OpenNIC

Last updated
OpenNIC
FoundedJune 1, 2000;23 years ago (2000-06-01)
PurposeProvides a non-national alternative to the traditional Top-Level Domain registries. OpenNIC is a user-owned and -controlled Network Information Center.
Website www.opennic.org

OpenNIC (also referred to as the OpenNIC Project) is a user-owned and -controlled [1] [2] top-level Network Information Center that offers a non-national alternative to traditional top-level domain (TLD) registries such as ICANN. [2] As of January 2017, OpenNIC recognizes and peers all existing ICANN TLDs, for compatibility reasons. However, OpenNIC has not yet evaluated and does not hold a formal position on future ICANN TLDs. [3]

Contents

In addition to resolving hostnames in the ICANN root, OpenNIC also resolves hostnames in OpenNIC-operated namespaces, as well as within namespaces with which peering agreements have been established. [3] Some OpenNIC recursive servers (Tier 2 servers) are known for their high speeds and low latency, relative to other more widely used DNS recursors, [4] as well as their anonymizing or no-logging policies. [5] [6] Many servers offer DNSCrypt. Community volunteers operate Tier 2 servers across a multitude of geographic locations.

Like all alternative root DNS systems, OpenNIC-hosted domains are unreachable to the vast majority of Internet users because they require a non-default configuration in one's DNS resolver.

History

On June 1, 2000, an article was posted on kuro5hin.org advocating a democratically governed domain name system. [7] The first OpenNIC servers went into operation July of that year.

OpenNIC TLDs

OpenNIC namespaces

These TLDs are currently served by OpenNIC and were constructed with the approval of the OpenNIC community. [8]

NameIntended useDate introducedRestrictionsNotesStatus
.bbs Bulletin Board System servers, and related BBS websites and services2000-12-29Domain must provide BBS type services. [9] Manual Registration
.chanA Top Level Domain "for imageboards and communities related to imageboard culture" [10] 2015-10-21Active
.cyb Cyberpunk-related content2017-08-14Active
.dyn Dynamic DNS pointers2014-05-30Only A, AAAA, RP and TXT records can be modified.Unused domains are removed after 28 days.Active
.epicGeneral purpose domain for anything of an "epic" nature2019-09-03Active
.freeOrganizations that encourage the non-commercial use of the Free InternetNon-commercial use only. No new registrations accepted. [11] Moved to .libre following ICANN addition of .free. [11] Currently still resolving.Dropped
.geekAnything of a personal or hobbyist nature that would be considered "geeky"2008-02-18Active
.gopherContent delivery via the gopher protocol Must serve content via the gopher protocol.Active
.indyIndependent media and artsActive
.libreOrganizations that encourage the non-commercial use of the Free Internet2017-01-03Non-commercial use onlySuccessor to .free after the introduction of .free on the ICANN namespace [11] Active
.neoGeneral purposeUsage should lean towards themes present in the 'emo subculture' [12] Manual Registration
.nullMiscellaneousNon-commercial use only. Only natural people may hold a .null domain. [13] Active
.oGeneral purpose [14] [15] 2016-11-28 [16] Prohibits domain squatting and spam usage. [15] Active [17]
.oss Open Source Software Active
.oz Australian websites (alt-ccTLD)2012-06-11Active
.parody Parody websitesNon-commercial use onlyActive
.pirate [18] Internet Freedom and sharing Active

Peering agreements

OpenNIC provides resolution for selecting other alternative DNS roots. [19]

NameIntended useDate IntroducedNotesPeer AuthorityStatus
.bazarfree marketplaceEmercoinActive
.bit Namecoin systems, websites and servicesDepeered due to disagreements between the OpenNIC and Namecoin projects. [20] Namecoin Dropped
.coindigital currency and commerce websitesEmercoinActive
.emcwebsites associated with the Emercoin projectEmercoinActive
.fur Furries, Furry Fandom and other Anthropormorphic interest websites [21] 2003-11-? [22] Originally an OpenNIC TLD, [22] now operated by FurNIC. [23] FurNICActive
.ku Kurdish people New NationsActive
.libFrom Words Library and Liberty - that is, knowledge and freedomEmercoinActive
.te Tamil Eelam New NationsActive
.ti Tibet New NationsActive
.uu Uyghur people New NationsActive

