Re: NO ROOT?

[John Gilmore <gnu@toad.com>]

James Seng said:
> I was discussing this offline with some folk. But the general idea
> is if we were to do DNSng, and we got a chance to start all over
> again, Do we want to design a system which creates a monopolistic
> hierarchical structure again?

Harald Alvestrand said:
> So - any new proposal needs to specify which mechanism to use to decide 
> which of two claims for a name-to-info mapping to believe; saying "the 
> answer that got to you first" is not quite a specification to inspire 
> confidence.
> 
> A root is not the only answer. It's only the simplest (AFAIK).

Correct.

When the DNS was designed, very little was known about distributed
databases.  Today I have been told by distributed database designers
that it is within the state of the art to build a widely distributed
database which will permit broad distribution of update operations, yet
still converge on a single value of "truth" about a particular record.

As Harald said, the proposal would need to specify a mechanism to use
to decide how to converge on a single value.  Once such a mechanism
was designed and debugged, it would permit the system to automatically
decide among competing claims to a name (e.g. based on the update
timestamp, or on other deterministic criteria if the timestamps were
identical).  The important point is that the process converges on a
single answer.  It's even better if the process can't be manipulated
to favor a particular player or class of players (so that they would
"win" more often).

Such a system would eliminate or reduce the power asymmetries that are
built by design into hierarchies like the current DNS.  This would
reduce the likelihood that significant power over a DNSng would be
captured by any particular faction (like SAIC, government lobbyists,
trademark lawyers, or anybody else).  This would provide a positive
social benefit, by reducing the risk of abuse that has become obvious
in the current hierarchical design.  The Internet routing system, for
example, is not hierarchical, and it's been much harder for any single
player to abuse it.  Despite government connections, nobody has yet
exerted the kind of monopoly control that SAIC/Network Solutions
abused to gain billions of dollars, and help their friends the
trademark lawyers, at the expense of the rest of the Internet
community.

Such a DNSng project would definitely be research, and would take a
minimum of a decade before the bulk of the Internet would choose to
replace their use of the current DNS with it.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation board has indicated some interest
in sponsoring or otherwise assisting with some of the research
required to bring this idea closer to fruition.  I believe that the
key is to interest a gifted distributed database designer, to lead the
effort to clearly define the problem and produce a protocol that
solves it.  Know one?

	John Gilmore


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