[messaging] Namecoin

[zaki at manian.org]

The properties of a distributed solution that are important in my opinion
are:

1. Non-repudiability of advertized keys. To permit detection of MITM
attacks(a priori or post facto) and reputational loss in authorities that
facilitate MITM attacks. Also a potential defense demands for lawful
interception on the basis of harm to business.
2. The ability to run local nodes from which keys can be obtained.

Properties that are not as important in my mind:
1. Records are solely the property of the users/clients
2. One giant global consistent namespace for all users
3. Absolute censorship resistance

A property that might or might not be useful:
1. An informational commodity value like a "Namecoin" that must used to
update the records and incentivize other participants to validate block on
the network.

In this context, the ongoing experiment in consensus algorithms like
Ripple, Proof of Stake etc may have offer solutions to the problems with
the e2e messaging space even if they do not displace Proof of Work in the
in cryptocurrency space. To quote Vitalik-

> "Ultimately, this boils down to a philosophical question: exactly how much
> does decentralization mean to us, and how much are we willing to pay for
> it? Remember that centralized databases, and even quasi-centralized ones
> based on Ripple consensus, are free. If perfect decentralization is indeed
> worth $100 billion, then proof of work is definitely the right way to go.
> But arguably that is not the case."-
> https://blog.ethereum.org/2014/07/05/stake/


I can imagine a scenario where the major account providers like Google,
Yahoo etc attesting to identity keys on provider specific blockchains. They
pay transaction fees to nodes on the network.This is an economic price of
trust.  When looking up a key for different provider, Google would query
its local Yahoo blockchain node for example. Consensus algorithms that
permit many blockchains and some censorship can defer the namespace
squatting issues to centralized entities while retaining accountability for
those centralized entities.



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On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 2:32 PM, Trevor Perrin <trevp at trevp.net> wrote:

> On Fri, Aug 22, 2014 at 2:31 PM, Trevor Perrin <trevp at trevp.net> wrote:
> >
> > This use case is NOT a "cryptocurrency" use case.  It's closer to
> > older ideas such as [1
>
> [1] http://nakamotoinstitute.org/static/docs/secure-names-bit-strings.pdf
>
> Trevor
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