[liberationtech] Thoughts on decentralized DNS, and OpenNIC particularly?

[Rohan Dixit]

Hi all,

Curious if anyone had thoughts on OpenNIC as a provider of decentralized
DNS. From my naive point of view, it often seems like dDNS is a good way to
stop lazy types of censorship. But perhaps I'm missing something and the
problem is more complicated than that?

I'm including an email from Falkvinge's list-serve, below, which came
through earlier today and discusses in slightly more detail. Also brings up
the idea of bitcoin dDNS, of which I know even less about.

Thanks,
R

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Falkvinge on Infopolicy <rick at piratpartiet.se>
Date: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 at 3:48 AM
Subject: Falkvinge on Infopolicy
To: rohandixit86 at gmail.com


**
   Falkvinge on Infopolicy <http://falkvinge.net>
 <http://fusion.google.com/add?source=atgs&feedurl=http://feeds.feedburner.com/Falkvinge-on-Infopolicy>
------------------------------

Reclaim The Internet In Under A
Minute<http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Falkvinge-on-Infopolicy/~3/vGLZ5_fFK9Q/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>

Posted: 14 Mar 2012 12:30 AM PDT
[image: This lady is a hacker]

Activism – Travis McCrea: *After you read this post and follow its
instructions, you will be able to show how all the money and energy being
spent on censoring the Internet was pointless. Plus, give yourself a more
free web browsing experience.*

As Rick pointed out in a recent
post<http://falkvinge.net/2012/03/08/with-latest-domain-seizures-us-declares-trade-war-on-the-world/>,
the United States Government has declared war on trade, making its attack
through the DNS system: one of the most critical and forgotten pieces of
infrastructure on the Internet. Governments all over the world are
destroying access to information by the corruption of local DNS systems.
It’s time we reclaim our Internet by taking back our DNS.

Too Long; Didn’t Read

Blah blah blah Travis, just tell me what I need to know….Okay go to
UseOpenNIC.org <http://useopennic.org> and follow the instructions

There are currently many “Alt-Roots” out there for you to choose from, and
many more are popping up every day, even when writing this post I had a
friend ask me to write about some of these new bitcoin based DNS systems
instead. When dealing with DNS, however, I want a reliable system that has
been proven; a system that is democratic and decentralized; I want *OpenNIC*
.

To give a brief overview: OpenNIC is over 12 years old (which is basically
120 years old in Internet time), and is the DNS root used by many popular
people within our community such as TiAMO (Pirate Bay dude) and NovaKing
(EZTV dude). It has a mailing list where new TLDs are democratically voted
on; a transparent way of knowing who is logging what when you use their
server for your DNS; and the ability to choose what country your DNS goes
through. Finally, and most importantly for most people, it still resolves
ICAAN TLDs so you can still go to your favourite dot-coms (and even better,
you can go to your favourite dot-coms even if they are blocked in your
country).

OpenNIC TLDs are community owned so they don’t get seized, even if a server
was shut off, the TLDs would still resolve through the system due to the
decentralized nature of the network. Finally when you switch your DNS to
OpenNIC you have removed the power of your government and the United States
government to block what websites you go to. By making this quick and
transparent change to your computer, you are protecting the internet

I have created a very simple website to help you sign up for OpenNIC in
under a minute, go to *http://useopennic.org* <http://useopennic.org>, put
in the country you want your DNS to be in, select your operating system,
and you will get a guide which will help you setup your computer in less
than a minute.

[image: flattr this!]<http://falkvinge.net/?flattrss_redirect&id=10787&md5=90186821a35371280338c01225c17dbe>

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