News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:15AM (#32628549)
On Twitter, crypto maxis seem genuinely confused why a bunch of people (?) on Twitter (?) can’t get together and ask (?) GoDaddy to just extend the legal contract with the guy who’s now in legal trouble for violating sanctions against North Korea.

These people are beyond parody.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by jsheard on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:25AM (#32628622)
Isn't a whole guiding principle of crypto that code is law, rules are rules with no exceptions, and if you end up getting screwed over by the rules you opted into then it's your fault for not doing due diligence? The irony of immutable smart contract proponents begging humans to let them backdoor around a contract is palpable.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:32AM (#32628675)
This is a Web2 relay to access Web3. If browsers had built-in Web3 functionality, the eth.link relay wouldn't be needed, and this whole situation would be moot.

Until that day, it's reasonable for people to appeal to centralized Web2 entities to use their control to fix a problem inherent to centralized Web2 services.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by troad on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:39AM (#32628737)
The equivalent to the relay in that case is just the browser. If control of the browser passes to someone else - say because the dev is in jail and the server or signing key is seized - you now have a silently-self-updating piece of software running code from an unknown third party. This seems like a far more catastrophic problem than losing control of a relay domain.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @03:02PM (#32631003)
The browser is client side code, that runs independently on millions of people's computers. It is not a centralized relay, and control over someone's browser can't be "passed to someone else". On Chrome, all updates have to be manually approved by the user - it is not "silently-self-updating".

A developer going to prison, and a relay failing because he couldn't update the registration, is a far cry from a developer's signing keys being passed onto a malicious replacement who then includes removal of Web3 functionality in a browser update that users approve.

>>This seems like a far more catastrophic problem than losing control of a relay domain.

That's completely irrelevant, as the risk you describe is just as present in Web2. Risk is strictly reduced by removing the reliance on Web2 relays, the risk of browser hijacking notwithstanding.

>>Web3 boils down to "we've decentralised it, which is inconvenient, so you can find links to all of the decentralised bits in this one convenient central location, so just go there".

I mean that's what the early Web was like, with people going to centralized mainframe computers to access it. Any technology will take time to deploy, and its full benefits will be largely unrealized while it has low adoption rates and primitive tooling.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by jsheard on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:13PM (#32629500)
This isn't a problem inherent to centralized "Web2" services, it's entirely possible to share custody of a domain name so no one person is a single point of failure if they drop dead or go to prison for getting too friendly with North Korea. You'd hope that a proponent of smart contracts would be familiar with planning for contingencies like that, since with those there's nobody to appeal to if something goes wrong later, but Griffith didn't think that far ahead.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by desindol on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:35AM (#32628694)
Citation needed.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by px43 on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:40AM (#32628742)
Um, use Brave, or any other decent web3 browswer. Put in any .eth URL, and it works fine. Eth.link was a crutch. A silly hack that makes it so you can take a .eth URL, add ".link" to it, and get onto .eth sites without having to use a modern browser.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ohgodplsno on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:03PM (#32629424)
Thankfully, not querying random blockchains is not what makes a modern browser.

Actually, I'd love for cryptobros to try to make a browsers on their own, just for the lulz. I'm guessing it fails at about... eh maybe they'll make a CSS parser before there's a rug pull on BrowserCoin

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @03:06PM (#32631051)
The original comment, for which a citation was requested, was:

"If browsers had built-in Web3 functionality, the eth.link relay wouldn't be needed, and this whole situation would be moot."

The parent comment substantiates the claim, by citing Brave's ENS integration, and the lack of a need for a .link relay to access .eth domains when using it.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ohgodplsno on Sunday August 28, 2022 @05:01PM (#32632035)
No, the comment implied that browsers not allowing you to access websites on your favourite shitcoin without going through a normal TLD are not modern browsers.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by woojoo666 on Sunday August 28, 2022 @05:15PM (#32632124)
So you focused on 2 words rather than the main content of the comment
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ohgodplsno on Monday August 29, 2022 @02:11AM (#32635227)
When these two words have been very obviously selected and added in purpose to make people believe that web3 is the future (when all it is is a pitiful attempt at both hijacking a term and a pitiful attempt at getting people to pay for literally any interaction online) and that anyone not having access to it is in the past, yes.

