
Show HN: Bob – A GUI for DNS Record Management and Name Auctions on Handshake - sdtsui
https://github.com/kyokan/bob-wallet
======
mdszy
So another random coin that isn't actually going to solve anything because
it's just being thrown at a problem randomly like blockchain always is. Nice.

~~~
rasengan
DNS tlds as they exist today are in centralized control by ICANN, a California
public benefit corporation. Recently, activity originating from ICANN
including removing price caps on .org [1] and the .org billion dollar sale [2]
have brought the community to alarm [3].

SSL certificates can be issued by any of the CAs. Multiple CAs can issue SSL
certificates for the same namespace. This has led to some activity that has
weakened internet security [4].

Handshake gives control of the root zone away from ICANN, a California
corporation, to the blockchain and community consensus and strengthens
internet security, removing trust from the equation as everything is
verifiable on chain. Applying blockchain in this way uniquely solves these
problems and gives control over the internet that we all love, back to the
people.

[1] [https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/icann-
eliminates...](https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/07/icann-eliminates-
org-domain-price-caps-despite-lopsided-opposition/)

[2] [https://www.reuters.com/article/us-internet-domain-
sale/inte...](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-internet-domain-
sale/internet-nonprofit-leaders-fight-deal-to-sell-control-of-org-domain-
idUSKBN1Z62MW)

[3] [https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/12/global-ngo-
community-d...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/12/global-ngo-community-
demands-stop-sale-org)

[4] [https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/01/alrea...](https://arstechnica.com/information-
technology/2017/01/already-on-probation-symantec-issues-more-illegit-https-
certificates/)

~~~
tptacek
Even if we stipulate to all of these points, why would anyone believe that the
sponsors of this protocol are entitled to profit from it? See, for instance,
Handshake.org's discussion of the "10 million dollar grant" it offers to FOSS
developers.

~~~
rasengan
Great question. The design notes paper [1] does an excellent job explaining
this:

## Financial Contributors and Pricing - 7.5%

A total of $10,200,00 USD have been allocated to purchasers to price the
initial value of the coins for 7.5% of the total supply, with a total
valuation of the initial coin supply at $136,000,000.

100% of the dollars raised are being given to non-profits and FOSS projects,
and FOSS communities such as hackerspaces. This is effectively a one-way non-
destructive "proof-of-burn" on the dollar side to price the coins.

The role of coin purchasers is critical as an initial stakeholder in the
growth of the project. The purchasers have been curated to maximize effective
change by primarily allocating funds to Venture Capitalists and Token Funds
with specialty in the cryptocurrency and decentralized internet ecosystem.
Many of these purchasers have been effective in disrupting entire industries
and have been involved in large-scale growth of internet services (some even
across generations).

The existence of these participants are necessary and fundamental in pricing
the tokens, as the distribution event requires real value to be established (a
sale of 1% of total initial supply is not credible in pricing the tokens).
Additionally, the sale has occurred as close to launch/announcement as
possible.

Other projects replicating this mechanism may require greater capital to fund
development and/or greater claim to the Pre-Launch Development allocation.
This may result in not having a one-way "proof-of-burn", and instead use the
capital to fund development of the project.

The role of pricing the coins for distribution is necessary as the coins need
to have understood value during the distribution process. While it would
ostensibly be ideal to spin-up projects and deploy blockchains without this
mechanism, there may be insufficient coordination and ex-ante expectations of
value. The role of the high-reputation Venture Capital provides a tastemaker
function which provides a signal and Schelling Point for potentially
economically and socially valuable projects. These entities are a significant
stakeholder in the current ecosystem and a continuing game for project
selection and curation may persist as a result ("putting your money where your
mouth is"). [1]

[1]
[https://handshake.org/files/handshake.txt](https://handshake.org/files/handshake.txt)

~~~
sdtsui
> I find the words confusing [1] and incompatible [2][3].

1 - for Handshake, VCs are 'used' primarily as a signal to price the coins -
like in Bitcoin, the asset having a price helps on many dimensions, for
example, security (miners mine it).

