Shadow DNS
From Telecomix Crypto Munitions Bureau
The 'Shadow DNS' refers to an alternative Domain Name System that works in parallel with the current system. Ideally the DNS should route domains to the relevant IP addresses, and the Internet should work regardless of politics, ideology or financial interests. Unfortunately that's not the case in reality, as the removal of domains from the DNS has become a common method of censorship. The US Government has often done this to prevent copyright infringements and 'intellectual property theft'.
The task ahead of us is basically this: A 'shadow' Domain Name System with technical safeguards against domain seizure and censorship is required.
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[edit] IP Addressing
Servers can be reached by their IP addresses in the event of a domain name seizure, so domains aren't always necessary. They can be used in place of URLs in a web browser and stored as browser bookmarks, and so it's technically possible for everyone to maintain a local address record of commonly-visited sites in their own browsers. The problem with this comes when more than one domain is sharing the same server, and none of them are individually addressable without a URL.
However, the use of local IP records may become a viable alternative when IPv6 and virtual server technology are more fully deployed, as the address range is large enough to assign everyone a block of IPv6 addresses, and from those blocks static addresses can be allocated to all hosts connecting to the Internet. This is something worth researching further.
[edit] DashWorlds
An existing alternative domain system.
[edit] Dot-P2P
The idea is to register .p2p as a Top Level Domain and decentralise it. While this recent project has received widespread support and already has a strong basis for development, the project is centrally controlled and at the discretion of its leadership. The same problems with the current DNS could eventually affect this system unless there are safeguards against domain seizures.
[edit] Telecomix DNS
A priority research project following the US Government domain seizures. The Telecomix Domain Name System would use a decentralised network of trusted servers resilient against censorship attempts. The web of trust established between those servers would provide the authority for the Telecomix DNS. Domains could be added to one of those servers, and the changes would be repeated throughout the network.
[edit] Links to Alternative DNS Projects
DNS-P2P BRAINSTORM: [1] DOT-P2P WIKI: [2] TELECOMIX DNS: [3] DASHWORLDS: [4] I2P: [www.i2p2.de]
