Will Butterfly Protocol challenge ICANN’s ageing DNS and economics of domain ownership?

• Butterfly Protocol is part of the movement to build a decentralised Internet using blockchain. 
• It enables individuals to suggest, sponsor and bid on the creation of new top-level domain (TLD) names using Ethereum contracts and tokens and then receive a share of the tokens associated with the TLD

A new decentralised autonomous organisation is set to replace the ageing Domain Name System and change the economics of domain ownership.

Currently, the web is under the de facto control of the US-based non-profit organisation – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), which is solely responsible for distributing Top-Level Domains such as .com, .net, .org, etc. to name a few.

The major domain name registrars GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hostgator, Namecheap and a few others have a firm grip on the domain names that are offered, monopolising the market with continuous renewal costs and limited domain name availability. Registrars have wide latitude to create their terms of service.

Filling the void

What was once free and open has now become a heavily regulated, over scrutinised censorship machine. Power has consolidated into the hands of Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter while state authorities and governing regulatory bodies are in power to block and/or delete any online content they deem inapt.

This is a major barrier in the current state of the Internet when it comes to free access to information and concerns numerous industries, with one of them being media outlets, for example.

The public is becoming aware that they need to have greater control of their data, which means the need for a new and more decentralised and censorship-resistant Internet is in demand.

“The existing infrastructure was not designed to allow for this. We believe that a decentralised web naming system is a necessary starting point to fill this void. People need to be able to find resources within the new decentralised internet that is forming, and they will demand that the naming system remains decentralised” Dana Farbo, President of Butterfly Protocol, told Tech Channel News in an interview.

Butterfly Protocol is a blockchain-based web naming system built for the decentralised internet.

The Butterfly Protocol enables individuals to suggest, sponsor and bid on the creation of new top-level domain (TLD) names using Ethereum contracts and tokens and then receive a share of the tokens associated with the TLD. The individual can then leverage those tokens to create subdomains, thus opening up endless new economies.

With Butterfly, a name lives on the blockchain forever and can’t be taken down. The Butterfly Protocol takes control back from centralised authorities and gives it to the people who own the names. When someone acquires a domain name within the Butterfly Protocol, they own it forever or can sell it, lease it or give it away. But that is their choice.

Butterfly seamlessly integrates with IPFS and owners of domains will be able to point those domains to IPFS hosted sites for a completely decentralised system.

Establishing a new era

Farbo said that Butterfly’s vision is to establish a new era in domain name creation and ownership with the end goal being to create the future of the decentralised Internet for online users.

He said that the protocol came out of a project to help people in countries that have more censorship and a whole new naming convention was created for people to track their physical investments.

 “The team came up with a solution that not only we can decentralise technology but also create a whole new world of an ecosystem that starts from top-level domain names, sub-domains and decentralised apps,” he said.

However, he said that the Butterfly Protocol isn’t merely DNS on a blockchain; it is a better naming system.

“We looked at where the current system was lacking and what it could look like if it weren’t held back by legacy technology. We built Butterfly to be the naming system the brave new internet needs and deserves,” he said.

Farbo said that decentralisation is becoming more and more attainable but still more tools are needed to make it a reality for the masses. 

More protocols on the way

“I don’t see ICANN’s centralised environment going away. You will have the regular .com, .org, etc. but the alternative is to have a structure for the new Web where apps will be built specifically for the decentralised Web. It doesn’t matter whether governments accept the decentralised web or not, it is mainly for the usage of it in the long run, as it serves a value,” he said.

When asked whether big Internet companies will follow the protocol, he said: “I doubt it whether big Internet giants will be joining the protocol but I do see that, over the course of a decade, new applications coming into play will create a value for the user. If the movement is such that the user moves to a more decentralised way, then naturally big internet giants will join the curve.”

The opportunities are huge in many ways and social media is the easiest way as it is hot right now but Faro said the challenge is the adoption.

“Can you last long enough to hit that curve of the tipping point? I think every company will explore the decentralised environment but we think that it will take three to five years for widespread adoption. We want to be different from the ICANN world,” he said.

However, he said that the future internet is going to be a set of protocols that are interconnected and there is a big future in the connectivity and bridges between protocols.  

“I see a constant evolvement of protocols in future,” he said.