2 - in Handshake, unlike most VC projects and startups - the capital raised
was not used to pay salaries or enrich the developers building it -
development was funded by other means. This is what is meant by "one-way non-
destructive 'proof-of-burn'" -> in fact, it's not really a burn but a
generative action since funds were donated to FOSS projects that put the
capital to use!

That's why 1 and 2 are not incompatible.

------
sdtsui
It looks to me like a lot of discussion about the viability/usefulness of
Handshake itself, which I have no problem with; the post sparked a discussion,
and that's cool with me. There are a couple of things about Bob I'd like to
state, just so it's here for future readers, as I had hoped to answer
questions about the software.

1\. Bob is an electron application that also is a Handshake resolver and full
node - you can find these projects at: [http://github.com/handshake-
org](http://github.com/handshake-org)

2\. We're looking for contributors and help of all kinds! Like any other open-
source project, bug reports, suggestions, and contributions are very much
welcome. Personally, my concerns as an engineer are around the scalability of
the UI (electron can be hard to work with) when many (possibly hundreds) of
domains are being watched or bid on. This is behaviour I believe is possible
to see, from observing early internet domainers.

3\. Like many non-custodial 'wallet' projects, it is meant to be a reasonable
alternative to exchange custody, but we don't provide any guarantees as the
user is responsible for self-custody. We intend to add hardware wallet support
in the future. The goal is for the average person to have an easier time
working with Handshake and Handshake names, by using Bob instead of a cli.

4\. Bob is maintained by Kyokan, and I am the CEO there. It is not maintained
by the Handshake team, and there is no Handshake foundation or business that
runs the project. Kyokan is a separate software engineering consultancy that
is working on multiple projects - we are also not a part of the Handshake
team. Our contact info for security disclosures is in the repo.

5\. Name Auctions and Airdrop claims on Handshake's mainnet start today (in
under 8 hours), so it felt appropriate to share this repo, which we've spent a
lot of time and effort working on. One can also find details about this in the
repo, but we all hope you have a good time using the software!

Again, we're looking for feedback and suggestions. Even in the process of
making this post, I found a few bugs, filed them and made minor improvements
to the documentation. Thanks for reading!

------
mmanfrin
Can someone ELI5 on what this is? What are Name Auctions on Handshake?

~~~
evgen
The ELI5 is that this is more PR astroturfing by the Handshake team, like the
four or five other links they have posted to HN over the past two days. After
only a few hours the bulk of the comments are by people close to the project
telling everyone else how it will solve all problems and provide digital
ponies for everyone...

~~~
sdtsui
I'm not a member of the Handshake team, and I don't have control over what
comments get posted. This is a Show HN - I am sharing something I have helped
make, that other people can play with. That was my only intention, and I've
atttempted to follow the guidelines here:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)

I don't know what other links have been posted beside this thread, which a
colleague sent to me:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22310604](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22310604)

That said, you are probably right. It doesn't surprise me that there is a lot
of Handshake-related activity on HN right now. The project was conceived over
two years ago, and today marks its second week of existence and the first day
that people can actually try it out. Respectfully, is it possible that most of
this is genuine interest/excitement in a new project instead of, as you put
it, "PR astroturfing"?

------
cjbprime
How cool! Sorry to ask an unrelated question: I saw something about how people
shouldn't perform airdrop claims on Handshake mainnet yet because transfers
are still disabled, is that still true?

~~~
troquerre
Yep! Once transfers are enabled in ~6 hours
([https://hnsxplorer.com/](https://hnsxplorer.com/)) you'll be able to claim,
but not before then. This tool can help you claim your coins easily
[https://namebase.io/airdrop](https://namebase.io/airdrop) (currently worth
~$2000 at market price but imo it's better to actually play around with them
and hold rather than sell everything immediately).

------
tssva
Bob is already used as the name of a Windows shell enhancement from Microsoft.
You should rename to avoid the name conflict and insuing user confusion. /s

------
Vinceo
So what does the VC's get back for gifting the $10.2mill?

~~~
heartbeats
They're doing it out of the goodness of their hearts, of course.

