[messaging] Namecoin

[elijah]

On 08/21/2014 11:37 AM, Joseph Bonneau wrote:

> This may be the missed vertex of
> Zooko's triangle: without centralized policing of claimed names, it may
> be impossible for people to get any of the human-memorable names they
> want. Or at least annoyingly expensive.

This point could be more profound than we realize. I think there is a
deep social-psychology to online identifiers that we don't fully
understand. There is really interesting sociological research into how
parents give names to their children and what types of status signifiers
they are subconsciously trying to communicate with names. Names are very
personal, but also deeply constrained by cultural norms around taste,
and also incredibly important for what type of self you are trying to
project. If there is anything that sociology can agree on in the last
hundred years it is that there is no such thing as "personal taste". No
one likes opera just because they like opera.

I have noticed that I tend to dislike online services where I am not
able to claim a user identifier that I like. Obviously, this does not
deter many people (hence the zombiedonut1234 at gmail.com phenomenon), but
I think everyone cares deeply about their online presentation of self
(whether or not they are even aware that they care).

If nothing else, the many layered hierarchies of the DNS system have
afforded more opportunities for identifiers that we identify with.

-elijah