Glossary
Name system
One of the biggest problems in the blockchain environment is account management. We have already seen that blockchain accounts are a set of numbers and letters, usually 20 bytes long. An example of a Bitcoin address is as follows: 3FZbgi29cpjq2GjdwV8eyHuJJnkLtktZc5. It is not easy to convey such information to someone over the phone.
Using QRCode makes the transmission of accounts more error-resistant, but we don’t always have a QRCode reader available. It is more common for blockchain addresses to be copied and pasted, which can lead to errors. Fortunately, most protocols have developed a checksum scheme to ensure that the account address has not changed during transmission, but this only mitigates the problem.
A more practical way of naming accounts on the blockchain is needed. One of the proposals for this is using a domain name system similar to the one used on the Internet. Machines on the Internet have a network address called an IP, which also consists of a collection of numbers and letters. However, when we want to access a website, we do not access it by its IP but by its domain.
The DNS, short for Domain Name System, was created to make this possible. It is a protocol that transforms domain names such as google.com into their corresponding IP address. Thus, it is enough for the user to remember the domain name without worrying about remembering the IP. A similar system has been developed for blockchains.
Ethereum’s domain name system is called the Ethereum Name System, ENS for short. Fundamentally, a smart contract keeps the relationship between domain names, like linkd.eth, and account addresses. Like the DNS, the contract can transform easy-to-memorize domain names into a difficult-to-memorize set of letters and numbers. Many Ethereum-compatible wallets support ENS. Its use is straightforward: just transfer tokens to the domain name and they will be transferred to the account registered for this domain.
The Unstoppable Domain is another prime example of a blockchain-based name service in the realm of Web3, enabling users to register their identities on the decentralized web. It provides the flexibility to register domains like .crypto, .nft, and others while seamlessly integrating with over 800 applications.
Neo has a built-in name system mechanism, the Neo Name Service, or NNS for short. It is a native service on Neo that keeps the relationship between domain names and information such as the address of accounts. This makes it possible to register a domain name like linkd.neo and use that address in a compatible wallet to send and receive tokens. To buy your domain in this ecosystem, visit the webiste neo.link.
