Blockchain domain name patent application — Alibaba files

Firm is latest to propose domain name technology connected to blockchains.

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Chinese internet giant Alibaba has filed a U.S. patent application (pdf) for a domain name system connected to blockchain networks.

It’s a bit tricky to disect, but it seems that the idea is to give each blockchain instance a domain name. The abstract states:

Implementations of the present disclosure include obtaining, by a computing system, a unified blockchain domain name (a UBCDN) message of a blockchain instance, wherein the UBCDN message includes a UBCDN of the blockchain instance, a digital signature of an owner of the UBCDN of the blockchain instance (a UBCDN owner) on the UBCDN, and a domain certificate of the UBCDN; verifying whether the domain certificate of the UBCDN is issued by a trusted certificate authority (CA) using a public key of the CA; and verifying whether the UBCDN is issued by the UBCDN owner using a public key of the UBCDN owner. The UBCDN message includes a blockchain domain name and a chain identifier of the blockchain instance uniquely corresponding to the blockchain domain name.

A number of firms are trying to marry blockchain technology with the concept of domain names. You can listen to one idea, run by Unstoppable Domains, on DNW Podcast #224.

Alibaba owns HiChina, a sizable domain name registrar.

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