Hi folks, I wanted to jump in and clear up some misconceptions about OpenNIC that I've been reading in this thread. If you have any further questions, feel free to ask!
First off, to reiterate what has already been stated, domains from OpenNIC are NOT the same as domains from Epik. While we have had many discussions over the years about running OpenNIC more like a business it always falters because we will not charge for our domains (and as was already mentioned, alt-root domains have exactly zero monetary value and we aim to keep it that way). In general, OpenNIC has always been a learning project, where people come to understand the nuts&bolts of what makes the internet function. It gives everyone a chance to see how the various levels of DNS zones interoperate. More recently we have also gained a following of members who connect under ISPs with intentionally-broken DNS services that do not properly reply with NXDOMAIN or other errors (generally because the ISP uses mis-typed domains for their own monetary gain).
Using an alt-root does not require any sort of plugins or other software installations. You simply enter a couple of our DNS server IPs into your network setup and you are done. There may be some browser plugins available that let you access alt-roots without modifying your network setup, but that seems like the more difficult way to achieve the goal.
I've been with OpenNIC since 2002, and I think maybe I remember the issue with the .biz TLD conflicting with ICANN? That's ancient history though, and as a rule we now try to make sure we never have conflicting domains. When new TLDs are suggested, we do our research to make sure it's not something ICANN is considering or that another alt-root is already using. There was also mention of the fact that reg.for.free no longer resolves for registering OpenNIC domains -- which is because ICANN started using .free and we had to shut down ours. The .libre TLD was formed and all existing domains were moved to that one, again to avoid conflicts with the ICANN root zone. (The domain be.libre has taken the place of reg.for.free.) We do our best to ensure that our DNS servers always return legitimate information and follow the expected standards.
Another comment suggested that OpenNIC zones are not decentralized. We currently have 76 public DNS servers in 22 countries, all of which can resolve any of our TLDs and domains, and which also have pointers to the DNS servers of other alt-roots we peer with. Yes it is true that registrations are typically handled by individual servers, but in the case of the .o zone which is being discussed that registration takes place through github.
If anyone has an interest in the OpenNIC project, please see our website at opennic.org.
