The Shake: Dec. 19, 2021

and

Dec 19, 2021

A publication on Handshake and the Decentralized Web at theshake.xyz

A Beacon of hope for the decentralized web

This week, the Impervious team dropped the Beacon web browser. It makes accessing Handshake easy, but it does a whole lot more than that too so let’s unpack it.

Beacon begins with a Handshake light client. In a matter of seconds, the browser syncs block headers for the full history of the chain and is ready to trustlessly resolve Handshake domains. It’s fast, and the most secure way to use Handshake because it doesn’t require trusting any third party resolvers.

Now that we can resolve HNS domains, we need to enable HTTPS to secure our web connections. Traditionally, that requires the trust of third party Certificate Authorities (CAs). But Beacon is the first web browser to natively support DANE, enabling us to trustlessly use HTTPS on Handshake domains without centralized CAs.

Take a step back and think about the series of intermediaries and gatekeepers being replaced here. The Handshake root has removed ICANN from the registration of top-level domains and, as a result, the third party registrars / registries needed to buy and manage your own domain name. Beacon’s HNS light client circumvents third party resolvers and DANE integration disintermediates CAs. And it’s all open source.

Additionally, Beacon natively supports ENS. Have no fear Ethereum friends, Handshake is here for you too. The Impervious team has made it easy for ENS domains (with name records added via EIP-1158) to resolve in-browser without any additional device configuration required. This is the DWeb — loosely coupled protocols interoperating to build a more secure and private internet.

The best part is that it. just. works. Download Beacon for iOS and try it out today.

Now, for the rest of our weekly recap.

This Week in Handshake

↳ HNS Factory New umbrella project housing HNSsearch and related Handshake security development work

↳ DeFi on HNS 1inch Protocol (1inch.records) added to The Shake’s curated set of DeFi frontends on IPFS and HNS

↳ Puma Browser An overview of HNS support from mobile privacy browser, Puma

↳ Entrepreneur Mainstream coverage of Handshake and the DWeb

↳ HNS Africa 2021 recap from global HNS educational events in Nigeria + Ghana