Wallet Name System (WNS)

To build a decentralized network that maps names and other information to wallet addresses, much like the internet's DNS but for wallets.

Tech Lead with 20+ years of software development experience, masters degree in computer science, creator of multiple open-source projects.

OVERVIEW
The Wallet Name System is our proposal to build a backend service, comprised of a decentralized network of servers that communicate with the cardano blockchain to register and query details associated with wallet addresses used in cardano and any other blockchain - it works like the Internet's Domain Name System (DNS) but for wallets.

Software developers will be able to build applications that query any WNS server to obtain registered names and associated wallets. Basically each WNS server will have a webservice exposed to the internet for the general public, and any software will be able to query/update the WNS global address book anonymously.

This is NOT an end user facing system. A WNS server can be run by anyone able to run a server (like a stake pool) to expose public or private webservices that allow querying and registration. It can also be imported as a library software developers can build on top of.

This video presentation explains the details:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlod260Kz60

VALUE PROPOSITION
Essentially WNS servers will use the cardano blockchain to allow any cryptocurrency user to assign human readable names and associated information (such as email, phone, business addresses, etc) to their wallets: if you own multiple wallets, for multiple cryptocurrencies, all of them would be accessible under your registered name.
The basic functions of this system revolve around a simple API which allows:

1. wallet owners to register their details with their preferred WNS provider

1. users and application developers to query all names and associated information registered, to obtain the corresponding wallet addresses for a given blockchain

The idea is to support applications, such as wallets, to enable their users to query payees by name and transfer funds to the wallet assigned to that name.

How it will work:

For example, you can assign "John" to a wallet address, and then other people can send money to "John" without having to know what is his current wallet. John can update his details at will.

Constraints can be assigned to addresses so wallets and software that uses this service can notify users that they are sending insufficient funds for example.

All registrations are transactions on the cardano blockchain, so all WNS server providers will be able to see all registrations made by other WNS servers.

A WNS can curate addresses and mark them as potential scam addresses. Using the earlier example, if John is a scammer, users can be notified that they are sending funds to a scam address.

Lastly, a WNS can accept the registration of wallet addresses of any blockchain. We want to incentivize other blockchains to interact with cardano through the utility we provide as an ecosystem.

EXPECTATIONS

Our goal is to provide a super simple to use server infrastructure that leverages the cardano blockchain, and to provide an open API that makes the life of software developers incredibly easy. For end users, it will be cheap and with no recurring costs to keep their registration available - you only pay a minimum of 1 ADA per registration or update plus transaction fees.

We will build the server infrastructure code which WNS providers can run, plus client libraries to facilitate the interaction with the webservices it provides. Everything will be open-sourced. We will also build registration and query pages that can be used as the basis to help other WNS operators to build their own independent registration websites.

IP/COPYRIGHT

The entire source code of this project will be available on github under the GPL V2.0 license and we hope other community developers can build on top of this to create even better solutions in the future.

PROPOSED LAUNCH

Within 5 months

PROJECT SUSTAINABILITY

Anyone can run their own WNS server and we plan to run a WNS ourselves. We'll build a registration website for our WNS and allow end users register their details through that. The registration fees collected should help to keep our operation going.

We also run the SHOP stake pool and use the rewards to help funding our development efforts for cardano.

METRICS

Code activity can be measured from commits on github.

COMPETITION

There are other projects around which attempt to address the same problem, but none of these allow you register more than a name and a wallet and the cost is high. Also none provide an open querying API that anyone can use to find names and addresses for any given blockchain. What's out there are very limited solutions compared to what we are proposing to build. FIO, for example, uses its own blockchain, and it charges recurring fees for renewals. UnstoppableDomains is another similar solution which is expensive and as centralized as it can get.

Our proposal aims to build a decentralized and accessible infrastructure for software developers. Multiple clones of UnstoppableDomains and other such services can be created on top of the WNS network.

DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES

* Build the global address book structure: this involves defining metadata structure used to register and query names with associated addresses effectively. That metadata is stored on the cardano blockchain. Each WNS server has their own address book. The address books of all WNS servers are grouped together to form the "global" address book state. This "global" state is kept by all running servers - every WNS has the same state and knows all names in all address books.
* Build the global WNS server registry: every WNS server has to register itself in the cardano blockchain. This registration will be used by all other WNS servers to discover each other and their corresponding address books
* Handle issues around duplicate name registration concurrently, updates, transfers, etc
* Support active synchronization of the global address book
* Build endpoints for querying, registering and updating details associated with names

* Support caching or registered names for efficient querying - this also comes with cache synchronization, invalidation, etc
* Support address flagging mechanisms that allow reporting scam addresses.
* Implement validations for address formats used in other blockchains - we want the WNS infrastructure to be usable by everyone, not only cardano.
* Build the WNS server executable that any interested pary can download and run
* Build libraries to enable software developers to easily create software against to interact with the services - developers can host their own WNS server or use a trusted server.
* Build a basic web interface to enable querying and registration via browser for ease of use and testing
* Setup a test cardano blockchain that can run on the desktop and be used by developers to build their software against a WNS connected to that without any additional cost or dependency on external services/testnets.

COST: $75/hour * 20 days/month * 5 months * 7 hours/day = 52,500