With the upcoming issues with ICANN and the domain name system, Namecoin will have its day in the sun. As authoritarian governments take more control over the internet - and not just in their own countries, but everywhere they can - a distributed DNS will be a godsend to everyone who believes in a free internet.
If .bit was added to the root DNS system, it would, like TOR become an important part to empower individuals around the world. Until then, it takes a little bit of work to use it.
From WSJ.com today:
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Icann set up a process to hand control over to governments. Under the current "multistakeholder" system, an advisory group of governments has only as much power as other stakeholders, such as Web registries, website owners, free-speech groups and other nonprofits. But in August, Icann quietly proposed changing its bylaws to rubber-stamp government decisions unless two-thirds of the Icann board objects. In turn, Iran has proposed that the government group move to majority voting from the current consensus approach. That would enable the world's majority of authoritarian governments to rewire the Internet more to their liking.
What will this mean? Authoritarian governments could for the first time censor the Web globally, not just in their own countries. Russia could get Icann to withdraw Ukrainian sites. China could engineer the world-wide removal of sites supporting freedom for Hong Kong or Tibet. Iran could censor its critics in the U.S. Website operators could also expect new global fees and regulations.
Such a change "would fundamentally transform Icann away from being a 'bottom-up' and 'private sector-led' organization and into a governmental regulatory agency," wrote Robin Gross, a former chairman of the Icann group representing nonprofits, on the CircleID blog. "Why Icann would voluntarily choose to empower non-democratic governments with an even greater say over global Internet policies as this bylaw change would do is anyone's guess."
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