Cryptobros have this tendancy of being very obvious in their cult-like behaviour.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Monday August 29, 2022 @09:05AM (#32637690)
If you think Web3 is not the future, that's a perfectly reasonable position to have, and possibly correct, but it'd be more constructive to substantiate it instead of merely spewing vitriol and ad hominem.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by throwoutway on Sunday August 28, 2022 @05:38PM (#32632325)
Isn’t Brave just using their own relay?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by edgyquant on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:12PM (#32629490)
Just because eth enthusiasts think it’s the same as web3.0 doesn’t make that the case
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:35AM (#32628701)
Which part?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by desindol on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:39AM (#32628739)
Web3 functionality
[dead]
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by IntelMiner on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:12PM (#32629495)
Because most of us are smart enough to realize the sheer joke that crypto is
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @03:13PM (#32631140)
Being smart and as a result, disliking decentralized digital currencies, shouldn't lead to you willfully misunderstanding the technology.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by dashdot on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:40PM (#32630822)
But this is not about anyone's opinion... It's a straight-up technical fact. It's always true, whether you like it or not.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by eli on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:23AM (#32628601)
I mean normally anyone can pay to extend a domain registration so it’s not that crazy a question.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:28AM (#32628640)
Normally people can pay to extend their domain registration.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by witheld on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:37AM (#32628719)
No, usually you can renew a domain for anyone without authentication
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by SilasX on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:29AM (#32629143)
Hah, reminds me of an old Married with Children episode where Al Bundy is going to the cable provider's customer service office to buy access to a Pay-Per-View event, and, after going through a lot of hassle, is asked for his ID, which he doesn't have on him.

I don't remember exactly what happened after, but my immediate reaction was, "lol what? Why do they care about whether this is really Al? At worst, it just means some random benefactor is paying their own money so Al gets to see the PPV."

(IIRC he was paying cash too so there wasn't even an issue of CC fraud.)

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:39AM (#32629232)
One distinction being that the owner of a domain holds some liability for what happens on that domain, a risk that no one should be required to take on just because other people don’t want some service disrupted.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by mindslight on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:54AM (#32629343)
On top of this, being physically in prison isn't some sort of show stopper. The owner should be able to execute a limited power of attorney that gives someone (likely, their attorney) the power to stand in for them and renew the domain name. If Godaddy still wants to reject the POA, then they can find another registrar that will respect it and transfer the domain name out.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by JohnHaugeland on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:39AM (#32628738)
uh. what?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by euroclear on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:52AM (#32628843)
I'm not sure about Godaddy, but on Gandi you can definitely pay to extend someone else's domain name.

https://docs.gandi.net/en/domain_names/renew/how_to_renew.ht...

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by JohnHaugeland on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:56AM (#32628872)
That's wild. I had had no idea.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by andreareina on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:54AM (#32628859)
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by maccard on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:07AM (#32628972)
Thats not the same thing. The domain lapsed and someone else bought it, which is exactly what is going to happen to eth.link according to this post.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by andreareina on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:47AM (#32629304)
From the horses mouth:

> I read through the discussion area for that story and found that the problem had been tracked down to an outstanding invoice for passport.com at Network Solutions, the domain name registrar.

> I own a number of domains myself, including doublewide.net, so I'm no stranger to the payment system at Network Solutions. I went to the payment page at https://payments.networksolutions.com and typed in "passport.com", after which I was greeted with a page showing the outstanding invoice for $35. One of the buttons near the bottom of the page was "Make payment", so I pressed it.

https://web.archive.org/web/20031002153020/http://www.double...

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by guiambros on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:10PM (#32629473)
Ha, what a great story; thanks for sharing.

> On Tuesday, December 28 I heard from Microsoft. I was happy to hear that the payment did fix Passport, and of course they wanted to reimburse me, and thank me.

With companies so lawyer-ed up, I wonder if that would be the case today. I'd be very hesitant before hitting submit in that payment page.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by maccard on Sunday August 28, 2022 @04:32PM (#32631790)
Too late to edit, thats a wild story, thanks for sharing it!
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ocdtrekkie on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:34AM (#32628686)
I mean, most banks don't require ID to make a deposit. It's not an unrealistic thought that someone should be able to top up some dude's account so that his stuff can autorenew. Though a company would need some sort of explicit policy for that more than likely.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by jeremymcanally on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:55AM (#32628866)
> I mean, most banks don't require ID to make a deposit.

