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Quickly Resolve Handshake Names

After two months of mainnet going live, there are already domains using the Handshake blockchain. What you may not know is that there are a few steps you’ll need to implement on your devices to access them. This guide was originally put together by Eric Meltzer and another was shared by Steven McKie on Twitter. I’ve added a little more details for people like me who want things over explained.

Resolve Handshake domains the easy way

NextDNS is one of two trusted resolvers in Firefox (the other is Cloudflare) and was cofounded by the current Director of Engineering at Netflix — it’s a trustworthy service.

In addition to resolving Handshake URLs, NextDNS blocks a ton of ads, Facebook trackers, etc, so your browsing will feel faster — while also providing you greater online privacy

Follow these steps to quickly get setup in <2minutes (seriously): 1. Go to nextdns.io and make an account [Tip: you don’t have to actually make an account, but this just makes changing your settings in the future easier without going through these steps again]. Make sure you notate the “ID” listed under “Endpoints”, this is the magic number that’ll tell NextDNS what settings to use as your new resolver.

Notice where it says “96bb6a” here, this is the ID you’ll need later. Do not reuse the ID above in the example, it’s only for educational purposes.

2. Once you have an account (or not), go to Settings, scroll all the way to the bottom, and turn on “resolve handshake domains”

3. Download the app for your system (Mac, Windows, iOS etc), install, and follow the instructions to set up!

There’s multiple platforms NextDNS supports, notate which you’re on and download accordingly.

4. Once installed, go to preferences and select “Harden Privacy Mode”. Next go to the configuration tab, click “Use Custom Configuration” and paste your ID from NextDNS.io into the “Configuration ID” field.

What it looks like in MacOS

5. Finally click “Enable” and you should be all set!

Congratulations! You can now resolve names on the decentralized web via TLDs that are purchased and enabled on Handshake.

For a full list of current names on the network, check out http://DNS.Live which is updated every 15 minutes.

There are a few ways to check and see if it’s working. The easiest is to click here: if it says “you’re connected” then you’re good. If it doesn’t, please come ask for help in the Telegram channel or Discord chat; if no one helps you quickly, feel free to @ an admin, and they’ll get you sorted.

Setup instructions will differ on iOS and Android but the flow should be the same:

Setup a NextDNS.io account (or don’t, but remember your configuration ID).

Download the app to your specific device.

Follow setup instructions, and paste your configuration ID, then enable NextDNS to on.

In my first Handshake piece giving an overview of the project, I linked to some sites you can checkout now that you’re all setup. Here is the link for the lazy.

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Edited By: Steven McKie