A Domain Name Management System Based on Account-based Consortium Blockchain

  1. School of Computer and Information Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou, China 310018
  2. School of Information and Electronic Engineering, ZhejiangGongshangUniversity, Hangzhou, China 310018

Abstract

Domain Name System (DNS) is a critical component of the Internet's running due to its functionality to map domain names to IP addresses. However, many criticisms go to the current DNS mainly because of its centralized architecture that may cause a single point of failure or power abuse. Many works suggest using the decentralization property of the blockchain to solve the problem. Nevertheless, the existing blockchain-based DNSs cannot support the whole life cycle of domain names or protect the privacy of the domain name users' funds. In this paper, aiming at addressing these problems, we propose a domain name management system by integrating some advanced cryptographic primitives, such as commitment and zero-knowledge proof, and an account-based blockchain system with the anonymous fund. Besides the expected properties, our proposal guarantees fairness in the domain name registration and transfer processes, i.e., all the users have the same probability of obtaining the domain name along the time dimension. We implement a prototype of our proposal, including the underlying account-based blockchain and the related smart contracts. The extensive experimental results conduct that our proposal is (relatively) efficient and effective.

Model and Design Goals

Model

    We have two kinds of entities in this paper:
    1. An account-based consortium blockchain with anonymous funds;
    2. Many domain name users;

    The domain name users can register, sell/buy, renew and update domain names with the helper of our blockchain system. And the domain name owner in the figure is also adomain name user that owns atleast one domain name.

Design Goals

  1. Design a domain name management system based on account-based consortium blockchain, which is used for the entire life cycle of the domain names (registration, transfer, update, and renewal). And we utilize the Vickrey auction to register and transfer domain names.
  2. The proposed system should be fair in the registration and transfer.
  3. The proposed system should protect the value of users' fund in the whole life circle of the domain names.
  4. The proposed system should guarantee the users have enough coins to cover their payments in the registration, transfer, and renewal.
  5. The proposed system should be relatively efficient.

Account Structure in Our Account-Based Consortium Blockchain

Life Circle of Domain Names

Performance Evaluation

Demo download

The sourcecode of this prototype can be found at EmmaLu-ux/paperDemo.