Due to money laundering regulations, that isn't really true anymore. Most banks straight up won't take cash deposits into someone else's account, identification or not. Other means (ACH, etc.) require KYC from the originating institution. I'm not sure about secure funds like a money order, but I'm guessing they'd be subject to some sort of verification as well.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by jefftk on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:36AM (#32629201)
At my bank, if you fill out a deposit bag with the account number and put in cash, you can drop it in the deposit slot and it shows up in the account. There is no verification that you own the account, beyond knowledge of the account number.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:36AM (#32628711)
Sure, if the original contract had a clause that said “anyone can come add money to this and if they do, go ahead and extend it under my name” then this would be entirely reasonable. It seems that clause doesn’t exist here or at least GoDaddy isn’t required to exercise it.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by baobob on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:48AM (#32628808)
This hasn't been true in the UK for at least a few years now
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by eli on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:58AM (#32628890)
I’ve done it for other people multiple times. Not sure about godaddy though.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by tomlogic on Sunday August 28, 2022 @01:58PM (#32630433)
It's not the case with GoDaddy. I just had a hosting client run into this a few weeks ago -- someone they know had registered their domain for them long ago, and they didn't have the GoDaddy login. I tried to help out when their domain expired and spoke to GoDaddy support. They do not provide any way to renew domain without logging into the account that owns the domain. They were fortunately able to get in touch with the person who originally registered it, so that person could renew it and work on transferring it to an account controlled by the true "domain owner".

I personally don't see a security issue with allowing anyone to renew any domain. It's not like you can change WHOIS information or the authoritative name servers -- you're just paying to continue with the existing ownership/configuration.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:31AM (#32628667)
It's not totally crazy to think that GoDaddy could unilaterally extend the contract so that a widely used relay service could stay operational.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:46AM (#32628793)
A decentralized service, ~propped up~ exposed by a weak single point of failure, with no organization, and a bus-factor of one is doomed to fail. If it wasn't GoDaddy, it would be something else. Just let it die.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by nyolfen on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:50AM (#32628826)
eth.link isn't a decentralized service. this is like mistaking archive.org for the internet. ens is still humming along
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:02AM (#32628925)
Fixed
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by sp332 on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:37AM (#32628720)
It is, because that domain is in demand and it would be unfair to other people who want a chance to get it.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by hyperhopper on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:45AM (#32628791)
I'd argue nothing about the arbitrarily priced, first come first serve, domain name model is fair at all in the first place.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by scoopertrooper on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:43AM (#32628772)
Why would anyone want to prolong the death of web 3?

Seems inhumane.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by em_te on Monday August 29, 2022 @04:17AM (#32635848)
It's hard for it to die when countries like Venezuela tried to create their own crypto to get around US sanctions on the Venezuelan dollar. And when that failed, Venezuelans switched to Bitcoin because the Bolívar currency was inflating too fast.

Next on the crypto train is Sri Lanka. The Sri Lanka government is warning against using crypto, but we'll see if the citizens choose it over their own Rupees.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by scoopertrooper on Monday August 29, 2022 @11:08AM (#32639219)
I just did a quick calculation. If the Sri Lankans had traded their Rupees for Bitcoin at the peak, they'd be down about 4% less. However, if they had bought USD instead, they'd up 73%!

Bitcoin seems like a poor inflation hedge to me.

However, it does seem to be working out well for them. Joke is on me, I guess.

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2022/8/15/sri-lankans-make...

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ohgodplsno on Sunday August 28, 2022 @12:05PM (#32629438)
But seeing web 3 flop like a fish out of the water is hilarious too, so there's arguments on both sides.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by smoldesu on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:35AM (#32628700)
Forecast shows a low possibility of hell freezing over this week, I wouldn't get your hopes up.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by bayindirh on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:57AM (#32628887)
Uh. It doesn't work like that.

