Top-level domains
Top-level domains (TLDs) are bare domains with only one part, like
.com, .org, or .neat. In Neatcoin, top-level domains are
distributed through governance, to enable further registrations and
interoperability with other DNS systems.
Types#
Neatcoin-specific TLDs#
Neatcoin-specific TLDs are currently .neat and .neatuser. More can
be added through on-chain governance later. Their registration
information is directly stored on the Neatcoin blockchain.
.neat domains are distributed through auction, and .neatuser
domains are first-come-first-served. You can read the subsections to
learn more about how they works.
ICANN TLDs#
ICANN TLDs are normal domain names like .com, .net and
.org. Their entry in Neatcoin is specifically masked so that they
point to the ICANN root zone. This design allows Neatcoin to easily
handle interoperability with existing DNS system as well as handling
future addition of ICANN TLDs.
OpenNIC TLDs#
OpenNIC is an alternative DNS root zone with specific additional TLDs
like .null, .libre and .bbs. Similar to ICANN TLDs, their entry
in Neatcoin is specifically masked to point to the OpenNIC root zone.
Additional TLDs#
Additional alternative root zone services can also be added. In order to ensure all Neatcoin resolvers understand the meaning of all TLD types and can properly resolve them, they are added through on-chain runtime upgrades.
The current list of additional TLD types include Handshake root
zone. Because the way Handshake works, it's impossible to support
Handshake while maintaining compatibility with traditional DNS system,
even for basic things like .com and .org. Therefore, Neatcoin only
resolves particular Handshake TLDs of interests.
Methods#
Conflict resolution#
It may happen that in the future ICANN adds an additional TLD that conflicts with one already on the Neatcoin network. On-chain governance on Neatcoin provides a method for conflict resolution. Neatcoin coin holders can collectively decide if they want to move solely to the new ICANN TLD, to continue to solely use the existing Neatcoin TLD, or to combine both with a priority system.