Ever since the web was in its infancy and URLs were just starting to be a thing, internet names that are TLDs (Top Level Domains) are administered by ICANN, a centralized organization that has outlived its usefulness for managing internet names in the opinion of many knowledgeable people in the industry. It’s only very recently that legitimate alternatives to this monopoly of-sorts have come into existence, but the one that’s really generating some buzz these days is Handshake. It is the exact opposite of ICANN, and in particular with the way it is a decentralized naming solution for the Internet that is powered by blockchain technology – another major disruptor in the industry that we’ve also touched on here on a number of different occasions. HNS is the abbreviation for the Handshake naming system, which is a peer-to-peer network and decentralized system using blockchain as a means of offering better control, freedom, and security of the domain and website. As you’d expect, this sort of development is the type that comes up immediately on radar for those of us here at 4GoodHosting in the same way it would for any good Canadian web hosting provider that likes to have its thumb on the pulse of web hosting technology and options that become available to people who need to claim their spot on the web and use it to their personal or business advantage. The appeal of HNS naming is that it is line with decentralizing the web and allowing for a more fair reorganizing of the Internet. So how does Handshake domain naming work, and what exactly make it better for individual users? That’s what we’ll look at this week. Handshake Domains – How Do They Work? Let’s start here with a basic refresher on domain names. All websites accessible on the Internet are found on servers identified using Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Users aren’t expected to know IP addresses, so internet names are mapped to their corresponding servers by means of a domain name system (DNS). DNS is not centralized, but the ultimate control of names via the DNS system is held by a limited number of interest groups...
