Namecoin

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Namecoin is an alternative distributed Domain Name System (DNS) on the basis of Bitcoin software. It expands the software to support transactions for registering, updating, and transferring domains to serve.

Like Bitcoin, Namecoin is a peer-to-peer system, which, assuming an honest majority of participants, can not be controlled by a single state or a company. Changes to the namespace of the rightful owner of a domain with a public key signature are distributed to all peer-to-peer users. The inclusion in the block chain, as the everlasting logfile is used, verifies that the transactions are authentic. The block chain grows whenever new transactions are added by any of the participants. Through a fairly intense proof-of-work process, a matching result of a cryptographic hash function is found that may be verified by all other participants. Due to the computational effort, it is impractical for a counterfeit blockchain to be created.

Currently, the top-level domain .bit used in the official domain name system is not awarded. To resolve domain name you need either the current block chain or use a public name server that participates in the Namecoin system. Namecoin uses a separate block of Bitcoin chain. The software is open source and is hosted on GitHub.

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