#opennic

With US considering India's proposal to host a root DNS server in India, an interesting point needs to be brought back into view: Internet is not as decentralized and free as many think it is. Domain Name System are servers that match the domain names like "google.com" to IP addresses which can be used to connect to that site. Obviously, the world needs to follow a single such database if we are to avoid "anarchy" of domains being double registered, and domains being accessible from certain DNS servers but not from others. With this thought in mind the world has allowed ICANN, which is largely a US based supposedly "international organization", to take over the job of governing access to Domain Name Systems. 10 out of the 13 root servers are located in US. ISPs all over the world have configured their end user routers to use ICANN dominated DNS servers.

However, this blind faith is not without its side-effects of central authority. Being largely a US organization (and not an independent one as it is falsely promoted), US government has authority over basically the entire DNS. US government has largely declared that any domain like .com, .net etc that belong to US based companies, can be seized at any time. In most cases the US government has simply got a warrant from a judge to seize a domain with the other party not been given a chance to respond. (Read More) Not to mention ICANN's hatred for anonymity while holding a domain.

In a nutshell, ICANN has a global hegemony over DNS and its policies, but this hegemony has largely been touted as a "natural monopoly" - which I claim it is not. While the reason cited for this natural monopoly is that we need a "consistent root" so that there are no clashes of domain naming - there is nothing that makes a distributed naming network impossible. Nothing stops one domain name system from serving requests from other domain name systems. Consider the fact that OpenNIC DNS servers not only provide access to ICANN approved domain names but also to alternative domains like .geek and .bit namecoin domains. Ideally I would prefer that we have many such services like OpenNIC that are ready to peer with other naming services, forming a distributed network with the desire to maintain consistency and will therefore stay away from other service's top level domains - but if it takes "democracy" of OpenNIC with its support for "anarchy" of Namecoin to defeat the "monarchy" of ICANN, I will take it. ICANN's monopoly is not a natural monopoly, a DNS system that does not provide access to other alternative DNS systems, or does not maintain consistency with other top level domains, would obviously not be a preferred domain. Which is probably why OpenNIC has opened itself to peering with alternative namespaces (currently emercoin, namecoin and New-Nations). ICANN's hegemony is largely the result of US government support, its advertizing, and lack of support by engineers for these alternative DNS - largely driven by fear of fragmentation, making the natural monopoly a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Another reason it is not a natural monopoly is because you can easily escape it. Simply head over to https://www.opennicproject.org/ where you will find a list of DNS servers which are closest to you. Follow these instructions and switch your DNS server in the Network settings. And voila, you now not only have access to ICANN approved domains but also alternative top level domains like .geek, .free and .bit(namecoin). If you can use an alternative service and get your job done, it is not a natural monopoly. While it is true that getting a .bit domain would severly restrict your audience (you can use their proxy to access alternatives domains though), it is important to remember that this is not because of a "natural monopoly" that cannot be worked against, but a result of blind faith in ICANN. By switching to OpenNIC you dont lose access to ICANN domains you gain access to whole another worlds.