Namecoin
Namecoin is an experimental open-source technology which improves decentralization, security, censorship resistance, privacy, and speed of certain components of the Internet infrastructure such as DNS and identities.
(For the technically minded, Namecoin is a key/value pair registration and transfer system based on the Bitcoin technology.)
Bitcoin frees money – Namecoin frees DNS, identities, and other technologies.
What can Namecoin be used for?
- Protect free-speech rights online by making the web more resistant to censorship.
- Attach identity information such as GPG and OTR keys and email, Bitcoin, and Bitmessage addresses to an identity of your choice.
- Human-meaningful Tor .onion domains.
- Decentralized TLS (HTTPS) certificate validation, backed by blockchain consensus.
- Access websites using the .bit top-level domain.
What does Namecoin do under the hood?
- Securely record and transfer arbitrary names (keys).
- Attach a value (data) to the names (up to 520 bytes).
- Transact the digital currency namecoins (NMC).
- Like bitcoins, Namecoin names are difficult to censor or seize.
- Lookups do not generate network traffic (improves privacy).
Namecoin was the first fork of Bitcoin and still is one of the most innovative “altcoins”. It was first to implement merged mining and a decentralized DNS. Namecoin was also the first solution to Zooko’s Triangle, the long-standing problem of producing a naming system that is simultaneously secure, decentralized, and human-meaningful.
More Information
News
(RSS Feed)
Electrum-NMC AppArmor, Static Analysis, and Input Validation + ncdns Unix Sockets
2024-05-11 Several new Electrum-NMC & ncdns enhancements have been added.
rust-electrum-client for Namecoin
2024-05-10 Recently, I needed to use rust-electrum-client with Namecoin. I was kind of worried that this would be nontrivial, but as it turned out, I was able to get it working in just a few days of hacking, despite this being my first foray into Rust.
Video, Slides, and Paper from Namecoin at GCER 2022
2024-05-09 This post is a bit late, but I represented Namecoin at the 2022 Global Conference on Educational Robotics. Although GCER doesn’t produce official recordings of their talks, I was able to obtain an amateur recording of my talk from an audience member. I’ve also posted my slides, as well as my paper from the conference proceedings.
Enhancements to IPFS & IPNS: A Closer Look at the Latest Updates
2024-05-01 Several new Electrum-NMC enhancements have been added.
Electrum-NMC v4.0.6 Released
2023-12-23 We’ve released Electrum-NMC v4.0.6. The changelog will probably be posted after 37C3.
Namecoin will be at 37C3
2023-12-21 After a lengthy pandemic-induced hiatus, C3 is finally back this year, and we’re happy to announce that three Namecoin developers will be at 37C3 (the 37th Chaos Communication Congress) in Hamburg, December 27-30.
Namecoin Receives 40.1k EUR in Additional Funding from NLnet Foundation’s NGI Assure Fund and European Commission
2023-12-21 We’re happy to announce that Namecoin is receiving 40,100 EUR (roughly 44,134 USD) in additional funding from NLnet Foundation’s NGI Assure Fund. If you’re unfamiliar with NLnet, you might want to read about NLnet Foundation, or just take a look at the projects they’ve funded over the years (you might see some familiar names). The NGI Assure Fund is managed by NLnet and funded by the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, through their Next Generation Internet intitiative. This new funding is focused on Electrum-NMC.
Binary Encoding Support and Testing Enhancements
2023-12-04 Electrum-NMC has recently undergone significant improvements aimed at refining the user experience and expanding functionality. The most prominent changes involve the introduction of three distinct tabs within the graphical user interface (GUI): Hex, Domain, and ASCII. The Hex tab now serves as a dedicated space for users to interact with the hexadecimal representations of names, providing a standardized and transparent view of binary data. The Domain tab focuses on simplifying interactions by allowing users to employ a simpler format like “name.bit” instead of the original “d/name” format. Meanwhile, the ASCII tab preserves the original format of registration, ensuring compatibility for users who prefer the original format.
SOCKSification: Outreachy Internship Progress
2023-02-23 SOCKSification refers to the process of rerouting network traffic from an application via a SOCKS proxy server. This method is frequently used for security, anonymity, and circumventing network constraints. There are numerous techniques for SOCKSification, but in this article, we will focus on two main approaches that were considered.
Outreachy Internship Progress
2023-01-29 Greetings! I wanted to provide an overall update on the project’s progress. We have successfully implemented the ability to detect the IP address and port that socket system calls are sending data to, as well as the capability to block system calls that are sending data to an IP address and port that is not the desired proxy. Additionally, we have added an option to kill the application if a proxy leak occurs, which is useful for manual QA testing, and an option to allow proxy leaks but log any that occur, which is useful for automated testing of applications. Furthermore, we have included the capability to use the environment variables that Tor Browser uses, such as TOR_SOCKS_PORT, to determine the desired proxy.
For the latest news go to the Namecoin forum or check out r/namecoin.
Official anouncements will also be made on this BitcoinTalk thread.
Donate
Help keep us strong. You can donate to the Namecoin project here.
Participate
With Namecoin you can make a difference. We need your help to free information, especially in documentation, marketing, and coding. You are welcome at the forum. There may be bounties, too.