Dap, the Handshake successor

The irony isn't lost on me that four years ago1 I blogged about the opportunity I saw for the Handshake community to build a thriving ecosystem while ICANN twiddles their thumbs doing whatever it is that they do…and at this time of writing, I've stopped working on Handshake2 for a year. No amount of motivational speeches and presentations will spur people into action unless they have motivation to do anything. Even just this week I've tried to shake people out of their WAGMI ("we're all gonna make it") mindset, to no avail. Oh well.

I've had this dream3 of an upgraded online world for most of my life, which is wild to even think about; I just didn't know how to get there. When I stumbled upon the Handshake blockchain4 and it's mission to democratize the issuance of top‑level domains, it hit me that I could make that dream a reality. In the early days, it felt like there was real progress and motion. It was exciting! I was so focused on my mission that I wasn't able (or, willing) to see cracks in the foundation.

Having had some time away from Handshake I am able to objectively see what went well, what was terrible, and what could be improved. My fork of Handshake is called, "Dap," another kind of handshake that us Black guys use. Also, the dap.sh5 domain was available and that looks fantastic.

So how does Dap improve upon Handshake?

There are no "directors." The Handshake community likes to give that title to anyone who even holds 1 HNS (their token). Which…sounds cool and gives people warm and fuzzy feelings of importance but if everyone's a director, who's building? Currently there's two businesses and they're both focused on being a custodial wallet and marketplace; Namebase and Shakestation (better Namebase). Namebase was there since the beginning of Handshake's launch and got acquired by Namecheap. It's no secret that most of the team is gone and it's been hemorraging money. Shakestation is a two‑man operation and might be breaking even. That's it. Everyone else left, including the guy who proposed a takeover.

Aside from Bitcoin, every other successful blockchain has clear leadership, which makes sense. The Handshake community feels that because it's a fork of bcoin (and thus a fork of Bitcoin), it should retain the same leaderless position, completely ignoring the fact being first is a major advantage that cannot be replicated.

With Dap, I am the BDFL (benevolent dictator for life). Decisions should be made, period. As like‑minded people discover Dap and start building on it or exploring, the leadership team will fill out. Decentralized purity tests are lame.

During the testnet, tools and SDKs for developers will be built. Launching a blockchain for TLDs without giving people tools to actually use said TLDs is nuts. I've open‑sourced the registrar6 I was building for Handshake. The one I build for Dap will be much better but that's just an example of what should be available at mainnet launch.

During my research on how to build blockchains better, I learned about VDF (Verifiable Delay Functions) and VRF (Verifiable Random Functions). Coupled with Blake3 Proof‑of‑Work, you get 95% energy reduction versus traditional PoW with excellent security. Do I understand the first sentence of this paragraph? Absolutely not. I just know enough code to get things done and if I can build a successor to Handshake that's also healthier for the environment, I'm gonna figure it out (I have blockchain friends much smarter than me and I bug them with my questions all the time).

Another area where Handshake suffers is the overabundance of squatters. You will never get rid of squatters, look at Web2 domains. The aftermarket industry makes billions annually. What I want to do is make it uncomfortable to squat on TLDs and have that built into the protocol.

I'm on version 4 of the whitepaper7 and I'm pretty satisfied with it thus far. The only thing I haven't quite figured out is how to integrate VDF/VRF into my Deno fork of Handshake's full node software.

Remember when you were excited to “go online”?

I never lost that feeling and I truly belive Dap could restore that in you. 🕸️