Thanks. We know they are not keen on it, but I was assured that from a technical perspective there is not a problem. Someone's data still has to go in WHOIS, they are not going to accept some kind of hash. SP On 2015-06-11 15:21, Sam Lanfranco wrote: > Stephanie, > > I got onto this track because of questions about the Bitcoin as a > viable fiat/digital currency (which is a whole other question) but the > deeper I dug and the more I listened to the research groups dealing > with the blockchain technology the more it looks like there is > something in blockchain for the domain name/WhoIS area that could > apply to both registration and the payments issues, and the bigger > part is with regard to registering and transferring ownership. As for > the payments issue, there are a zillion variations of Bitcoin in the > works: BitGold, BitOil, and probably bigger moves to BitUS$, BitEuro, > etc. There are Bitcoin researchers and blockchain researchers and I am > searching to see if any of the latter have looked at the domain name > registration issues. I see that Andrew Adams has provided a link to > some thought in this area. From a technical perspective there may be > something there. From a business perspective I can see why ICANN, > registries, and registrars would not be too keen on exploring > solutions using blockchain technology. > > Sam > > On 2015-06-11 2:13 PM, Stephanie Perrin wrote: >> So does this mean that the proposal we had for anonymous domain >> registration (in the Experts Working Group report on WHOIS >> replacement) is more doable, at least with respect to solving the >> anonymous payment issue? There still has to be a proxy WHOIS entry, >> which I presume still requires a separate track. >> Stephanie Perrin >> >> On 2015-06-11 13:41, Andrew A. Adams wrote: >>> Sam, >>> >>> There is a fork of the bitcoin blockchain specifically designed with >>> this in >>> mind: >>> >>> https://namecoin.info/ >>> >>> >>> There has been also some academic work on using blockchain for >>> domain name >>> concepts. See: >>> >>> Providing better confidentiality and authentication on the Internet >>> using >>> Namecoin and MinimaLT >>> Frederic Jacobs >>> http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.6453 >>> >>> >>> Peer-to-Peer Networking and Applications >>> April 2015 >>> Difficulty control for blockchain-based consensus systems >>> Daniel Kraft >>> http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12083-015-0347-x >>> >>> >