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Comment by pojntfx | Hacker News Reader

Seize the means of registration. Seriously, why on earth are the domain registries of the world not in the hands of the people? This stuff is far to important to be under the control of cooperations.

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You may want to look into OpenNIC, in which anyone with the know-how can operate a TLD.

They have domains like .geek, .cyb, .null, .libre, .oss, and you use them by simply switching your DNS server to one of OpenNIC's mirrors. They also support TLDs for "emerging nations" like .ku for Kurdish people, .uu for Uigurs, .ti for Tibet.

Though I'm not sure what would happen if ICANN decides to sell one of those domains one day.

Already happened. OpenNIC had to move the users from .free over to .libre

> .uu for Uigurs, .ti for Tibet.

Well, I guess mainland Chinese people won't be using this.

Most of them live in a very different digital world anyway.

Which people? There's no "world government" representing us, and having it annexed by the US isn't a great substitute.

Having the US Dept of Commerce over it is the least bad option right now though

You could have a council which is voted for and whose positions are immediately revocable by popular demand.

This doesn't really work. There are other stakeholders than just "the public", so need to add more to it, and because of this inherent complexity it ends up sucking. (see Athenian Democracy)

The UN? It has its problems (the Security Council), but it's the closest thing we have.

That’s exactly what Handshake [1] is doing - giving the rootzone to the people.

[1] https://www.handshake.org

As someone noted in a previous discussion, if governments get involved things will get messy, as just one example imagine China objecting to issuing/renewing a domain for a Taiwanese or Hong Kong NGO..

Did you have a model of governance in mind? I'm at a loss to think of one that I would prefer to the current one, as bad as it is.

Keep it as is but have it owned by the fed.

Which fed? ICANN is an international organization. They used to be overseen by the US Department of Commerce, but that relationship ended (with some controversy) a few years ago.

Any fed of sufficient size and diplomacy. US, EU, whatever. Anyone who has an iota of accountability, internal or external, would be better than the current owner.

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