Bitcoin Forum

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/368437/lawyer-no-hiding-place-from-us-for-web-pirates


There's so many stories like this coming out that are showing a growing demand for a system like Namecoin. I remember during the times when Wikileaks had their domain stolen, many people were calling for a distributed system to ensure security. People would love to be able to register domain names without them possibly being taken away, and without needing to associate their true identities with them (although they still can, of course).

Namecoins have a bright and hopeful future ahead. They have all the strengths of Bitcoins, in addition to the value of a distributed domain name system. Either, or both, could take hold and lead to true Internet freedom. The usage of this distributed domain system would start with the Bitcoin community, and spread virally into widespread acceptance. More helpful pushes by Wikileaks (http://twitter.com/#!/wikileaks/status/78906603948093440) would propel it forward even more.

Although still new and obscure, the three-month old Namecoin has quite an active community. The IRC channel has 150 or so people in it, compared to Bitcoin's 550. These are the people who will advance it forward, just like Bitcoin in its beginnings except at a faster rate. There is a  sub-reddit (http://www.reddit.com/r/namecoin) for it, a project-page wiki (http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page), forums (http://dot-bit.org/forum/index.php), and an exchange (https://exchange.bitparking.com/main) that's been stable and trustworthy so far. The exchange has never "Goxed" anybody and has supported high volumes in the past without issues. A new exchange is expected to come online as well.

However, Namecoin isn't without its flaws, although in my opinion fixable. The system is very unwieldy and even less user-friendly than Bitcoin. The Windows client does not yet have an official GUI. Most importantly, though, there is no easy way to set up the DNS system for your browser. Work is being done in these two areas. Furthermore, Namecoin could be perceived as a copy of Bitcoin, leading people to think there may be more to come and too many to handle.

Does anyone else have crystal-ball opinions on this? I just thought I'd share what I was musing about. Maybe I should have put this in off-topic.

I'm not sure about namecoin and can't imagine how it works. How does it work? It's not like you can have a fraction of a domain name, are there a limited number of domains? What happens if someone loses their wallet? Do names expire?

Where can I read more about this?

More info here: http://tinyurl.com/3bnlzbq

It's more complicated than Bitcoin, it has to be good and easily safer.

I am joking, I have no clue.

Namecoin is exactly the same as Bitcoin, with the additional ability to register domain names.

Bitcoin is already complicated for 90% of Americans

so if Namecoin is even more complicated! Ha good luck! Americans want simple, fast, and cheap

Do people actually utilize Namecoins at the moment to register domains?

What would be the point? Unless the DNS is adopted by the masses, a namecoin domain is pointless. At least with Bitcoins, there is a sellable incentive to the masses. Namecoins lack even that.

Over 2000 domains have been registered so far.


What would be the point of Bitcoin? Unless it is adopted by masses of merchants, Bitcoin is pointless.


Any incentive that Bitcoin has, Namecoin has it too.

Not sure if I understand or like the namecoin idea, it seems a bit half-baked IMO. The name "namecoin" and .coin tld doesn't sound right either.

The problem with a DNS system based around proof of work is that once you've started up and everyone has done some work, you can't change it without serious resistance. This is why you need to write the docs long before the client.

Oh well, nevermind.

In what way is it half-baked?


The tld we are using is .bit


Namecoin is a generic naming system, not a DNS system. You basically register a name and then attach a value to that name which can be anything up to 1 kB of data. The DNS system simply works by interpreting the values of names, so the spec is not at all hardcoded, it is just an agreed upon name/value syntax that can easily be interpreted by the nameservers.

Well mostly because the design doc explains a few of the hows but not many of the whys, everything seems arbitrary rather than calculated. Maybe I'd change my mind if the devs showed their workings

Which whys do you need explained? Maybe some of us know the answers.

Exactly. This is why Bitcoins will ultimately fail as well. See my posts littered around the forum on this.

It will fail if people do not buy and sell real things for bitcoins.  It can succeed without masses of conventional merchants only if bitcoin users go into business and start producing goods and services for sale for bitcoins.  Mining and running currency exchanges are not a sustainable business model alone.

I'm not betting against the Bitcoin system, however.  I started looking into it precisely because my husband and I are working on a business that we hope to open next year, and I need to learn about means of payment.  Bitcoin is one means of payment that has some serious advantages for us.  First, it isn't reversible -- the risks one takes when accepting credit cards or PayPal are not there.  Second, it crosses national borders easily.  Third, the cryptographic system that it is based on is sound theoretically; after the initial period of wild price spikes and dives, the value of bitcoins should settle down nicely.  (My math skills aren't up to having designed Bitcoin, but they are up to understanding the theory behind it.)  At present, I am tentatively planning to accept bitcoins in payment for our products and services, and am seriously considering setting base prices in BTC and attaching USD, EUR, and other currency prices to it.

