like Mozilla. Their BAT is centralized as well.

@silverpill @Moon @xianc78 Good points but these are things that can be fixed.

@silverpill @Moon @xianc78 DNS can’t be fixed.

@alex @Moon @xianc78 I guess in a few years we'll finally get working light clients for ethereum. But how would you fix governance? I think it's inevitable that ENS DAO will be captured by VCs and twitter celebrities

@silverpill @Moon @xianc78 We can fork ENS and prevent the contract from being replaced. It’s an option. We don’t have that option on DNS. These are solvable problems. DNS can’t be fixed.

@alex @Moon @xianc78 We can fork ENS but we can't fork all the infrastructure built around it. I'm not arguing that DNS can be fixed. It's broken for exactly the same reason, you can't just fork ICANN and hope that everyone will follow.
On the other hand, public-key based identities do not require formal governance, they are usually free to use and anonymous. And human readability issue can be solved with a petname system (like a phonebook) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Petname

@silverpill @alex @xianc78 what infrastructure are you proposing, pgp keyservers?

@Moon @alex @xianc78 Onions are the most viable option, but unfortunately they are very slow. My favourite network is Yggdrasil (yggdrasil-network.github.io/) where each node receives a public IPv6 address and all communications are encrypted so there's no need for HTTPS. It's still experimental (only ~2500 nodes) and it's not clear how well it will scale.
Ideally, instances should be able to communicate with each other via different transports and switch automatically if one of them fails.

@silverpill @Moon @xianc78 I get your point, but blockchain domains are 10x better than the ICANN. We have to advance, and this is the path.

There’s currently no path for key based identities. There could be, but there isn’t yet.

@alex @silverpill @Moon @xianc78 how does one stop someone from mass registering with these blockchain name services? With ICANN there are registration fees to stymie that behavior.

@NEETzsche @alex @silverpill @xianc78 there is a registration fee. there is a governance board that determines that fee. it really only exists to prevent soam

@Moon @xianc78 @alex @NEETzsche @silverpill why are you trying to reinvent the wheel? #Namecoin solved this more than a decade ago. No bloated blockchain, it just does one thing and does it right.

@pamaca @Moon @NEETzsche @silverpill @xianc78 Why can’t I figure out how to use it, and how would a browser implement it?

@pamaca @Moon @NEETzsche @silverpill @xianc78 Does it have traditional DNS records?

@alex @pamaca @NEETzsche @silverpill @Moon ZeroNet uses it and works on modern web browsers. Maybe you should look on how ZeroNet uses it.

@pamaca @NEETzsche @alex @silverpill @xianc78 hooking name resolution to a general purpose blockchain gets us the security of a whole network of people doing different things, which is actually better security

@alex @xianc78 @silverpill @Moon do you run a matrix server btw?

@alex
Those are the things that are needed to solve the biggest problems of DNS. Until centralization and censorship resistance are fixed, none of the other whiz-bang tech makes a difference.
@xianc78 @silverpill @Moon

@silverpill @alex @xianc78 I don't think the contracts have backdoors in them to revoke names but I haven't checked closely.

@Moon @alex @xianc78 I think they can prevent you from renewing your name. But they promise to not "unfairly discriminate against name owners’ ability to extend, transfer, or otherwise use their names" in their constitution docs.ens.domains/v/governance/ens-dao-constitution

@silverpill @alex @xianc78 I just checked the contracts for base registrar and registrar controller and there's no facility built into them that can restrict registration or renewal. They have the ability to force migration to a new contract, which would be very painful, but they could do that yeah.