[briatx]

DNS has always been decentralized. I mean, first sentence on wikipedia:

> The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system for computers, services, or other resources connected to the Internet or a private network.

[deweller]

From the article:

> While DNS is already fairly decentralized, the centralization exists because of ICANN’s gatekeeper control .... ICANN ultimately has control over what internet names are acceptable – and serves as a singular point of failure.

[jude-]

Nothing stops you or anyone from running your own DNS root. The "hard part" of making a global DNS deployment operational isn't developing the technology; it's getting everyone to agree on all the particulars of the deployment.

[concert-gilled]

> Nothing stops you or anyone from running your own DNS root

That is what this is doing.

> Handshake is a decentralized, permissionless naming protocol compatible with DNS where every peer is validating and in charge of managing the root zone with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities. Its purpose is not to replace the DNS protocol, but to replace the root zone file and the root servers with a public commons.

- https://handshake.org/

[zeroxfe]

Decentralization can occur across many axes -- our public DNS infrastructure, for example, does not have decentralized registration or governance, which is what matters for things like privacy or censorship resistance.

[troquerre]

I work at Namebase. This 100%. Importantly, the root of trust for SSL is not decentralized. Any one of the 600 CAs your computer trusts can compromise your HTTPS requests. The most interesting thing about Handshake from a security angle is it shifts the root of trust from the CA hierarchy to a decentralized blockchain system, which can significantly improve the security of SSL.