I've currently got my first bid to acquire some bitcoins up on Mt. Gox.  We'll see when/if I get them for the rather low price I posted.  I don't expect that I'll loose my money, although I'm not risking more than I can afford to loose either. ;)

The governments are being real internet nazis

The average user is already able to browse .bit domains without any prior configuration by using gateways like namecoin.us or bitname.org.

Namecoin is a vital aspect of Bitcoin. It provides an avenue of refuge if, when, gov't entities threaten Bitcoin.

And for those feeling that Namecoin may be a threat to Bitcoin, that's difficult. Spend a week on the namecoin IRC and you will see how much further behind that community is in terms of its development...quite crude. Sure, it's coming along quick, but the level of problem-complexity that Bitcoin is now tackling, Namecoin has not even begun. And when it does begin, it will have far less resources with which to emerge into its own.

IMO Bitcoin is a large undertaking and a head-on Blockchain rival would need significant funding. The first mover advantage for Bitcoin is big.

That said, it is almost inevitable that Namecoin will be 'discovered' by the media and then pick up some press as either a 'rival' or as an example of the multitudinous Xcoins to come.

Miners will (re)pile into Namecoin and drive difficulty levels higher, get some coins, then ask themselves "Why?" The miners will then see a large commerce potential deficit with Bitcoin and then head back over to Bitcoin (or drop out entirely).

Even so, Namecoin is doing some very admirable work and will provide a vital service to Bitcoin and potentially others.

A lot of the stuff that's being developed for Bitcoin is open source so it won't be nearly as hard for Namecoin to create infrastructure as it was for Bitcoin starting out of scratch.

Why? What are the implications of this choice?

That's the algorithm of the network fee decrease. The network fee is just a temporary fee that was set up to avoid too much name squatting by early adopters and slowly decreases with each new block until it becomes 0. If there was no network fee then the only cost to registering would be transaction fees, so with just 50 NMC I would be able to register 2500 or more domains right now.

If by 'why' you meant why was a 50% decrease every 8192 blocks chosen and not faster or slower, I guess it was just thought of as a reasonable equilibrium between squatting rate and cost of registration. It turned out that the value of NMC rose too fast which made registrations more expensive than intended, so starting from block 24,000 the fee decrease will speed up by 4x.

You don't need to go to the third party site, if you want to go to wsj.bit you just type instead wsj.bitname.org or wsj.namecoin.us and you are there. Anyway, I didn't say that it was idiot-proof, only that anyone can access these domains without configuration. Things will probably get easier in the future by way of browser extensions or some other program that makes configuration automatic.

You say that the network fee will soon become 0. Won't that mean that some people will start registering every word in the dictionary because it will be very cheap to do so (the only cost will be possible transaction fees)? Shouldn't the price at any point in time be at least the USD equivalent of, let's say, 1 USD to prohibit domain squatters?

What happens if it turns out that there will be no need for transaction fees because enough miners choose to handle all transactions for free? Then it would be totally free to register as many domain names as one would wish, right?

I didn't say it will become 0 soon. Look at the formula and do the math of how much time it will take to reach that point.


It is impossible to predict the future value of NMC. Also it is impossible to predict the future purchasing power of 1 USD, it might become too high or too low at some point.


Sure, but since blocks have a size limit those transactions would probably stay in limbo forever because of their low priority. People will willingly pay transaction fees in order to be first in the line.

I totally embrace the idea behind namecoin.
With the current development all over the world, more and more domains are taken down.
I do not condone child pornography but I don't want any government take this
as an excuse to START deleting domains.
Get the guys behind these domains, since they are most likely register a new domain
within minutes.
This excuse is currently used in germany.

In my opinion, soon they are starting deleting more and more domains "to protect the citizens",
which do not contain anything like child pornography.
Probably most of the citizens will take this blindly as it is, cause the government tells them this is "good".
If we'd want that, we'd still have the communists in east germany.
Sometimes I get sick when i hear what's going; look at: new zeland, iceland, turkey, germany, great brittain, usa ...


I know it's a paradox, on the hand we don't want domains deleted on the other hand we're moving in the "underground".
Which will most likely result in more domains that are mean, but this should be the cost of FREEDOM.
Sometimes, when people speak about freedom, it sounds ridiculous


just my 0.02 Namecoins