[Freedombox-discuss] distributed DNS

[bertagaz at ptitcanardnoir.org]

On Tue, Mar 15, 2011 at 10:25:24PM -0400, Boaz wrote:
> Whatever arrangements we make for freedom box friendly DNS service
> should involve costing almost no to no money ($15 per year or whatever
> isn't a lot, but it is a lot compared to the unfree services which
> people are currently using completely free of charge).  Maybe the cost
> of the first 10 years of DNS service from one of a whole list of
> participating service providers should be rolled up into the price of
> the device?  Just a thought.

That mean having an API able to understand every supported registrar
website so that it can put the informations in the form they belong in the
registration page. Quite a job! :)

> Appropriate arrangements should also involve extremely low hassle
> domain registration.  Something like, you choose a provider from a
> pull down menu, or type in one that you know about, type in your
> desired second (or lower) level domain, and hit enter, and it
> automatically contacts the provider, registers the domain, and points
> it to your box.  Do people think that could be possible?  Perhaps
> using lower level domains, as some have suggested?
> 
> But more important, I think, than trying to find a good provider is to
> make it as easy as possible for people to switch from misbehaving
> providers.  One feature that would help tremendously (especially if
> we're going to create a system of almost or completely free of charge,
> easy to register subdomains), one feature which a few people have
> already proposed, is a machine language for your box, using the proper
> cryptographic credentials, to inform your friends that you, who used
> to be found at foo.example.com, will now be found at foo.bar.net.  In
> other words, your real identity as far as your friends are concerned
> is your key.  Your domain name is just a way for your friends to find
> you in the network.  If your domain name has changed, why should you
> need to tell your actual human friends about this.  Just tell their
> boxes and let them take care of it.

Well, that could be one of your gnupg UID, a bit like in monkeysphere.

> I wish I already had this feature for email.  If I have an email
> address boaz at example.com, and example.com does something to upset me,
> and I hate example.com, and I never want to have any further dealings
> with those bastards at example.com, there's nothing I can do.  I've
> already told three hundred people who I want to be able to contact me
> for all time, that my address is boaz at example.com.  I'll have to keep
> monitoring boaz at example.com forever.  Unless I want to do one of these
> terrible mass mailings that everyone hates (I've received several of
> these, and it's a sorry sight).

You already have something like that with gnupg in some ways. If you get a
new email, you can add an UID to your key and revoke the UID corresponding
to the previous email.

bert.