Namecoin - what is going on ?

[bitlane]

It seems that the 'latest' biggest news in the Namecoin project has been the implementation of Merged Mining and it's free ride on the Bitcoin Mining Network.

Has the project stalled ? The Wiki seems to be a complete mess, with missing pages (stating vandalism as the cause) and nothing seems to be happening that is capturing any decent press.

Another thing that really bothers me is the fact that Users are able to register dot-bit domains using BTC. WTF ?
This essentially makes NMC even more useless and worthless than ever. THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED ASAP.

The 'currency' is old enough and plentiful enough to be able to stand on it's own 2 legs, without the need for BTC to come to the rescue and accomplish what NMC was supposed to be used for in the first place - Domain Registrations.

If BTC is always seen as an immediate substitute for NMC, then what are we doing mining Namecoins ? We might as well be Merged-Mining I0C or ICX, as they both seem to be just as useless at this point and NMC is headed to be about as worthless in terms of it's BTC trading rate as well.

Namecoin needs a kick in the pants and needs to be weaned from the teat of Bitcoin once and for all.

BTC should NOT be an alternative to NMC for the purchase of services intended to be under the NMC flag and if allowed to continue, will render NMC (as a currency) a complete and total failure.

YMMV.

[randomguy7]

Another thing that really bothers me is the fact that Users are able to register dot-bit domains using BTC. WTF ?
This essentially makes NMC even more useless and worthless than ever. THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED ASAP.

You can't register dot-bit domains using BTC. I mean you can but you basically pay someone BTC for the service of registering a dot-bit domain for you (using namecoins).

[deepceleron]

Bitcoins can't directly interact with the Namecoin network. You can buy Namecoins on an exchange with your Bitcoins, and then use those Namecoins to buy a domain. It's pretty cheap, about 0.0005 BTC for a domain name right now, less than $0.01 a domain name, and less than GoDaddy by far. That's probably why over 2000 domains were registered in the last 10 days.

The problem is that there are far fewer people using the Namecoin client than there are registered domain names. Of those that actually have a Namecoin wallet, far fewer of those use Namecoin to do DNS lookups - and why should they? You don't know where the names people have created will take you, and there are places it will be impossible to ever use Namecoin's DNS (try going to a Namecoin .bit domain on your iPhone...)

For getting to my own sites myself, it would be easier to use a hosts file. If my site is reallycoolsite.bit, I can't tell people to go to that address, they aren't going to be running a Namecoin DNS. It would be easier to use a DNS redirection service like afraid.org - at least everyone will be able to actually get to reallycoolsite.afraid.org if I say my site is there. Namecoin offers unblockable P2P DNS, but 99.9999% of the Internet is not set up to use these names and won't be, so it's close enough to "blocked" already.

Merged mining has steadied the difficulty and transaction rate of Namecoin; previously it would stagnate for months after a profit-raping mine-fest drove up difficulty. This also means new miners have Namecoins that wouldn't have heard about or used them otherwise, but not much is being done with them.

[Swishercutter]

Any talks about if SOPA/PIPA in the US will make Namecoin more valuable if either of those bills pass?

[DeathAndTaxes]

BTC should NOT be an alternative to NMC for the purchase of services intended to be under the NMC flag and if allowed to continue, will render NMC (as a currency) a complete and total failure.

BTC is a currency.  The purpose of a currnecy is to buy and sell goods and services including among other things domain names.
Hopefully someday you will be able to register a dot bit domain w/ BTC, USD, Euros, and twenty other currencies VIA INTERMEDIARIES.
However behind the scenes NMC is still needed.  It is impossible to create a dot bit domain registration without NMC.  Given unlimited USD, BTC, or other currencies you simply can not add a domain to the NMC block chain unless you find someone with NMC who is either willing to sell you some NMC or do it for you.

A site offering domains in BTC is no different than an exchange allowing trade of NMC for other currencies.

Exchange:
1) Person has BTC
2) Person wants dot bit domain
3) Person exchanges BTC for NMC
4) Person uses NMC client to register domain

Registrar accepting BTC (or USD or Euros, or eGold, or blood diamonds)
1) Person has BTC
2) Person wants dot bit domain
3) Person pays registrar in BTC
4) Registrar uses NMC (already acquired or purchased in realtime from exchange) and NMC client to register domain.

