Zooko's triangle is a

trilemma A trilemma is a difficult choice from three options, each of which is (or appears) unacceptable or unfavourable. There are two logically equivalent ways in which to express a trilemma: it can be expressed as a choice among three unfavourable option ...

of three properties that some people consider desirable for names of participants in a

network protocol A communication protocol is a system of rules that allows two or more entities of a communications system to transmit information via any kind of variation of a physical quantity. The protocol defines the rules, syntax, semantics and synchroniza ...

: * ''Human-meaningful:'' Meaningful and memorable (low-entropy) names are provided to the users. * ''Secure:'' The amount of damage a malicious entity can inflict on the system should be as low as possible. * ''Decentralized:'' Names correctly resolve to their respective entities without the use of a central authority or service.

Overview

Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn (born Bryce Wilcox; 13 May 1974 in Phoenix, Arizona), is an American Colorado-based computer security specialist, self-proclaimed cypherpunk, and CEO of the Electric Coin Company (ECC), a for-profit company leading the develo ...

conjectured that no single kind of name can achieve more than two. For example:

DNSSec The Domain Name System Security Extensions (DNSSEC) are a suite of extension specifications by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) for securing data exchanged in the Domain Name System (DNS) in Internet Protocol (IP) networks. The protocol ...

offers a human-meaningful, secure naming scheme, but is not decentralized as it relies on trusted root-servers;

.onion .onion is a special-use top level domain name designating an anonymous onion service, which was formerly known as a "hidden service", reachable via the Tor network. Such addresses are not actual DNS names, and the .onion TLD is not in the I ...

addresses and

bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

addresses are secure and decentralized but not human-meaningful; and

I2P The Invisible Internet Project (I2P) is an anonymous network layer (implemented as a mix network) that allows for censorship-resistant, peer-to-peer communication. Anonymous connections are achieved by encrypting the user's traffic (by using ...

uses name translation services which are secure (as they run locally) and provide human-meaningful names - but fail to provide unique entities when used globally in a decentralised network without authorities.

Solutions

Several systems that exhibit all three properties of Zooko's triangle include: * Computer scientist

Nick Szabo Nicholas Szabo is a computer scientist, legal scholar, and cryptographer known for his research in digital contracts and digital currency. He graduated from the University of Washington in 1989 with a degree in computer science and received a Ju ...

's paper "Secure Property Titles with Owner Authority" illustrated that all three properties can be achieved

up to Two Mathematical object, mathematical objects ''a'' and ''b'' are called equal up to an equivalence relation ''R'' * if ''a'' and ''b'' are related by ''R'', that is, * if ''aRb'' holds, that is, * if the equivalence classes of ''a'' and ''b'' wi ...

the limits of

Byzantine fault tolerance A Byzantine fault (also Byzantine generals problem, interactive consistency, source congruency, error avalanche, Byzantine agreement problem, and Byzantine failure) is a condition of a computer system, particularly distributed computing systems, ...

. * Activist

Aaron Swartz Aaron Hillel Swartz (November 8, 1986 – January 11, 2013) was an American computer programmer, entrepreneur, writer, political organizer, and Internet hacktivist. A prolific programmer, Swartz helped develop the web feed format RSS, the tech ...

described a naming system based on

Bitcoin Bitcoin ( abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distr ...

employing Bitcoin's distributed blockchain as a proof-of-work to establish consensus of domain name ownership. These systems remain vulnerable to

Sybil attack Sibyls were oracular women believed to possess prophetic powers in ancient Greece. Sybil or Sibyl may also refer to: Films * ''Sybil'' (1921 film) * ''Sybil'' (1976 film), a film starring Sally Field * ''Sybil'' (2007 film), a remake of the 19 ...

, but are secure under Byzantine assumptions. * Theoretician

Curtis Yarvin Curtis Guy Yarvin (born 1973), also known by the pen name Mencius Moldbug, is an American blogger, software engineer, and Internet entrepreneur. He is known, along with fellow theorist Nick Land, for founding the anti-egalitarian and anti-demo ...

implemented a decentralized version of IP addresses in

Urbit Urbit is a decentralized personal server platform. The platform seeks to deconstruct the client-server model in favour of a federated network of personal servers in a peer-to-peer network with a consistent digital identity. Overview The Urbit ...

that hash to four-syllable, human-readable names. Several platforms implement refutations of Zooko's conjecture, including:

Twister Twister may refer to: Weather * Tornado Aviation * Pipistrel Twister, a Slovenian ultralight trike * Silence Twister, a German homebuilt aircraft design * Wings of Change Twister, an Austrian paraglider design Entertainment * ''Twister'' (198 ...

(which use Swartz' system with a bitcoin-like system),

Blockstack Stacks, formerly Blockstack, is an open-source platform to enable smart contracts, DeFi, NFTs, and apps for Bitcoin. Stacks blockchain is a "layer" for Bitcoin similar to the Lightning Network. In addition to smart contracts, the Stacks project p ...

(separate blockchain),

Namecoin Namecoin (Abbreviation: NMC; sign: \mathbb) is a cryptocurrency originally forked from bitcoin software. It uses proof-of-work algorithm. Like bitcoin, it is limited to \mathbb21 million. Namecoin can store data within its own blockchain ...

(separate blockchain),

LBRY LBRY (), is a blockchain-based file-sharing and payment network that powers decentralized platforms, primarily social networks and video platforms. LBRY's creators also created Odysee, an open-source video-sharing website that uses the networ ...

(separate blockchain - content discovery, ownership, and

peer-to-peer Peer-to-peer (P2P) computing or networking is a distributed application architecture that partitions tasks or workloads between peers. Peers are equally privileged, equipotent participants in the network. They are said to form a peer-to-peer n ...

file-sharing),

Monero Monero (; Abbreviation: XMR) is a decentralized cryptocurrency. It uses a public distributed ledger with privacy-enhancing technologies that obfuscate transactions to achieve anonymity and fungibility. Observers cannot decipher addresses tradi ...

, OpenAlias, Ethereum Name Service, and the Handshake Protocol.

Notes

References

External links

* Zooko Wilcox-O'Hearn
Names: Decentralized, Secure, Human-Meaningful: Choose Two
– the essay highlighting this difficulty * Marc Stiegler
An Introduction to Petname Systems
– a clear introduction * Nick Szabo

– argues that all three properties can be achieved up to the limits of

. * Bob Wyman
The Persistence of Identity (Updating Zooko's Pyramid)
* Paul Crowley
Squaring Zooko's Triangle
* Aaron Swartz
Squaring the Triangle
using a technique from

{{Object-capability security Secure communication Decentralization

Overview

Solutions

See also

Notes

References

External links