@codinghorror @trending_bot Related, longer-term thought, in case it interests you: getting @letsencrypt to work with @opennic would put us on a path to set domain names free from the commercial system (after which we could try to get the EU to force browsers to support OpenNIC natively).
https://mastodon.ar.al/@aral/114173316981178689
#OpenNIC #LetsEncrypt #freeTheDomain #domainNames #internet #identity #decentralisation
@[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected] You’re not wrong. But, looking ahead, we can do so much better than the commercial domain name system. Commercial domain names are a gold standard example of artificial scarcity. A domain name registrar cost next to nothing to operate. It’s tiny rows of text in a database. It could easily be free to own your own domain name – a huge part of what constitutes identity – on the Internet. In fact, a non-commercial service has been operational for 24 years. It would be trivial to regulate that browsers in the EU implement support for it and work together with, say, @[email protected] to ensure it can handle TLS. That would be an amazing addition to the commons and a future-proof way forward that we could lead on with next to no investment. #domainNames #DNS #openNic #LetsEncrypt #EU #commons #internet #freedom #ICAAN
The Internet belongs to us all and yet our names are owned/controlled by commercial entities. Isn’t it time to put an end to this ridiculous rent seeking for what are essentially rows in a database? @OpenNIC has a free/open alternative. We should mandate all browsers support it.
It’s difficult to exaggerate the damage that has been caused to the original vision of the web through the commercialisation of domain names. Imposing artificial scarcity and the complexity of commerce systems on a fundamental identifier makes it orders of magnitude harder to self host. Domain names should be a public good. We should embrace https://www.opennic.org/ in the EU and mandate that all browser vendors implement support and get Let’s Encrypt to provide TLS support.
Aral Balkan