The Shake: June 5, 2022

Jun 5

A publication on Handshake and the DWeb. Towards a New Internet.

Handshake, by the numbers

On Localist Protocols

Localism is the idea of loosely coupled, self-reliant communities. Localist communities are less dependent on external systems to operate and thus less affected by systemic shocks. In a world of global supply chain shocks to global pandemics, the resilience of localism become clearer.

Joe Norman @normonics

But I must remind you: it's all the same thing. Connectedness is double edged. It brings opportunity AND risk, which eventually manifests as harm. Things will continue to be turbulent until we learn to become more loosely coupled.

A decentralized web — an internet of loosely coupled, interoperable protocols — is the digital version of localism. A web stack of independent protocols reduces the risk of contagion when failure occurs at any given layer of the stack. We can swap out protocols as needed while minimizing impact to the larger system.

If crypto efforts to build new internet services are too tightly coupled, disruptions can spread rapidly and widely. Blockchains and code contagion are like supply chains and viral contagion in this way.

Handshake is a localist form of naming with its own independent blockchain not reliant on other systems to operate while still able to interoperate with those systems. Even more so, as a root zone distinct from the rest of the DNS stack, Handshake is designed with long term sustainability in mind — a loosely coupled, localist protocol.

This Week in Handshake

¹ Urkel Tree compaction The next release of HSD can reclaim up to 15GB of disk space by safely deleting stale consensus data. This merged PR deletes from disk an enormous amount of historical data in the Urkel Tree that is only necessary in the case that a chain reorganization occurs deeper than ~288 blocks.

² EPP <> Rest / API An open source Rest / API for EPP domain name registry, from James Stevens. Extensible Provisioning Protocol (EPP) is an XML based protocol and industry standard used by registrars and registries in managing domain names.

³ cHNS Preview of a Handshake <> Cosmos bridge, enabling a wrapped version of HNS tradable on decentralized exchanges. More information and documentation coming soon from the Another Software team.

⁴ handshake.wtf Handshake has two native assets: coins and names. Each with sophisticated ongoing distribution mechanisms. Learn about Handshake’s asset distribution and track HNS claims and TLD claims.

⁵ hsnodes A node crawler that estimates the relative size of the Handshake peer-to-peer network by finding all of its reachable nodes.

⁶ GoDaddy offers crypto name brand consulting