Decentralizing DNS is tricky, but there are a few projects out there in the wild attempting to do just that.

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Isn’t DNS naturally decentralized? Sure of course there are many that are owned/controlled but the concept is just the broadcast/transmission/communication of domain name to ip addresses. Each DNS is linked to others and updating each others records. Anyone can set up a DNS.

No, DNS is not decentralized. There is a trust issue with decentralizing DNS. The way it works right now, you send your DNS query to a trusted nameserver like Google (8.8.8.8) or Cloudflare (1.1.1.1), and trust that the nameserver returns a correct DNS record. To decentralize this, you would need a way to verify that the DNS records are valid, and not directing you to a malicious phishing site or something like that.

Ahhh, okay. That does make it more tricky.

Would could say that “DNS isn’t decentralized per se, but it is partially distributed—hierarchically with a central master registry through which all information must ultimately pass.” Is the central master ICANN?