Mike Ward wrote a very interesting piece on Coin Telegraph with regards to the Blockchain and domain names. Ward takes a look at how the DNS can run on a decentralized platform, he talks about the flexibility this would provide and how it would create greater freedom, reduce costs and provide less exposure to risk.

I thought the most interesting part of his article was talking about how some see domains as becoming obsolete. He points out, “Despite the claims from many that a perfect storm of factors is making domain names obsolete, the indicators suggest otherwise. The naysayers cite the prominence of mobile apps, and the convenience of things like Facebook pages, Etsy stores and more. But after basically stagnating since the late 1990s, the Domain Name System is about to undergo big changes. Stick around, DNS is not done.”

From the article:

The current system is hierarchical in nature, both technically and politically. Technically, this system’s root servers (think central database) represent a high-value attack vector, and a single point of failure that could by itself take down large chunks of the Internet with a single incident, as threatened by Anonymous in 2012. Politically, the decision-making power is concentrated within the governing body making the rules of operation and letting the contracts. This represents a source of significant risk in terms of potential for corruption, and is susceptible to coercion by those entities with great power. The term “blockchain” refers to the underlying technology that powers Bitcoin, a distributed data store that achieves a state of consensus. Every node on the network will agree about the historical facts, with minimal reliance on trusting central authorities. The Domain Name System (DNS) is used every time you interact with resources on the Internet. This system allows us to turn easy-to-remember names such as “CoinTelegraph.com” into useful IP addresses such as “141.101.125.184”. Your computer needs the latter, but you can more easily remember the former. DNS provides this mapping function between names and addresses, much as a phone directory lets us look up a person’s phone number, given their name.

Read the full article on Coin Telegraph