New Nations

New Nations provides TLDs for nation-states that are not recognized by the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 standard, and therefore haven't received their own ccTLD. Currently they provide .ku (Kurdish people), .te (Tamil Eelam), .ti (Tibet), and .uu (Uyghur people). [24]

FurNIC

FurNIC aims to bring a unique identity to Furries, Furry Fandom, and other Anthropomorphic interest websites across the internet. FurNIC and OpenNIC work closely with .fur (Furry fandom) generally being treated as part of OpenNIC for most purposes rather than as a separate peer entity. [21]

Emercoin

On January 15, 2015, domains registered in Emercoin's blockchain became accessible to all users of OpenNIC DNS. [25] Emercoin DNS supports the domain zones .bazar, .coin, .emc, .lib, .ness and .sky. However, Emercoin DNS records can be registered/maintained within the Emercoin software and not as part of OpenNIC's management system. [26]

Technical zones

OpenNIC operates some special-use TLDs, which are meant for technical or organizational purposes.

NameIntended useRestrictionsNotesStatus
.opennic.glue [2] Provides hostnames for Tier 1 DNS servers and organizational websites and services.[ citation needed ]Domains cannot be registered. Domains are granted to each Tier 1 server operator or upon approval of the OpenNIC community.Example: "ns2.opennic.glue"Active
.dns.opennic.glueProvides hostnames for Tier 2 DNS servers on the OpenNIC network. [27] Domains cannot be registered. Domains are automatically created upon the approval of a Tier 2 server.Example: "ns1.any.dns.opennic.glue"Active

Suspended peering

Namecoin

In July 2019, the OpenNIC community voted 13-2 for dropping support for .bit domains due to them "being used as malware hubs" as a result of their "anonymous nature". [28] A similar proposal was made in December 2018 but it did not reach the voting stage. [29]

Until then, OpenNIC resolved .bit ( Namecoin ) domains through the use of a centralized server which generated a DNS zone from the Namecoin blockchain. [30] Access was provided through a Tier 1 server which bridges the OpenNIC system and Namecoin. [31] Some OpenNIC DNS servers made use of a Spamhaus-maintained blocklist of malicious .bit domains. [32] [33] [34]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and distributed name service that provides a naming system for computers, services, and other resources in the Internet or other Internet Protocol (IP) networks. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the associated entities. Most prominently, it translates readily memorized domain names to the numerical IP addresses needed for locating and identifying computer services and devices with the underlying network protocols. The Domain Name System has been an essential component of the functionality of the Internet since 1985.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">ICANN</span> American nonprofit organization that coordinates several Internet address databases

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers is a global multistakeholder group and nonprofit organization headquartered in the United States responsible for coordinating the maintenance and procedures of several databases related to the namespaces and numerical spaces of the Internet, ensuring the Internet's stable and secure operation. ICANN performs the actual technical maintenance work of the Central Internet Address pools and DNS root zone registries pursuant to the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) function contract. The contract regarding the IANA stewardship functions between ICANN and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the United States Department of Commerce ended on October 1, 2016, formally transitioning the functions to the global multistakeholder community.

A top-level domain (TLD) is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet after the root domain. The top-level domain names are installed in the root zone of the name space. For all domains in lower levels, it is the last part of the domain name, that is, the last non-empty label of a fully qualified domain name. For example, in the domain name www.example.com, the top-level domain is .com. Responsibility for management of most top-level domains is delegated to specific organizations by the ICANN, an Internet multi-stakeholder community, which operates the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), and is in charge of maintaining the DNS root zone.

