Making Blockchain human, part 2: How IOV is emulating the brilliant step which took the Internet global

DNS changed the Internet. Now, this idea can change Decentralised Ledgers.

In the first part of this series, we looked at how IOV is simplifying blockchain addresses and making them as simple as the email addresses we use day-to-day.

This is part of a wider innovation, called the Blockchain Name Service, which emulates the genius breakthrough which transformed the internet from a niche technology into a staple of our daily life.

Here we explain the BNS, and how it will benefit blockchain.

When you type ‘google.com’ or ‘fcbarcelona.com’ into your web browser, how do you know that the right page will come up on your screen?

It’s all about the Domain Name System, or DNS. Essentially, DNS is like a giant phone book that allows us to find any website, anywhere using simple human search terms.

How does it work? Well, let’s start with essential terminology:

1. The Universal Resource Locator (URL). This is a website’s human-readable address and contains key information about how to find it.
2. The Internet Protocol (IP). This is the set of rules governing how computers connect to the internet, and it gives each computer a unique identifier, known as an IP address.

IP addresses are difficult to remember, consisting of a string of numbers. A typical example might be 192.169.1.244. But the URL gives us a simpler alternative, one that easily comes to mind when we search for it.

DNS provides a link between the two addresses. So when you’ve typed in the URL, DNS will look up the IP address of the computer that hosts the site you’re looking for, and connect your computer up.

The great thing about this process is that it reliably connects computers separated by great distances that have no other reason to interact with one another. It also makes it very easy for anyone to use it without knowing exactly how it works.

Now IOV is building an equivalent service for the blockchain ecosystem. We’re building a unique blockchain, which aims to link up all the world’s chains and allow users to search for them, just like you would type ‘amazon.com’ or ‘fcbarcelona.com’ into a search engine. Blockchain Name Service acts as a community-curated registry of human-readable names for blockchains, digital assets, and wallets.

This innovation will finally bring sense and simplicity to blockchain technology. Blockchain’s rapid, chaotic growth has created a jumbled assortment of autonomous chains, with no directory knitting them all together. Each blockchain node has its own IP address, but there’s no way for an individual node to find the address of another. Blockchains only know the IP addresses of those nodes they are directly connected with; not addresses outside their frame of reference.

The BNS blockchain will solve this problem by listing all the active blockchains in the world. It will also list their respective tokens (the currencies they hold) and their bootstrap nodes (the node in each blockchain which provides configuration information for the rest). This directory will provide a single, universal platform in which any blockchain can find the address of any other.

Anyone who joins the BNS blockchain will be able to create their own addresses using our simple IOV name formula. Specifically, the BNS ecosystem will feature three types of address:

1. Human Value Address. We covered these in part 1 of this blog series, which you can find here. Think of these as being like your personal email address — only it will be used to share values, not data.
2. ‘Bname’ company address. Organisations will be able to register their own blockchain ‘domain name’, or Bname, like the website addresses we type into browsers. Bnames will follow the same formula as personal addresses — so, for example, Cisco might name itself Cisco.iov. Once a business has created its own Bname, it will be able to add or manage individual employees’ accounts. The organization will then add it’s digital assets or tokens to the IOV addresses.
3. Non-fungible tokens (NFT). Users will be able to register their cryptocurrencies, as well as their NFT’s — representations of unique values such as plane tickets, patents, real estate documents or cryptokitties.

This BNS breakthrough will now allow anyone to exchange digital assets and cryptographically-secured tokens; it will map out the entire blockchain universe and enable blockchains to connect, way beyond their immediate networks.

We believe BNS will do for blockchain what DNS did for the internet. It will make some sense of the blockchain universe in a simple, accessible and decentralized way — true to the founding principles of this technology.

If we can make exchanging values as easy as sending emails or searching for websites, it’ll be a huge step towards building a unified token ecosystem and bringing blockchain into line with modern standards of simplicity and transparency.

We hope, and believe, it’ll be a giant leap towards bringing blockchain to the people.

To learn more about IOV, please visit our website or ask us any question on our Telegram chat. 🙌