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Why are top level domains so restricted?
(lemmy.ml)
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this post was submitted on 15 Nov 2024
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But why did everyone agree to that? Couldn't domains be determined by user, or at least a bit more decentralized? (ex: google.com leads to IP address 1.1.1.1)
How is the internet supposed to work if we don't agree on where every site goes? How are you supposed to decentralize a central agreement?
I meant more like did it have to be a central agreement for it to scale up to what it is now?
There's nothing to scale. DNS servers are just an address book. There's only 200 million entries active and visited. 1.1b entries otherwise, which; for a computer isn't a lot.
DNS servers replicate down-stream, and the root servers maintain authority. A local SQLite file could handle this easily, and you could always run your own DNS server locally if you wanted to. But there has to be a central authority. That's why you can have any TLD you want -- you run your own DNS. But since nobody sees you as an authority, they won't be using your DNS.
DNS isn't just an address book, it determines ownership. So in a decentralized system I could just spin up some servers that direct anyone in my area trying to reach PayPal to my IP instead.
Insanely, this is kind of how IP addresses are assigned using bgp.