The existing DNS system. You register a domain through a registrar, who leases it from a registry, who operates under ICANN's authority. A court order can seize your domain. A registrar can refuse to renew. Someone above you always has power over your name. This is what everyone uses today and it works fine for most things.

Authority: Institutional hierarchy (ICANN → Registry → Registrar → You)

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Resolution: DNS query → recursive resolver → authoritative nameserver → records

Tor onion addresses are derived from a public key. Nobody can take your .onion address because nobody can derive a different key that produces the same address. This is the closest existing analogy to $npub.nostr — your key IS your address. The difference: .onion addresses route traffic through the Tor network, while $npub.nostr resolves to DNS records. Both share the same core insight: cryptographic identity as naming.

Authority: Cryptographic (derived from public key, same as .nostr)

Pattern: {public_key_derived}.onion

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Resolution: Tor client → .onion address → rendezvous with hidden service

The purest consensus rule: your public key is your domain under .nostr. Nobody can take it from you because nobody can forge your signature. Nobody can squat someone else's public key because they can't produce valid events for it. The wire format (kind 11111 record tags) is zone-agnostic — the same event applies to .nostr, .nodns.shop, or any zone. Resolution is an infrastructure-layer concern, not a protocol-layer concern. Only $npub.nostr is supported — $string.nostr returns NXDOMAIN because there is no consensus mechanism for string ownership under .nostr.

Authority: Cryptographic (nsec/npub — your keypair IS your domain credential)

Pattern: {npub}.nostr → npub1axfc8yyaycvnqawkusq7p9pcfgzaw74jgme6c9ez5vcde3pq3d2sgufgdg.nostr

Ref: nodns-nameserver by Arjen

Resolution: Local DNS server (nodns-ns) or DoH endpoint → subscribes to Nostr relays → serves from cache

The same rule as $npub.nostr, but under an existing parent domain. Your npub IS your subdomain. The parent domain operator runs a bot that subscribes to Nostr relays and pushes records to standard DNS via DDNS. This means anyone can resolve it with normal DNS — no special software needed. The operator can be paid to cache/mirror your records, but the Nostr events are the source of truth. This is a land grab: the parent domain operator is placing a new consensus rule above their own authority. The same zone-agnostic events that create records under .nostr also create records here — no wire format changes needed.

Authority: Cryptographic (nsec/npub) + parent domain operator mirrors to standard DNS

Pattern: {npub}.{zone} → npub1ykal2...pa3dl.nodns.shop

Ref: Protocol experimental draft

An existing domain owner delegates a human-readable name to a specific npub for a fixed duration. The delegation is a signed Nostr event — irrevocable within the validity period. The operator is subletting their namespace. They choose to recognize Nostr events as the authority for their zone. Payment goes to the parent domain operator as a lease of their namespace. Censorship-resistant at the Nostr layer (delegation event can't be forged), but a court can order the operator to change DNS records.

Authority: Delegation from parent domain owner (via signed Nostr event)

Pattern: {name}.{zone} → alice.nodns.shop

Ref: Protocol experimental draft

A speculative consensus rule where you prove you burned Bitcoin (sending sats to unspendable addresses, contributing to Bitcoin's security) to claim a namespace. Based on ThomasV's proof-of-burn model for Nostr namespaces. The idea: burning is costly, so names have implicit economic weight. No token is created — sats go to miners.

Authority: Economic commitment (sats burned to miners)

Pattern: {name}.pob

A highly experimental model where a name resolves differently depending on which social circle you belong to. Much like how 'the pub' means different places to different people depending on their context, a WoT domain resolves based on who you trust. Your web of trust defines your namespace. Not yet explored in depth.

Authority: Social graph (who you trust determines resolution)

Pattern: {name}.wot

A variant of Proof of Burn where the cost to take over an existing name increases exponentially. If you burned 1000 sats to claim 'alice.eburn', someone else would need to burn 10,000 to take it. Then you'd need 100,000 to reclaim it. The exponential curve makes it prohibitively expensive to dislodge a legitimate owner. Not yet explored in depth.

Authority: Economic commitment with exponential defense

Pattern: {name}.eburn

Various projects have created naming systems backed by blockchain tokens. You buy a name, you get a token that represents ownership. The smart contract or chain consensus enforces who controls the name. NoDNS takes a different path: no token, no blockchain. Included for comparison — NoDNS explicitly rejects this approach.

Authority: Smart contract / blockchain

Resolution: Special resolver / browser extension → blockchain RPC → contract state → records