A name server is a computer application that implements a network service for providing responses to queries against a directory service. It translates an often humanly meaningful, text-based identifier to a system-internal, often numeric identification or addressing component. This service is performed by the server in response to a service protocol request.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Domain name</span> Identification string in the Internet

In the Internet, a domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. Domain names are used in various networking contexts and for application-specific naming and addressing purposes. In general, a domain name identifies a network domain or an Internet Protocol (IP) resource, such as a personal computer used to access the Internet, or a server computer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Root name server</span> Name server for the DNS root zone

A root name server is a name server for the root zone of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. It directly answers requests for records in the root zone and answers other requests by returning a list of the authoritative name servers for the appropriate top-level domain (TLD). The root name servers are a critical part of the Internet infrastructure because they are the first step in resolving human-readable host names into IP addresses that are used in communication between Internet hosts.

The DNS root zone is the top-level DNS zone in the hierarchical namespace of the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet.

The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are a suite of extension specifications by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing data exchanged in the Domain Name System (DNS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The protocol provides cryptographic authentication of data, authenticated denial of existence, and data integrity, but not availability or confidentiality.

The Internet uses the Domain Name System (DNS) to associate numeric computer IP addresses with human-readable names. The top level of the domain name hierarchy, the DNS root, contains the top-level domains that appear as the suffixes of all Internet domain names. The most widely used DNS root is administered by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). In addition, several organizations operate alternative DNS roots, often referred to as alt roots. These alternative domain name systems operate their own root name servers and commonly administer their own specific name spaces consisting of custom top-level domains.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Internationalized domain name</span> Type of Internet domain name

An internationalized domain name (IDN) is an Internet domain name that contains at least one label displayed in software applications, in whole or in part, in non-Latin script or alphabet or in the Latin alphabet-based characters with diacritics or ligatures. These writing systems are encoded by computers in multibyte Unicode. Internationalized domain names are stored in the Domain Name System (DNS) as ASCII strings using Punycode transcription.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.xxx</span> Sponsored top-level Internet domain

.xxx is a sponsored top-level domain (sTLD) intended as a voluntary option for pornographic sites on the Internet. The sponsoring organization is the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). The registry is operated by ICM Registry LLC. The ICANN Board voted to approve the sTLD on 18 March 2011. It went into operation on 15 April 2011.

AlterNIC was an unofficial, controversial Internet domain name registry that relied on an alternative DNS root. The primary purpose of the project was to challenge the monopoly of InterNIC, the official governing body for generic top-level domains (gTLDs) until the creation of the ICANN in 1998. AlterNIC offered second level domain registration in its own TLDs at lower prices than InterNIC. However, these domain names could only be resolved by name servers that were specifically configured to use the AlterNIC root zone. The project is now defunct; the domain name alternic.net is parked and no longer associated with AlterNIC.

A country code top-level domain (ccTLD) is an Internet top-level domain generally used or reserved for a country, sovereign state, or dependent territory identified with a country code. All ASCII ccTLD identifiers are two letters long, and all two-letter top-level domains are ccTLDs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.so</span> Internet country code top-level domain for Somalia

.so is the internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Somalia. After a long absence, the .so domain was officially relaunched on November 1, 2010, by .SO Registry, which is regulated by the nation's Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. It was launched through various accredited registrars around the world.

.mail is a generic top-level domain originally proposed by The Spamhaus Project in 2004, but rejected by ICANN. Its purpose was to enable responsible message recipients to reliably and efficiently identify and accept spam-free mailstreams. The ICANN Board issued a resolution on 4 February 2018 to cease the processing of all applications for the .corp, .home, and .mail gTLDs.

The domain name .local is a special-use domain name reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) so that it may not be installed as a top-level domain in the Domain Name System (DNS) of the Internet. As such it is similar to the other special domain names, such as .localhost. However, .local has since been designated for use in link-local networking, in applications of multicast DNS (mDNS) and zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) so that DNS service may be established without local installations of conventional DNS infrastructure on local area networks.

The Domain Name System of the Internet consists of a set of top-level domains that constitute the root domain of the hierarchical name space and database. In the growth of the Internet, it became desirable to expand the initial set of six generic top-level domains in 1984. As a result, new top-level domain names have been proposed for implementation by ICANN. Such proposals included a variety of models ranging from adoption of policies for unrestricted gTLDs that could be registered by anyone for any purpose, to chartered gTLDs for specialized uses by specialized organizations. In October 2000, ICANN published a list of proposals for top-level domain strings it had received.

