This is an opinion editorial by Moustafa Amin, a expertise chief with greater than 20 years {of professional} expertise throughout massive organizations, service suppliers and telecom corporations.
“Bitcoin Not Blockchain”
If you’re a frequent reader of Bitcoin Magazine or when you’re a Bitcoin fanatic usually, you may need seen this motto. I got here throughout it quite a few occasions and I agree with it 100%.
Sometimes there may very well be a minor exception, as an illustration when the scope is constrained, the context is personal and there is no want for tokenization however generally, it’s at all times smart to stick to bitcoin.
Let’s analyze an imaginary case examine round IP addresses utilizing a “traffic light” analogy — yellow, purple and inexperienced.
IP Addresses
I assume that the readers are or no less than conversant in how information communications happen throughout the web based mostly on the IP protocol (TCP/IP if we wish to be technically correct). The extra technological readers could concentrate on web protocol (IP) addresses, like IPv4 and IPv6.
Try to Google “Who controls IP addresses?” You’ll promptly get “IANA: the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.” IANA is the highest authority behind IP deal with allocation and project. There are 5 completely different regional web registries (RIR) with jurisdiction below the IANA.
As a matter of truth, as a person or a traditional web person you can’t request IP addresses straight from IANA or one of many 5 RIRs, however solely from web service suppliers, such because the companies provided by cellular or telecom operators.
RIRs and their respective areas
From this structure, you’ll be able to think about a central database of IP addresses held and maintained by IANA.
An imaginary pattern of IP addresses database
Let us assume that at some point IANA decides to launch a blockchain model of its IP addresses database, wouldn’t that be a authentic challenge? The reply relies on their strategy and their intention for doing so.
Before we proceed, allow us to agree on a few factors:
- The time period blockchain doesn’t at all times refer to the underlying expertise of Bitcoin as invented (or found) by Satoshi Nakamoto. Instead, it has grow to be a advertising and marketing time period that is broadly utilized by distributors as a buzzword to describe their merchandise in both personal or public contexts.
- Even with a decentralized model of the IP addresses database, the IP addresses will at all times stay in IANA’s custody. These assets won’t ever be handed over to the general public group.
The Yellow Path
If IANA cares in regards to the integrity, security and safety of their present centralized IP addresses database and needs to make it decentralized over a blockchain by having separate equivalent copies of the database held in geographically dispersed areas for decentralization and redundancy, they’d search for an answer that might be a mixture of decentralized storage (IPFS for instance) and personal blockchain (cloud-based mostly or open-supply). This may very well be in contrast to AWS blockchain, Hyperledger, Multichain, and so forth.
In this case, every regional RIR might be accountable for some nodes that run this personal blockchain. Each node will ship and obtain updates over the blockchain whereas storing an equivalent at all times-up to date copy of the IP addresses database.
No token might be required on this resolution, and the entire resolution might be maintained by nodes falling below both the jurisdiction of IANA or the RIR. As a matter of truth, IANA can pause, cease, restart, truncate and even delete elements of this personal blockchain at their will.
Basically, this case is not completely different from the present state of affairs the place IANA can change and even delete elements of the IP addresses database of their centralized database (if they need to). I’m not saying they would, however they may.
This path is labeled “yellow” as a result of it may very well be acceptable because it doesn’t symbolize any threat to outsiders, i.e., there are no buyers who put up cash for tokens.
The Red Path
What if IANA decides to launch their blockchain model of IP addresses as a wise contract dApp — utilizing some platform like Ethereum, and even as a separate public blockchain — and tokenizes the entire thing and perhaps runs crowdfunding occasions to distribute these tokens? I received’t waste your precious time discussing this state of affairs any additional: This would make it no completely different from the opposite 20,000 ineffective altcoins on the market!
The Green Path
What if IANA is clever sufficient to maintain their IP addresses database really decentralized over the one actually decentralized blockchain — Bitcoin — and permitting cost in sats? A potential possibility may very well be an software constructed on high of Bitcoin or the Lightning Network and built-in with a distributed off-chain storage.
The distributed storage will retailer the precise IP addresses together with their respective house owners. This would occur off-chain to keep away from overwhelming the Bitcoin community, however the indexes to the database entries may very well be saved on chain.
To counteract Bitcoin’s pseudonymity, prospects (suppliers or operators) will nonetheless be required to present identification info for full possession of their IP addresses. Unfortunately, this may be in full compliance with know-your-buyer legal guidelines (KYC) for on-line surveillance, as you may guess.
Regardless of the abundance of IP addresses, they are restricted by nature, which means that IANA can’t mint or create new addresses out of skinny air.
Quick truth: there are barely lower than 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses that have been all bought (depletion of IPv4 addresses began again in 2011), whereas there are 340 trillion, trillion, trillion IPv6 addresses — an insanely big quantity in order that the minimal IPv6 deal with allocation is divided by 32 to be equal to the variety of all IPv4 addresses on the market.
As all transactions might be completely saved over the ledger, IANA can’t fiddle and resell the identical chunk of IP addresses to one other proprietor. This is named an “IP address block,” not to be confused with Bitcoin blocks.
The Ideal Path
What if we exchange the managed and surveilled IP addresses with new web addresses that are based mostly on Bitcoin? These addresses will inherit all Bitcoin’s options, i.e., they might be purely decentralized, safe, future-proof, strong, nameless, unhackable, managed by no single authority and lots of extra.
Is it only a dream? For now. If this may very well be true we might be altering the web as we all know it.
This is a visitor publish by Moustafa Amin. Opinions expressed are totally their personal and don’t essentially replicate these of BTC Inc. or Bitcoin Magazine.
