What is Handshake?
Handshake is a UTXO-based blockchain protocol and decentralized permissionless naming protocol with the goal of creating an alternative to existing Certificate Authorities and naming systems using decentralized trust anchors to prove domain ownership. Each peer is responsible for validating and managing the root DNS naming zone for internet names. In comparison, names on the public internet including top level domains, social networking handles, and usernames rely on centralized actors with full control over a system, and are thus more vulnerable to hacking, censorship, and data loss. Handshake as an experimental peer-to-peer root naming service seeks to explore use cases and develop new tools to build a more decentralized internet. Handshake platform is resistant to Sybil attacks, where attackers subvert the reputation system of a network service by creating many pseudonymous identities to gain a disproportionately large influence. Handshake is a piece of software with primary function for people to come to agreement on names and cryptographic keys authorized to represent names in a decentralized way. Handshake provides a unit of account to prevent a single party from claiming all the names using a coin system for name registration. The Handshake Coin (HNS) is the mechanism for participants to transfer, register, and update internet names. The community places bids for top-level domains and initiates auctions using HNS with different value per name.
