True though that the technology also needs to advance as it also does for other coins with active development. Standing the test of time is one thing, active development the other.
There
is active development. I've already mentioned the ConsensusJ light client.
The full client,
namecoin-core follows Bitcoin development closely, the last update was 7 days ago.
The problem, for me, is still usability. It is still too difficult for the "general public" to use Namecoin. The Blockchain DNS project (browser extensions) I mentioned earlier is a big step forward as it works on two of the most popular browsers and works out-of-the-box. I think porting the Blockchain DNS extension to the remaining browsers (Safari and Edge/IE) and with a stable light client (ConsensusJ or Electrum) Namecoin can be a success.
Since you mention that: I stumbled over the signatures (
https://github.com/namecoin/gitian.sigs) of the current namecoin version (
https://namecoin.org/download/) which obviously is 0.13.99.
There are also signatures for version 0.15.99! Does anyone know more?As a finger exercise:How to use those signatures? (Because it always works a little bit different for each project (here I stay with version 0.13.99). E.g. BitcoinUnlimited signs hash sums via Bitcoin's message signature system, which is only consequent:
https://www.bitcoinunlimited.info/download. Some projects do not even provide signatures.)
Firstly download the software, e.g. via
wget https://namecoin.org/files/namecoin-core-0.13.99-name-tab-beta1-notreproduced/namecoin-0.13.99-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz
Then import the corresponding gpg-key:
gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv F8F7BF85
Which returns something similar to:
gpg: requesting key F8F7BF85 from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key F8F7BF85: public key "Jeremy Rand (Master Key) <jeremy@veclabs.net>" imported
gpg: no ultimately trusted keys found
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: imported: 1 (RSA: 1)
You can find the key here:
https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/pks/lookup?op=vindex&search=JeremyRand&fingerprint=onVia searching for "JeremyRand" at
https://keyserver.ubuntu.com/Then, you must clone the signature repository of namecoin
git clone https://github.com/namecoin/gitian.sigs.git
And enter the corresponding directory
cd gitian.sigs/0.13.99-name-tab-beta1-linux/JeremyRand/
Check the signature
gpg --verify namecoin-linux-0.13-build.assert.sig
Which returns
gpg: assuming signed data in `namecoin-linux-0.13-build.assert'
gpg: Signature made Sa 15 Okt 2016 22:13:13 CEST using RSA key ID 786D6570
gpg: Good signature from "Jeremy Rand (Master Key) <jeremy@veclabs.net>"
gpg: aka "Jeremy Rand <jeremy.rand@ou.edu>"
gpg: aka "Jeremy Rand <jeremy@namecoin.org>"
gpg: aka "Jeremy Rand <biolizard89@gmail.com>"
gpg: aka "Jeremy Rand <jeremyrand@airmail.cc>"
gpg: WARNING: This key is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg: There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 5174 0B7C 732D 572A 3140 4010 6605 55E1 F8F7 BF85
Subkey fingerprint: 541D DF77 302B 6847 2806 D912 B3F2 D165 786D 6570
Or alternatively
gpg --verify namecoin-linux-0.13-build.assert.sig namecoin-linux-0.13-build.assert
Output is similar without the "assuming bla fasel". This shows that the information in the assert-file is signed by Jeremy Rand. The sig-file contains the signature and the assert-file contains sha256sums of the namecoin files.
Finally, find the sha256sum of the downloaded file in the assert-file
ef0fee861afe66cbf06de162ee5ee3cb88b43d281341d2f3f24ee9e9494ce5a1 namecoin-0.13.99-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz
And do something similar with the downloaded file like
sha256sum namecoin-0.13.99-i686-pc-linux-gnu.tar.gz | grep -o ef0fee861afe66cbf06de162ee5ee3cb88b43d281341d2f3f24ee9e9494ce5a1
If this returns
ef0fee861afe66cbf06de162ee5ee3cb88b43d281341d2f3f24ee9e9494ce5a1
Everythin seems fine.