Since the website https://ipfs.io – so I heard – is here to stay, including as an IPFS gateway, wouldn’t it be possible to use the site’s servers to resolve OpenNIC top-level domains and offer free registrations? I was thinking .ipfs
of course, but (since the “IP” in IPFS stands for “interplanetary”) also TLDs like .earth
, .moon
, .mars
, .ceres
etc. Though I understand that the latter GeoTLDs might be a bit much, but .ipfs
? Yeah, why not?!
IPFS is just a transfer protocol. Since you can already point any domain name to any IPFS hash with the dnslink functionality, I guess I don’t see the point in it. There are already decentralized TLDs like .bit, it would be much better if they gained a larger adoption since they can be used for anything (including, but not limited to IPFS)
The question is not about what you can technically do with standard domains and IPFS (dnslink etc.), it’s about the idea of an OpenNIC .ipfs
TLD. If only the technical things were important in the world, investors would already be pouring millions into ProtocalLabs, and hordes of programmers would come crashing into the ipfs repos. I actually do see a point in having an .ipfs TLD, reserved for sites that dnslink to IPFS/IPNS, a form of advertisment, of spreading the name etc. It might not last, it might not need to last, if the future of the web means IPFS, but while getting there, it could be a fun intermediate step.
Hm…
-
https://<CIDv1>.ipfs/path
→/ipfs/<CIDv1>/path
-
https://<CIDv1>.ipns/path
→/ipns/<CIDv1>/path
Not sure I understand. Isn’t it supposed to be https://<CIDv1>.ipfs/ip[fn]s/path
?
Well, if we can have .ipfs
, why not .ipns
too ?
Having separate namespace removes confusion caused by URLs having .ipfs/ipfs
and .ipfs/ipns
Joking of course. TLDs are expensive.
OpenNIC TLDs do not cost anything, as far as I know, except for the money needed to run an OpenNIC server for your TLDs, which could just be added to the preexisting servers that house https://ipfs.io and other gateways, if their owners want to. For the users having an .ipfs
or .ipns
domain would be free of charge (first come first served). So having .ipfs
and .ipns
would surely be feasible, provided that the OpenNIC community agrees to enable these TLDs in the first place. However, the problem is that probably 99% of all internet users don’t even know how to change their DNS settings, let alone add OpenNIC DNS. So websites using .ipfs
or .ipns
TLDs would effectively be invisible to the majority of people, invisible to Google, Bing etc. And that’s a really big downside regarding my above remark about the advertising purpose.
I think it’s a great idea.
And how about work on some idea to use ipfs to expand OpenNIC? I am thinking in merge the Blockchain DNS with the IPFS browser extensions. Maybe it could be easiest for the average user to acces all OpenNIC TLDs. Including .ipfs/.ipns
At the very least, it’s a great idea to merge support for all non-standard TLDs in the IPFS Companion browser extension: at the moment I’m using the Firefox “Blockchain DNS” extension for the OpenNIC stuff, and MetaMask for .eth etc., and I’m pretty sure there are other non-standard TLDs I still can’t reach with this extension combo. (Though namecoin & emercoin are allegedly also resolved by OpenNIC, but .eth is not.) As for .ipfs & .ipns (via OpenNIC or not), I can’t say if it will ever happen, but it wouldn’t be a bad idea to at least prepare the IPFS Companion extension for their use.
I don’t have technical skills, but i could do dumb job if someone wanted to get this done.