The free and open internet is under attack like never before. A concerted effort is underway to censor and demonetize content and sites that are deemed undesirable by the centralized forces which control the internet.

Outright discretionary take-downs of websites may soon intensify. The new tactic will be to label everything as “hate speech” or “facilitating terrorism” to go along with the old standby, denying access to “child porn”.

Decentralization of the internet as a whole is the cure for these maladies.

The fundamental first step on the path to achieve this goal is the establishment of a decentralized, open and censorship resistant internet namespace, or Domain Name System (DNS), that can gradually replace the centralized one that currently exists.

Decentralized solutions built around the current DNS are non-starters.

There can be no decentralized internet without decentralized DNS.

In order to be truly successful, any new decentralized DNS must be relatively easy to use, and thereby marketable, to the general public so that the network effect can be achieved in the shortest time possible.

Additionally, any such new naming system must also resolve the ever-present problem of Domain Name Squatting that has plagued the current DNS and all attempts to replace it.

Any decentralized DNS that does not resolve these issues will suffer the fate of all previous attempts: failure.

The Decentralized Domain Phrase System (dPhrase) is the solution to all these critical problems.

DNS is the system that takes a web site’s underlying numerical Internet Protocol (IP) address, i.e. 172.217.25.100, and converts it into a human readable address, i.e. www.google.com, a Domain Name.

No one ever really knows a site’s IP address, so if the site’s Domain Name no longer leads to it, then it will have effectively vanished from the internet for the vast majority of users. And the IP address itself can also be disabled to complete the job if so desired, or hijacked or spoofed.

This can all happen because, currently, the private company called the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANNia.org/wiki/ICANN”>ICANN) has a de facto global monopoly to administer the current DNS system. (Its Wikipedia entry is an eye opener and must reading for any freedom minded individual. Also, go to their site, www.icann.org, and have a look around. Do a search for articles related to the term ‘take down’.)

The situation can be summarized as follows: ICANN is a very centralized organization. It was controlled directly by the United States government up until October 01, 2016, when this arrangement came to an end. Now, while it is still technically an ‘independent’ private company, most observers agree that ICANN, in practice, has now come under United Nations control.

Subsequently, due to ICANN’s governance structure, Domain Names are subject to being taken down at any moment by court order, but site owners have no real recourse to effectively challenge these decisions. The system is judge, jury and executioner, with no appeal. This has happened on numerous occasions in the past and this situation persists, and is potentially exacerbated, under the new regime.

Internet freedom is therefore really nonexistent if the way the average user reaches any site can be controlled; control this aspect of how the internet works and control of all other aspects. It therefore also hardly really matters what large internet infrastructure companies, such as Google, Facebook or Twitter, do to restrict freedom on their substantial, monopolized pieces of the internet if the underlying system responsible for how users ‘surf’ the internet is itself are already compromised through centralized control at the most basic level.

Break this control and freedom erupts on the internet. Truly free and open applications can then be built.

dPhrase will break this monopoly by serving as a truly free and open naming system. It will be built on two proven cryptosystems: Blockchain (Smart Contract) and BitTorent technology.

The dPhrase Smart Contract – App will administrate the technical and business rules and regulations of the system. It will essentially act as what is known as a Distributed Autonomous Organization (DAO). There will be no human intervention in its day-to-day activities as the ‘machine’, so to speak, will execute predefined rules.

There will be no arbitrary or subjective judgments involved in the operation of the dPhrase because this power will be excluded from the dPhrase Smart Contract.

Prospective users who fulfill the obligations as listed in the Smart Contract will be able to register and maintain a domain without fear of interference from anyone, any entity or bureaucracy.

No take down orders can be executed, or even filed for that matter, as there will be no one to file them with.

Additionally, while it has the potential to act as a Decentralized Content Management System, it will minimally ensure the availability of its registrar through BitTorrent tech. The dPhrase DAO will be secured cryptographically and highly resistant to attack. It will be resistant to takedown as it will exist as a torrent. As long as there’s one seeder, it can never be taken down.

dPhrase’s registrar will also be secured by the most successful and secure Blockchain, the Bitcoin Blockchain.

dPhrase will resolve the Domain Squatting issue by eliminating the underlying factor that allows it to be profitable: the artificial scarcity of domain names.

Why are domain names scarce? Because they are designed to be so. As a result they foster ‘bad’ behavior by participants, i.e. domain squatting, because it is profitable to do so.

dPhrase is designed to eliminate this deliberate artificial scarcity. It will do so by replacing a system based on Domain Names in combination with Domain Extensions, like .com or .net etc., with a unified Domain Phrase System.

Instead of a Domain Name there will be a Domain Phrase (DP). The DP, like the Domain Name, is a unique, human understandable identifier. It will, in turn, correspond to a cryptographic-based resource locator, the equivalent of a DNS table.

Under dPhrase there will be no Domain Extensions at all. Each Domain Phrase will be required to be a minimum of 30 characters with no maximum, but a maximum of 5 blank spaces. In this fashion there will be unlimited Domain Phrases available in this naming space and no scarcity of Domain Phrases built into the system.

Users already know how such a system operates if they use social media like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. dPhrase will also include meta-data to make domain discovery just as easy as finding a user on any of these sites.

Systems similar to dPhrase have been successfully engineered and deployed in the past but have failed due to complexity, security and being subject to the same competitive forces as the current DNS system.

Why will dPhrase succeed?

Because it will be the first squat-proof name space. And dPhrase will target a real initial market that needs it – those sites currently under the greatest censorship threat.