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Why Any Competing Whois Registry Model Is Doomed

Posted by Soulskill on from the who-isn't dept.

CowboyRobot writes "In Paul Vixie's latest essay, he argues that the alternative to the Whois registry model is flawed and that we should be learning from the mistakes of the history of proposed alternatives to the DNS. 'Any proposal for a competing Whois registry model is as doomed by design and destiny as every alternative DNS system. Even if it succeeds at first, it would fail after copycatting occurred.'"

3 of 63 comments (clear)

  1. Namecoin by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    A distributed domain name system exists. Right now. Today.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Namecoin

  2. Re:Vixie Cron by eln · · Score: 4, Informative

    He also wrote BIND, which had one of the most breathtakingly awful security records of any single piece of software for many years (the years during which he was the primary author, oddly enough). For a while there, it seemed CERT was issuing advisories for some new vulnerability in BIND that would grant root access to your entire network on a daily basis.

  3. Re:I dont follow by eln · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It's not that big of a concern, and that's the real reason any alternate DNS system is doomed to fail. Vixie's concerns with copycatting and whatnot may be justified, but the simple fact is the current system isn't painful enough for most people, even most network admins, to go to the trouble to switch to something different. Hell, IPv6 has been a standard for 15 years, and hardly anyone uses it. Sure, we'll all switch eventually when the pain of staying with IPv4 is greater than the pain of switching to IPv6. Similarly, if the pain of staying with the current whois system ever gets great enough to contemplate switching, people will do so. I don't see that happening in the foreseeable future, though.