When it comes to ICANN, rules are rules.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by electroly on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:12AM (#32629004)
The ICANN Expired Domain Deletion Policy allows a registrar to renew a registration without any action from the registrant in "extenuating circumstances." If they wanted to, they could maybe do it under this exception, but there's no real reason why GoDaddy would stick their neck out here.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by riffic on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:46PM (#32630870)
an extenuating circumstance isn't what you think it means here.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by desindol on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:36AM (#32628710)
Yeah let’s just throw all ICANN rules.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:33AM (#32628683)
Yes it is.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:47AM (#32628802)
Huge number of people dependent on service, owner incapacitated, GoDaddy able to prevent disruption to service by simply freezing current settings. Not seeing the "out of this world crazy".
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:07AM (#32628960)
The only conceivable reason GoDaddy would entertain the idea is that the gross incompetence and negligence of a single individual has created such an immense liability for millions of users. And single individuals creating immense liabilities for millions of users seems to be par for the course for web3. Really nothing new.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Sunday August 28, 2022 @03:03PM (#32631015)
So you agree, not totally crazy.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Sunday August 28, 2022 @08:27PM (#32633579)
If that's your conclusion, I'm not surprised you're so invested in these ideas.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Tuesday August 30, 2022 @11:46PM (#32658149)
You just provided a plausible rationale for Twitter to extend the contract. But I apologize for interrupting your stream of snarky comments with a good faith interpretation

And yes, I am invested in the idea of not being dependent on a large corporation to authenticate my identity online, or a large bank to access my money. No surprise many people reject these ideas, given how many people's livelihoods now depend on institutions that are shaped around the existence of centralized points of control.

Just remember, the only way crypto/Web3 fails, is if a lot more people are put in prison, like the way the Netherlands put Alexey Pertsev in prison for publishing open source Tornado Cash code. Is that the world you want to live in?

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Thursday September 01, 2022 @12:31AM (#32672026)
> livelihoods depend on... centralized points of control

This control they have has nothing to do with centralization or decentralization. They get it through the data-economy we live in - monopolistic companies syphoning petabytes of information about us to build impenetrable moats of data that smaller businesses can't compete with. Currency isn't even on their radar. It's irrelevant. When that cash or coin needs to be transferred into real tangible value, they'll be taking their share, regardless if the system that transaction is running on is an Pentium 3 AMEX COBOL server, or via the mining rig that came out last week consuming the energy from burning a small rainforest.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ETH_start on Thursday September 01, 2022 @05:58PM (#32683874)
>>They get it through the data-economy we live in - monopolistic companies syphoning petabytes of information about us to build impenetrable moats of data that smaller businesses can't compete with.

This has everything to do with centralization.. the exclusive access these companies have to vast troves of private data is a consequence of billions of people relying on a handful of companies to provide internet services to them.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by cush on Thursday September 01, 2022 @08:17PM (#32685096)
It depends what companies we're talking about. Most of these companies are not internet services, they're so big that they're logistics companies - manufacturing, shipping, receiving, legal, human resources, etc etc etc. The internet is the conduit and plays a role in their marketing and sales, but there is absolutely no economic incentive for companies to share the data or consumers to move to an inferior product. This stickiness means consumers will purchase from those companies because of influences imposed by their data-moat (better price and product)

If you say that decentralization is the solution, I'd retort "what are you even planning on decentralizing?", because most of their logistics isn't on "the internet", it's on the dark web

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by neoberg on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:53AM (#32628845)
> owner incapacitated

Owner deliberately created a bus factor issue and decided to violate sanctions against North Korea.

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by maccard on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:09AM (#32628982)
Why does this domain get special treatment. If Google forget to register google.com should their registrar renew it out of the good of their hearts?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @11:31AM (#32629158)
The owner isn’t incapacitated. He has a lawyer who can decide what happens with the domain!

These sorts of disputes happen all the time. They don’t generally resolve with “contractor signs with counterparty’s name on new contracts in perpetuity.”

Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by smoldesu on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:53AM (#32628849)
The owner went to jail. You think GoDaddy is going to give people a domain in-perpetuity for free? Are you unfamiliar with their business model or something?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by tomlogic on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:00PM (#32630453)
I don't see anyone asking for that -- just for the ability for someone other than the domain owner to pay the annual renewal fee.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by smoldesu on Sunday August 28, 2022 @02:39PM (#32630807)
They can, they just have to let it lapse first. Same as it's always been with GoDaddy, why should they make an exception here?
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by npc54321 on Sunday August 28, 2022 @08:40PM (#32633658)
You hate web3 more than you love freedom
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by smoldesu on Monday August 29, 2022 @09:40AM (#32638094)
Speak for yourself, I've used Bittorrent since I was 12. Some of us don't need digital Chuck-E-Cheese tokens to express our digital freedom.
Re:GoDaddy Statement on Eth.link Domain Registration by ethanbond on Sunday August 28, 2022 @10:13PM (#32634129)
Freedom for service providers to unilaterally extend contracts? Uhhhh