Blockchain domain names: simpler, say goodbye to complex addresses

Author: peijie

Source: imToken

Editor's Note: The original title was "Simpler, Say Goodbye to Complex Addresses"

Everyone has a unique ID number, why do we need a name? When we access the Internet, we actually visit each IP. Why is the domain name similar to https://www.apple.com entered?

• QKL123 market analysis | Featured indicators show that Bitcoin price is undervalued (1128)
• Energy consumption is reduced by up to 100 times. University researchers propose new algorithms to rescue PoW mining with photonic chips
• Twitter will clean up inactive accounts, with Hal Finney an exception

Because we need readability, which is not found in ID numbers and IP. As a result, we have invented a naming system that maps machine language and human language in different fields, turning numbers and IP into readable and meaningful content, thereby connecting human and machine language.

When I check the service at the Civic Center, I need to report my ID number instead of my name. The official system matches the ID number to retrieve my information. When I enter https://www.apple.com/ in my browser, the domain name is automatically resolved to this IP: 122.224.45.229, and the corresponding web page is displayed to me.

This is the meaning of the naming system, which communicates humans and machines, making humans readable and understandable.

01Blockchain naming system

In the blockchain world, the need for a naming system is particularly prominent. If you have been exposed to the blockchain, you should have seen long addresses like Ethereum's 42-bit characters and Bitcoin's complex passwords.

Here, if there is no naming system, coupled with the blockchain's own value attributes and irreversibility, once the wrong transfer is made, it is an irreparable loss.

The CoinDash project was hacked two years ago, and the payment address on its official website was maliciously replaced, causing many investors to mistakenly transfer Ethereum with a total value of $ 7.35 million into a hacker address. Hackers took advantage of the unfriendlyness of the original Ethereum address:

0x5BB0b2A1EbF55AE6F3890EdfC5cD7ab995722bfE

0x00DF69cAff4435aB22066E11E16b2E57F2DeA3e7

These two addresses, we can only understand that they are different addresses, and we cannot distinguish which one is the correct payment address. So does the blockchain now have its own naming system to help us avoid similar errors as much as possible? Yes, ENS is a blockchain domain name service (based on the Ethereum-developed naming service) that is currently popular.

02 ENS Domain Name Service

In the CoinDash example, if they use the ENS domain name and map the correct payment address to coindash.eth, then the user only needs to identify the domain name and transfer the money. The trick of "address replacement" will be immediately revealed, because we You can easily distinguish the difference between "coindash.eth" and "coindasl.eth".

Of course, ENS also supports mapping IPFS hash, Tor.onion and other types of text to ENS domain name. One conceivable scenario is that when ENS (blockchain domain name service) and IPFS (decentralized storage) are combined, we may be able to experience network services under a decentralized architecture.

The current ENS domain name is in .eth format and seems to represent only Ethereum. In this regard, the solution of ENS is to enable the owners of current DNS domain names to declare their respective domain names for use on ENS through DNSSEC.

For example, the Ethereum Foundation owns the DNS name "ethereum.org"; through DNSSEC, they can provide an ENS record for "ethereum.org" (Note: not ethereum.eth). In this way, the Ethereum Foundation can use "ethereum.org" to receive digital asset payments.

Recently, ENS has added some new features that are closely related to us:

1. Support 3-6 digit short domain name registration
2. Support multi-chain address resolution

Opening short domain name registrations With the opening of short domain name registrations, more people have joined the squatting squad (it is very interesting to be able to have a dedicated domain name on the blockchain). At present, more than 310,000 .eth domain names have been registered. If you grab it, change your Weibo nickname and WeChat name to xxxxx.eth, just like V God changed Twitter to vitalik.eth, which is cool.

Or you have registered a forgotten dark horse domain name, and trade with Opensea.

ENS Domains for sale on Opensea

Support multi-chain address resolution . Enter tryit.eth in the address of the latest version of the imToken transfer page. Under different chains, you can resolve to:

ETH address: 0xEfd7cc992149b7980d069Cbc955F0310BeecB7d9

BTC address: bc1q4a8s7kyvzr3gzcpgzslpmrj08lkdn4lku9tu2w

After ENS supports all popular public chains, we can rely on only one domain name to freely transfer money between the wallet and the exchange, without having to copy and paste and double check the address again and again.

03 more than one family

At present, blockchain domain names are still not widely popular, in addition to .eth provided by ENS, .zil, .crypto provided by Unstoppable Domain. You can experience convenient transfers in wallets that support these domains (such as imToken).

A possible scenario in the future is that the domain name service has become the entrance to everyone's public information in the blockchain world. By entering the corresponding domain name, we can either transfer money to a specific address, send information to the corresponding mailbox, or directly open a specific web page . The information corresponding to the domain name is recorded in the contract, and no third party can tamper or cancel it.

04Last

Just as the naming system (DNS) catalyzed the popularity of the Internet, ENSs are also likely to promote the promotion of blockchain.

Next time, when you transfer money, remember to ask the other party if they have their own unique domain name.

We will continue to update Blocking; if you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us!