Decentralizing IP Addresses With Bitcoin Helps Distribute The Internet - Bitcoin Magazine

This is an sentiment editorial by Moustafa Amin, a exertion person with much than 20 years of nonrecreational acquisition crossed ample organizations, work providers and telecom companies.

“Bitcoin Not Blockchain”

If you’re a predominant scholar of Bitcoin Magazine oregon if you’re a Bitcoin enthusiast successful general, you mightiness person seen this motto. I came crossed it galore times and I hold with it 100%.

Sometimes determination could beryllium a insignificant exception, for lawsuit erstwhile the scope is constrained, the discourse is backstage and determination is nary request for tokenization but successful astir cases, it’s ever omniscient to instrumentality to bitcoin.

Let’s analyse an imaginary lawsuit survey astir IP addresses utilizing a “traffic light” analogy — yellow, reddish and green.

IP Addresses

I presume that the readers are oregon astatine slightest acquainted with however information communications hap crossed the net based connected the IP protocol (TCP/IP if we privation to beryllium technically accurate). The much technological readers whitethorn beryllium alert of net protocol (IP) addresses, similar IPv4 and IPv6.

Try to Google “Who controls IP addresses?” You’ll promptly get “IANA: the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority.” IANA is the apical authorization down IP code allocation and assignment. There are 5 antithetic determination net registries (RIR) with jurisdiction nether the IANA.

As a substance of fact, arsenic an idiosyncratic oregon a mean net idiosyncratic you cannot petition IP addresses straight from IANA oregon 1 of the 5 RIRs, but lone from net work providers, specified arsenic the services offered by mobile oregon telecom operators.

RIRs and their respective regions

From this architecture, you tin ideate a cardinal database of IP addresses held and maintained by IANA.

An imaginary illustration of IP addresses database

Let america presume that 1 time IANA decides to motorboat a blockchain mentation of its IP addresses database, wouldn’t that beryllium a morganatic project? The reply depends connected their attack and their volition for doing so.

Before we proceed, fto america hold connected a mates of points:

1. The word blockchain doesn’t ever notation to the underlying exertion of Bitcoin arsenic invented (or discovered) by Satoshi Nakamoto. Instead, it has go a selling word that is wide utilized by vendors arsenic a buzzword to picture their products successful either backstage oregon nationalist contexts.
2. Even with a decentralized mentation of the IP addresses database, the IP addresses volition ever stay successful IANA’s custody. These resources volition ne'er beryllium handed implicit to the nationalist community.

The Yellow Path

If IANA cares astir the integrity, information and information of their existent centralized IP addresses database and wants to marque it decentralized implicit a blockchain by having abstracted identical copies of the database held successful geographically dispersed regions for decentralization and redundancy, they’d look for a solution that volition beryllium a premix of decentralized retention (IPFS for example) and backstage blockchain (cloud-based oregon open-source). This could beryllium compared to AWS blockchain, Hyperledger, Multichain, etc.

In this case, each determination RIR volition beryllium liable for immoderate nodes that tally this backstage blockchain. Each node volition nonstop and person updates implicit the blockchain portion storing an identical always-updated transcript of the IP addresses database.

No token volition beryllium required successful this solution, and the full solution volition beryllium maintained by nodes falling nether either the jurisdiction of IANA oregon the RIR. As a substance of fact, IANA tin pause, stop, restart, truncate oregon adjacent delete parts of this backstage blockchain astatine their will.

Basically, this lawsuit is not antithetic from the existent concern wherever IANA tin alteration oregon adjacent delete parts of the IP addresses database of their centralized database (if they privation to). I americium not saying they would, but they could.

This way is labeled “yellow” due to the fact that it could beryllium acceptable arsenic it doesn’t correspond immoderate hazard to outsiders, i.e., determination are nary investors who enactment up wealth for tokens.

The Red Path

What if IANA decides to motorboat their blockchain mentation of IP addresses arsenic a astute declaration dApp — utilizing immoderate level similar Ethereum, oregon adjacent arsenic a abstracted nationalist blockchain — and tokenizes the full happening and possibly runs crowdfunding events to administer these tokens? I won’t discarded your invaluable clip discussing this script immoderate further: This would marque it nary antithetic from the different 20,000 useless altcoins retired there!

The Green Path

What if IANA is intelligent capable to support their IP addresses database genuinely decentralized implicit the lone truly decentralized blockchain — Bitcoin — and allowing outgo successful sats? A imaginable enactment could beryllium an exertion built connected apical of Bitcoin oregon the Lightning Network and integrated with a distributed off-chain storage.

The distributed retention volition store the existent IP addresses on with their respective owners. This would hap off-chain to debar overwhelming the Bitcoin network, but the indexes to the database entries could beryllium stored connected chain.

To counteract Bitcoin’s pseudonymity, customers (providers oregon operators) volition inactive beryllium required to supply recognition accusation for implicit ownership of their IP addresses. Unfortunately, this would beryllium successful afloat compliance with know-your-customer laws (KYC) for online surveillance, arsenic you mightiness guess.

Regardless of the abundance of IP addresses, they are constricted by nature, meaning that IANA cannot mint oregon make caller addresses retired of bladed air.

Quick fact: determination are somewhat little than 4.3 cardinal IPv4 addresses that were each sold (depletion of IPv4 addresses started backmost successful 2011), portion determination are 340 trillion, trillion, trillion IPv6 addresses — an insanely immense fig truthful that the minimum IPv6 code allocation is divided by 32 to beryllium adjacent to the fig of each IPv4 addresses retired there.

As each transactions volition beryllium permanently stored implicit the ledger, IANA can’t messiness astir and resell the aforesaid chunk of IP addresses to different owner. This is named an “IP code block,” not to beryllium confused with Bitcoin blocks.

The Ideal Path

What if we regenerate the controlled and surveilled IP addresses with caller net addresses that are based connected Bitcoin? These addresses volition inherit each Bitcoin’s features, i.e., they volition beryllium purely decentralized, secure, future-proof, robust, anonymous, unhackable, controlled by nary azygous authorization and galore more.

Is it conscionable a dream? For now. If this could beryllium existent we would beryllium changing the net arsenic we cognize it.

This is simply a impermanent station by Moustafa Amin. Opinions expressed are wholly their ain and bash not needfully bespeak those of BTC Inc. oregon Bitcoin Magazine.