XNS: eXile Name System

Could you genuinely clarify for me what the purpose of the name would be? Is it a TXEXTRA?

I still don't get it. So it basicallly like DNS but can be bought with monero?

@PRIBITCAP you can map a name to an Ed25519 public key, thats it. can be used for anything. for example you can run a Tor site using your XNS name, non custodial alternative to DNS. i will be writing a daemon to handle onion part soon, then it will seem more promising. it can still be used for PGP purposes, depends on your use case. and yes, it uses tx_extra, 64 bytes. it is not a "privacy problem" here since names are already meant to be public data.

@sepia no. it is DNS that lives on Monero. cant be stopped or taken down. it is under your control as long as Monero lives. read the docs to learn more about it.

@eravsar

1. Thats a genius idea, I like that a lot.
2. What is the price for? Is it just to prevent spam?
3. Would it be possible to register a website so my server is discoverable with your protocol?

@Nebuchadnezzar_II thank you. yes, names should have a cost, not only for preventing spam but also to make an entry level fee that keeps the efforts of indexers managable and the registry accessible for everyone. it requires burning a little amount (0.01 XMR) per year. the amount is provably burned and no one can recover it.

@eravsar Having simple explanation less than 50 words would help. I still cannot grasp how it works and why should i prefer that instead of having vps company owning the DNS on my behalf (I've read the doc but i'm not good with technical stuff so i still confused about it).

It felt similar to NFT, please correct me if i'm wrong understanding it.

@eravsar Would it be possible to register a website so my server is discoverable with the protocol?

@sepia The problem is you can't "own" a domain with traditional DNS systems. You can just rent an access permission. If for some reason ICANN or any organizations between you and the domain name thinks you are not behaving they can seize it, or even worse, redirect it to an identical service of their own. DNS is made for 1980 internet where trust was ordinary and everyone was registered. Today it is impossible. That's why even Email is under risk and centralization, for example you can't even send emails reliably over your own infrastructure, you need a big corporation to vouch for you. So the internet is pretty locked down. Unless you use Tor or I2P, you are a peasant in Internet, even though you are mindful enough to run your own services on your own server, the identifier is in the hands of other parties. They hold the gate. There are MANY instances of DNS seizures. Thats why people trust cryptographic keys today with Tor and I2P. But those keys are not very practical in terms of memorability and brandability. Thats why you'd want names that can't be seized, names that points to your cryptographic identity, and names that cant be seized by one party. It does feel similar to NFT because it is NFT in some sense, but it is an absolute necessity. Imagine if people who use Tor now can start to use XNS names without requiring permissions from any institution. And the best part is unlike anything XNS is built on Monero. The most bulletproof, unstoppable decentralized tech ever made. To stop XNS they have to stop XMR, and guess what? They already failed.

@Nebuchadnezzar_II if you run an onion service, since Tor uses Ed25519 keys, you can register a name for it. i will be releasing a daemon software thats gonna make your computer natively resolve XNS names to onion addresses that route through the Tor network.
With great proof of concepts soon. Hopefully more people will adopt that, I genuinely think thats useful, otherwise I wouldnt build it. And obviously I dont have any direct personal benefit from this, except that it empowers something I believe in.