Namecoin
From Dot-BIT Namecoin Project
What is Namecoin
Namecoin is a distributed naming system based on bitcoin technology (a cryptocurrency).
It can be used to store any data that use a name (or a key) associated with a value like domain names (DNS), user identities, hash of documents to prove date of creation, etc:
[Name] => [Value] domain_name => domain_zone_configuration user_name => user_public_identity (email, name, gpg key, etc) document_hash => document_infos (name, hash, owner, etc)
To register a name, you must own some namecoins (NMC, the internal cryptocurrency used by the software).
Main features
- distributed/decentralized: each user has its own copy of the full database
- secure: security (with public/private keys) is deeply integrated in the software to allow only the owner of a name to modify it in the distributed database.
- pseudonymous: all transfers of data are public and linked to random generated addresses
- open: anybody can use namecoin to register a name or to create its own namespace
First release of namecoin source code was announced on April 18, 2011.
Projects using Namecoin
- Dot-BIT: a domain name system (DNS) using the .bit TLD.
See Also
