ICANN, office of the CTO, has published the following document on 27 April 2022.
Challenges with Alternative Name Systems
Full report:
https://www.icann.org/en/system/files/files/octo-034-27apr22-en.pdf
Executive Summary
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a component of the system of unique identifiers ICANN
helps to coordinate. It is the main naming system for the Internet. It is not the only one. Some
naming systems predate the DNS, and others have been recently proposed in the wake of the
blockchain approach of decentralized systems.
Proposing a new naming system is one thing. Making sure everybody on the Internet can use it
is another. Alternative naming systems face a huge deployment challenge. A number of
solutions exist to bridge the DNS to those parallel worlds, but they all come with their own
drawbacks.
Furthermore, the lack of name space coordination, either between those alternative naming
systems and the DNS, or simply among those alternative naming systems, will result in
unworkable name collisions. This could lead to completely separate ecosystems, one for each
alternative naming system, which would further fragment the Internet. This is the exact opposite
of the vision of “one world, one Internet.”
Conclusion
Even though alternative naming systems can be deployed in controlled, managed
environments, deploying them on the Internet at large faces serious challenges.
As we have seen over three decades of IPv6 deployment, transition mechanisms are useful for
early adopters, but do not seem to be a viable long-term approach. Similarly, alternative naming
system bridging solutions cannot be expected to work flawlessly. Requiring user intervention to
install or configure anything is typically a non-starter. Asking resolver operators to bridge the
DNS to those alternative naming systems can lead to unpredictable results, user frustration,
rising support costs, and in the end, a less secure and stable Internet.
Furthermore, the use of specially built applications to work with alternative naming systems
poses significant risks. As seen in Section 5, the creation of new namespaces without any
coordination (either among themselves nor with the DNS) will necessarily lead to name
collisions, unexpected behaviors, and user frustration. The end result might very well be
completely separate ecosystems, one for each naming system, further fragmenting the Internet.
It is worth remembering that the vision of a single Internet necessitates a unique system of
identifiers, in other words a unique namespace, as discussed in
ICP3.