https://www.icann.org/en/blogs/details/new-icann-publications-explain-blockchains-and-name-system-technologies-17-10-2024-en
To help the ICANN community better understand blockchains and their
relationship to alternative naming systems, ICANN recently published two
documents in the Office of the Chief Technology Officer (OCTO) document series
aimed at those with a technical background. OCTO-039, "Introduction to
Blockchain Name System Technologies" focuses on the proposed features for a
variety of blockchain name systems. OCTO-040, "Introduction to Blockchain
Technologies" describes the features common to nearly all blockchains currently
in use.
Both documents emphasize technology and largely omit the financial aspects of
blockchains and blockchain name systems. Additionally, the documents are
intended to be neutral, neither promoting nor criticizing the technologies
discussed. Neither document includes any policy or position statements from
ICANN.
Blockchains
To understand the technology of blockchain name systems, it is helpful to
understand the technology behind the blockchains on which the name systems are
based. People are often surprised that what they have heard about blockchains
frequently oversimplifies many of blockchain's fundamental features. For
example:
You do not query a blockchain to find out who has coins: instead, you must
query a database that is constantly being updated by additions to the
blockchain.
Different blockchains have very different ways that they can be trusted, based
on technical decisions that are applied when each blockchain is first created.
The most common blockchain topics that you hear about, particularly their use
for financial systems, are mostly unrelated to the technical underpinnings of
the blockchains.
A major impediment to learning about blockchain technologies is the loose use
of terminology that is used in different parts of the blockchain ecosystem.
OCTO-040 adopts terminology that might be more familiar to readers who already
understand Internet technologies. The document shows how these more descriptive
words and phrases map to terms you might have heard used by blockchain
proponents and detractors.
Blockchain Name Systems
It has become clear that there is no single thing that matches the name
"blockchain name system." These naming systems are operated outside of the
global Domain Name System (DNS), and their operators have made many different
choices from each other about how they want their name systems to work.
OCTO-039 covers other features that are being used, including:
Associating blockchain account identifiers ("wallet addresses") with blockchain
names (which is also possible in the global DNS)
Permanently associating other data with blockchain names
Using alternative top-level domains ("alt-tlds") in blockchain name systems
that are not delegated as TLDs in the global DNS
Coordinating with the global DNS by using alt-tlds that match the TLDs that are
already delegated in the global DNS
What This Means for ICANN
Because they are not part of the global DNS, blockchain name systems are able
to choose any names they want, without asking permission of any other
organization. OCTO-039 describes this in much more depth. Some organizations
have already announced that they want greater integration between the global
DNS and new blockchain name systems. As these proposals become formalized, the
ICANN community can engage with them more effectively if it understands more
about the blockchains and the blockchain name systems associated with them.
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