Decentraweb DWEB Domains vs Handshake HNS TLD Domains comparison

For a few weeks more and more people are asking me to make a video about Decentraweb and Handshake differences. And my overview and review of DWEB’s system and token.

So today, this is a 17 page google doc that will turn into a blog post on Skyinclude.com/decentraweb and also a video covering the general points of this document.

And we are also on a handshake domain - if this site is taken down, it is on https://setup.skyinclude/decentraweb as well.

Question from a Subscriber on Decentraweb vs HNS

This is a topic I have been researching a bit and is due time to discuss

I have a question for you what do u think on decentraweb.

Maybe u can make video about them

Are there website can be on the brave browser and what will happen with name duplicates ?
I heard the podcast with Mike from Impervious (Beacon) he says they make slds on eth is not the same as decentraweb does ??

So to be clear - all TLDs on Handshake will not be compatible with the new TLDs that Decentraweb is selling on their Dapp.

And another question about Dentraweb

Hey Michael,

I'm relatively new to hns, and super excited about the possibilities

Any comments on decentraweb.org / twitter.com/decentra_web ?

They seemed to be the only true competitor to hns

I'd rather just stay with hns...of course they're saying that they have an edge being on Ethereum

A Tweet to me asking for a SkyInclude video

So let’s do this and here is the much anticipated video and overview. Will try my best to be objective and give all points from all sides.

Going through how to use DecentraWeb

First - let’s go through it step by step, to understand it clearly. Lets go to the dApps’ website at https://decentraweb.org

First, I need to buy Dweb token (optional)

Uniswap, or other platforms. But you don’t seem to need it, you can use ETH - but will get a discount if you use the DWEB token (keep on reading).

Login with my Eth Wallet to their dapp

It then asks me to give my email, but in web3 I normally don’t provide my email address?

So I go to update my email

But I am not going to do that today.
I search for a TLD, putting in roockstar and it is available and then I move forward. I can then register this TLD with 0.0823 ETH, or if I use the Decentraweb’s token Dweb I get a 50% discount
The cost is about 100- 110 USD per TLD if you pay in ETH, and there is currently a 50% discount if you use their DAO token DWEB.

Also it is worth noting there is a yearly renewal of the same price. The most you can register at one time is 5 years in the future.

Also we cannot seem to register 1 letter, 2 letter, and other searches. Not sure what will happen to those TLD names? I don’t see a lite paper or white paper to understand more (if there is one, I will read it)

Reserved Names

From their FAQ:

Current top domain names (like apple.com, youtube.com, facebook.com, etc) will be restricted from registration unless user can prove they own the ICANN version. If you try to register .facebook for instance, the smart contract will verify you own the domain by asking you to add a txt record to facebook.com dns with a random string we provide you. If you can't update the existing dns record, registration won't continue.

This way we can avoid people squatting on top domains, and it also gives us a way to work with top brands/companies etc and get them into our ecosystem!

My question, where can I see a list of the reserved names?

After Minting a TLD

I will not go through in purchasing this - but once you do, it would be minted on the Decentraweb smart contract and you can see them on Opensea

https://opensea.io/collection/dname

Note it seems they expire after 1 year as you can see.

I also see them on Polygon as v2
https://opensea.io/collection/dname-v2

There is the ability to mint subdomains at https://dns.decentraweb.org/register-subdomain

How Decentraweb Says They Are Different from Handshake

So right on the homepage of Decentraweb - they clearly state Handshake as their top competitor. It seems pretty aggressive in my opinion, and some in the Handshake community have been in the Decentraweb telegram group where the community moderators and admins are also aggressively stating Handshake as a weak protocol and susceptible to 51% attacks.

From their homepage on https://decentraweb.org they compare versus Handshake:

As text:

The closest competitor to us would be Handshake, and the Handshake Protocol. However we feel their implementation is flawed on many fronts.

First off, they run their own PoW blockchain, based on Bitcoin.

This is problematic, as if you are trying to rewrite one of the base layers of the internet and most important protocols (DNS), you should ensure you're on the most decentralized and secure blockchain around.

The fact that handshake runs its own chain, and one that runs a common hashing algorithm, means it is subject to a 51% attack since there isn't much hashing power associated with the chain.

We feel something as critical as DNS should not be subject to these types of attacks. Furthermore, being a smaller chain means its subject to potential downtime or other issues. Think about solana with its recent 20 hour downtime. Something as critical as dns cannot have any downtime!

The Beauty of Handshake - You Can Use Any Blockchain!

We had Matt Zipkin on the Skyinclude channel to discuss 51 attack on Handshake (as it is such a common argument) you can watch / read at https://skyinclude.com/51attack

But after that video, I sleep fine at night.

Also Matt chimed in on the recent tweets:

HNS is a small chain with relatively weak security, there's no arguing against that. All we can do is add value to the project and bring more miners and businesses on board as time goes on.

And the second tweet from Matt
That says otherwise from what Decentraweb says about Handshake’s hashrate:

sha3+blake2b is not "common" at all, it is unique to HNS and there is no big pile of unused ASICs for attackers to buy. The other criticisms about 51% attacks are basically valid, but similar censorship concerns also apply to ETH

Angry mouse says it great:
https://twitter.com/angrymouse_hns/status/1575514968237260803

More Tweets:
https://twitter.com/MatthewZipkin/status/1575426736619225088

The Light client is the key - many say this for Handshake, and I need to learn this more.