Namecoin is a cryptocurrency originally forked from bitcoin software. It uses proof-of-work algorithm. Like bitcoin, it is limited to 21 million coins.

.vlaanderen is a generic top-level domain for Flanders, Belgium first introduced in 2014.

References

  1. ↑ Zhong, Peng. "OpenNIC - Projects - PRISM Break". prism-break.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-16. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  2. 1 2 3 "Frequently Asked Questions". scoop.opennic.unrated.net. Archived from the original on May 22, 2008. Alt URL Archived 2017-01-31 at the Wayback Machine
  3. 1 2 "What is OpenNIC?:OpenNIC Wiki". wiki.opennic.org. Retrieved 2017-05-05.
  4. ↑ "OpenNIC DNS Network". December 3, 2010. Archived from the original on June 24, 2013.
  5. ↑ Coldewey, Devin (November 11, 2016). "Tech tips to help stay safe in Trump's America". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  6. ↑ Harvey, Charlie. "Anonymous Public DNS with OpenNIC". charlieharvey.org.uk. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  7. ↑ "kuro5hin.org". www.kuro5hin.org. Archived from the original on January 29, 2019. Alt URL
  8. ↑ "OpenNIC Operated Namespaces". OpenNIC Wiki.
  9. ↑ ".bbs TLD". OpenNIC Wiki. If a site is no longer providing BBS type services, that should also be grounds for removal of the domain.
  10. ↑ "opennic.chan". chandns.net. Retrieved 2017-09-27.
  11. 1 2 3 "Re: [opennic-discuss] Call for vote on .free issues". OpenNIC Mailing List Archive. January 3, 2017.
  12. ↑ ".neo TLD". OpenNIC Wiki.
  13. ↑ ".null TLD". OpenNIC Wiki.
  14. ↑ ".o Charter". www.moderntld.com. Archived from the original on 2017-01-18.
  15. 1 2 ".o TLD". OpenNIC Wiki. November 30, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2017.
  16. ↑ "Re: [opennic-discuss][Vote] .o TLD Proposal". OpenNIC Mailing List Archive. November 28, 2016.
  17. ↑ ".o Registration System Online". ModernTLD News. 2017-04-20. Archived from the original on 2017-04-21. Retrieved 2017-04-20.
  18. ↑ ".Pirate Domains Now Available Through OpenNic - TorrentFreak". TorrentFreak. 2012-05-15. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  19. ↑ "OpenNIC Peers:OpenNIC Wiki". wiki.opennic.org. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  20. ↑ "Discuss - [opennic-discuss] Vote to keep or drop peering with NameCoin - arc".
  21. 1 2 "FurNIC". FurNIC.
  22. 1 2 ".fur - WikiFur, the furry encyclopedia". en.wikifur.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  23. ↑ ".fur TLD". OpenNIC Wiki.
  24. ↑ "new-nations". new-nations.net. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  25. ↑ Emercoin. "Emercoin reaches peering agreement with OpenNIC". emercoin.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  26. ↑ Emercoin. "Emercoin DNS". emercoin.com. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  27. ↑ "OpenNIC Public Servers".
  28. ↑ "Should OpenNIC drop support for NameCoin [OpenNIC Wiki]". wiki.opennic.org. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  29. ↑ jbiscaya (2019-07-17). "OpenNIC drops support for .bit domain names after rampant malware abuse". The GRC Hub. Retrieved 2020-08-31.
  30. ↑ "Dot-Bit: Secure Decentralized DNS". bit.namecoin.org. Retrieved 2017-01-15.
  31. ↑ ".bit TLD". OpenNIC Wiki.
  32. ↑ "DNS Blacklisting API [OpenNIC Wiki]".
  33. ↑ "Discuss - Re: [opennic-discuss] letit2 [.] bit blacklist - arc".
  34. ↑ https://api.opennicproject.org/acl/filter/ [ bare URL plain text file ]
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