Your rant makes about as much sense as saying.
"I saw in the mall you can buy gold coins w/ dollars.   Dollars should NOT be an alternative to gold.   If dollars can simply make gold coins then gold is useless and a complete failure."

[Iyeman]

Your rant makes about as much sense as saying.
"I saw in the mall you can buy gold coins w/ DOLLARS.   Dollars should NOT BE an alternative to gold.   If dollars can simply make gold coins then gold is useless and a complete failure.

lol qfe

[kjlimo]

BTC should NOT be an alternative to NMC for the purchase of services intended to be under the NMC flag and if allowed to continue, will render NMC (as a currency) a complete and total failure.

BTC is a currency.  The purpose of a currnecy is to buy and sell goods and services including among other things domain names.
Hopefully someday you will be able to register a dot bit domain w/ BTC, USD, Euros, and twenty other currencies VIA INTERMEDIARIES.
However behind the scenses NMC is still needed.  You can't add a dot bit domain registration without NMC.  Given unlimited USD, BTC, or other currencies you simply can not add a domain to the NMC block chain unless someone who has NMC is willing to do it for you (or sell you NMC).

A site offering domains in BTC is no different than an exchange.

Exchange:
1) Person has BTC
2) Person wants dot bit domain
3) Person exchanges BTC for NMC
4) Person uses NMC client to register domain

Registrar accepting BTC
1) Person has BTC
2) Person wants dot bit domain
3) Person pays registrar in BTC
4) Registrar uses NMC (already acquired or purchased in realtime from exchange) and NMC client to register domain.

Your rant makes about as much sense as saying.
"I saw in the mall you can buy gold coins w/ DOLLARS.   Dollars should NOT BE an alternative to gold.   If dollars can simply make gold coins then gold is useless and a complete failure.

but what about Euros?

[bitlane]

NMC was never meant to be a currency in the first place.

Of course not...and definitely not for registering dot-bit domains.

Rather than waste your time looking at my post history, looking for something to comment on, you had better go back to the NMC Wiki and have another read.

I'm willing to bet that you don't even have a single Dot Bit registered name or for that matter don't even know what it is LOL 

...and I'm willing to bet that you would shit your pants if the opportunity to speak to someone like this ever came up, face to face, far from the safety that hiding behind your keyboard and monitor provide you.

17 days since the last post in this thread and here you go all NECRO-like, just trolling, looking to cause a problem.

BitcoinEXpress, you truly are a half-wit coward.....

[bitlane]

Blah blah blah...spewing cowardly crap because mom never held me much and dad touched me places he shouldn't have...

Start here:
http://dot-bit.org/Main_Page

Pay CLOSE attention to the part at the very top, titled What is Namecoin

A quick QUOTE perhaps, to save you the trouble ?

What is Namecoin
Namecoin is a peer-to-peer generic name/value datastore system based on Bitcoin technology (a decentralized cryptocurrency).
It allows you to :
Securely register names (domains for example), no possible censorship!
Trade and transact namecoins, the digital currency NMC.

....and thanks for coming out.

[LoupGaroux]

First off- NMC is at best a very, very sparsely supported alt-coin, and the wiki, such as it is, will get even less love from the NMC fans. Having a little bitch fit because the wiki isn't orderly is just a little too OCD even for a Class A anal-retentive like you bitlane. It's a freaking wiki, which by definition is there to be changed, corrected, abused, vandalized, fixed, improved, and rendered into glorious perfection by... (wait for it... it's worth it...) YOU. Yes, you, the numb nuts whiny bitch in the front row who is so busy trying to insult the other kids in the class about the splinter in their eyes, you failed the catch phone pole stuck up your ass.

Secondly- wowsers! Somebody has come up with a quasi-legitimate use for bitcoins... spending them in the NMC arena for goods and services. And you first thought is to demand, like a little frustrated tart on her first paid date, that "THIS NEEDS TO BE ADDRESSED ASAP." You even felt that it was so critical that you had to implement not only bold, but a caps lock smackdown at the same time! To help maintain the racial purity of your precious namecoins, the nascent market should be prohibited from accepting bitcoin? That's just so outre I cannot fathom the tangled logic that led you to that.