The 51% attack is something we as a community in Handshake need to keep working towards

Handshake is like Bitcoin (but can go on any chain), Decentraweb is 100% on Ethereum

So Decentraweb’s claim is Ethereum is the best chain to use for the TLDs. That it is more secure using Proof of Stake Ethereum than Proof of Work and a fork of Bitcoin / Bcoin.

I don’t want today’s Handshake vs Decentraweb blog and video to be a long debate about POW (proof of work) vs POS (proof of stake) but this is one of the main arguments.

Keep in mind, many Handshake TLDs are being put onto Ethereum for staking, such as https://Impervious.Domains (we have done a lot of videos on them a https://skyinclude.com/impervious)

Gas Fees? What About Ethereum Fees Once the Bull Market Comes Back?

Sure, gwei is super low right now as we are in a bear crypto market. Around 5 to 10 gwei as I type this.

But what happens when the bull market returns and there are trades on Uniswap and other Ethereum Dapps that are all pushing to get priority in the transactions of blocks?

That means gwei will rise - and that means TX fees to do things on the Decentraweb dapp will cost more to do.

The Risk of a 51% attack - so what????

We just finished our 17th flamingo handshake monthly auction, and one of the TLD winners is looking to use ALGORAND Blockchain for selling SLDs

THIS IS THE POWER OF HANDSHAKE

You don’t need to do it on 1 blockchain.

(name removed) [Sep 29, 2022 at 7:17:37 AM]:
i had to verify your pdf just now 😛

Anne, [Sep 29, 2022 at 7:17:41 AM]:
will buy an SLD if you stake it

How would you like to settle via Namebase, NB Pro or bob?

(name removed), [Sep 29, 2022 at 7:18:58 AM]:
I am not planning on EVM for lume domains. I will tell you it is likely going to go to algorand unless I see a better option. ergo and ada arent there yet and theres no a coswasm/rust registry software yet.

bob. send me the address, i have the coins

so lume will not follow the community’s route likely

Anne, [Sep 29, 2022 at 7:22:11 AM]:
EVM sounds great, have you spoken to chjango about this plan?

Looking at the Token

It is a token, DWEB on ethereum blockchain. Which ETH has moved to proof of stake in September 2022.
https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/decentraweb

Yes… Handshake hasn’t been doing too hot either

Team Comparison

Let’s look at the teams of the 2 projects (well 1 is a project or Dao - Decentraweb, and the other, Handshake, is a protocol / blockchain).

Decentraweb team, Michael MafiaBoy Calce, Adam Barlam, and Arne Josefsberg

Two of the three on the team are ex-Godaddy. Some wonder if Godaddy themselves is using this dApp as a hedge behind the scenes? That this is their web3 investment / play? Can’t verify this.

The most active one, and I have to say he is working hard, is Michael “mafiaboy” Calce. Definitely has a valid background and experience as a former hacker that was featured on Wired.com in the year 2000 for DDOS attacks on sites such as CNN and eTrade. Read up on google or you can read the start link Wired article here

Personally - I am not a fan of mafia people. As a 25% Italian American, my grandfather died by the mafia when my father was 13 years old, so I don’t like to glorify mafia lifestyle.

So he definitely is saying Handshake can be easily 51% attacked and is using that as his main case why Handshake should not be the root of the internet. Guess his experience could justify his alarm, but many respected developers in Handshake respond to this

Handshake team, No one!!!!!!

The HNS twitter hasn’t been updated in years - because there is no one centralized to control it!!!!!

Some see that as a weakness, those in HNS think that is a FEATURE! The twitter account is not updated because of this - https://twitter.com/hns

But we have been happy to see JJ, one of the 4 creators, more active and standing up for Handshake against Unstoppable Domains at the September 2022 NamesCon in Austin, Texas. We love you man!

Decentralization, Airdrop, Distribution

Integrations and Adoption
Handshake, yes has a long way to go. But I do think it is an advantage that it has been online and running steadily since Mainnet in March 2020. Because the community is diversified, there are a lot of tools and plugins being made.

Decentraweb I am not sure if the code is open source. Some have asked for a Github repo but said it is not ready yet (?). They have browser plugins for major browsers - but can the community of developers review and of this code?

It doesn’t seem as open source and open in general to the developer community.

Handshake has the Github developer airdrop, as well as free HNS coin for top internet companies that Brave browser has dumped on the market - because there is NO Expectation. It is to give back to those who created the internet (sure, we hope those who claim their free airdrop consider using Handshake)

From Handshake.org

I do not see this in the tokenomics of Decentraweb.

Also - ICANN has spoken about ENS and UD and HNS over the years. We do not see any mention from ICANN on this newer dApp Decentraweb.

Conclusion - Of Course I Love Handshake - and it has a huge vision that is still early stage

I am trying to keep an open mind, I did review DecentraWeb, but yes, I’m in love with HNS.

We should SUPPORT handshake, not attack it and say it is weak.

Over time I see it getting stronger and better. It is such a beautiful project. Not the normal centralized token issued by a team that then tried to make a DAO.

We are all directors as handshake -and we ned to work as a community to improve it.