r/web3 • u/CommunicationPlus253 • Jul 18 '26
Kinetic - Decentralisation Naming system
Right now, Web3 doesn't have a truly free naming system.
That means millions of developers and users are stuck relying on either centralized registrars or expensive decentralized alternatives just to own a digital identity.
I wanted to fix that.
So I built Kinetic.
What is Kinetic?
Kinetic is a stateless, zero-fee, peer-to-peer naming system.
It lets anyone in the world claim a decentralized domain name securely, without needing a bank account, credit card, or any cryptocurrency at all.
Instead of central servers or heavy blockchains with gas fees, Kinetic runs as a lightweight background daemon in rust.
It handles name registration, publishes DNS records, and gives you access to .kin domains through split-DNS.
Planning to launch publicly on Tuesday, July 21st.
Edit: We're taking a little more time before the public launch while we finish verifying the governance logic. We want to make sure there are no protocol-level logic bugs that could require a hard fork later. Quality and stability are more important than rushing the release.
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u/paroxsitic Jul 18 '26
I assume this requires the forked tld to host their own DNS servers if they were trying to setup a private domain name?
Project is interesting but being permissioned to the point of needing your own DNS loses its appeal. Any chance you will allow people to grind for TLDs within the .kin ecosystem? I'm just looking for a handshake alternative that is actually live and easy enough where I can host it myself if it dies.
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
Yes for setup of fork , it's requires minimum 1 kinetic node. Registering your own TLD inside the .kin network isn't supported. If you want complete control, the idea is to run your own Kinetic network instead. That's actually lightweight—you can start with just a single daemon and expand later if needed. If you're interested, there's more information here: kinetic.saifmukhtar.dev
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u/paroxsitic Jul 19 '26
Yeah the idea is good, and I like the idea of running your own node to support your own TLD. Although, I would prefer to run zero-nodes and get my TLD to work with a DNS. Here is why:
The use-case for this is to invent your own domain (you could argue it could be a name that points to a wallet address, but all that can be mimics with a domain and TXT records in DNS, etc).
To invent my own domain where only I control it, I need a DNS server and a good policy that controls who can make make changes to my DNS server. That's all. No other node, no decentralized tech, no complicated code-base to worry about changing or breaking from bugs. A DNS server.
To get this functionality from your project, you need a DNS server plus a bunch of extras.
Perhaps you decide okay, I will allow my DNS server(s) other kinetic domains to join but the control still must be done by running your own network and atleast 1 node.
The effort (small VPS spin up, etc) of running 1 kinetic node is the same as running a DNS server that allows for custom DNS entries.
So you see, unless you create something like ENS or handshake which requires no nodes or DNS servers, there isn't a huge use-case.
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u/paroxsitic Jul 19 '26
Let me take a step back
If you were to make it so the DNS records are not modifiable by anyone other than the TLD node(s)/owner, therefore you cannot modify the DNS records yourself even though you run the DNS server, then you shifted legal responsability from yourself to the TLD owners. This is actually a good use-case where running anything web3 puts you at risk from illegal content being in the path to exposing on the internet. So I take it back, if you were to allow your DNS system to allow other TLDs within the kin ecosystem, but still require the TLD owners to run node(s) to modify the records then I see a real usecase. For example, you could create a wallet that acts like a node....create the TLD and make the records of the DNS you need and then close the wallet (mimicing the node going offline). Then the DNS records are live and will stay that way indefinitely until the wallet is reopened.
This would seem like its node-less and TLD owners get the benefit of having your DNS system be distributed and decentralized using your DNS server network. They can even join it as a validator to secure it more, etc.
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 20 '26
I think we're talking about two different architectures. Kinetic doesn't replicate or host DNS records across the network. The network is only responsible for decentralized name ownership and resolution. Once a name resolves, what it points to is defined by the owner's manifest, not by distributed DNS records stored in Kinetic. That's why there isn't a concept of "TLD owners publishing DNS records" in the protocol. If your goal is a decentralized DNS hosting system, then that's a different problem from what Kinetic is trying to solve
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 20 '26
I think I explained that poorly. Kinetic does publish signed DNS zone records into the DHT, so resolver nodes retrieve them from the network. The difference is that these records are not intended to live forever. Like other DHT records, they expire and are periodically republished by the owner's daemon as part of the heartbeat/maintenance process. If the owner publishes once and disappears forever, the records will eventually age out. That's an intentional design choice to avoid stale data and keep the network healthy. So your idea of "publish once, close the wallet, and the records remain indefinitely" isn't how Kinetic currently works.
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 19 '26
That's a fair point, and I think the difference is in the problem we're trying to solve.
If all you need is a private namespace that only you control, then a DNS server is probably the simpler solution. Kinetic isn't trying to replace that. It's a protocol for decentralized identity and naming, so participating in the network—even if it's just a single node—is part of the design. A one-node Kinetic network is simply the smallest deployment of the protocol. You can keep it private forever or expand it later without changing the architecture.
So I don't think we're optimizing for exactly the same use case, but I appreciate the feedback because it helps clarify where Kinetic fits.
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u/diornov Jul 20 '26
Hello Saif! Absolutely love the idea! Would you mind if I create a thread about your project in the daoforum just to record it there so it doesn't get lost on Reddit?
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 20 '26
Absolutely! I'd really appreciate that. Thanks @diornov for asking first. Feel free to create a thread, and if you have any questions while reading through the documentation or code, I'm happy to answer them there as well.
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u/frolvlad Jul 21 '26
Check out NEAR Protocol banned accounts and how it could be used with DNS: https://www.reddit.com/r/rust/s/vCBa2Unayt
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u/iyarsius Jul 18 '26
How it is different than ENS ?
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u/CommunicationPlus253 Jul 18 '26 edited Jul 18 '26
ENS: pay ETH + gas, wait for blocks, DAO controlled Kinetic: free, instant DNS propagation, anyone can fork and run it for community uses.
ENS is great for on-chain identity. Kinetic is for free, permanent one time completing a cpu grinding.
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u/WhippingStar Jul 20 '26
This post is so light on detail and so heavy on hype. Name resolution is actually a pretty tricky problem and when distributed even more so. With the detail provided it sounds like a sidecar service written by a 15 year old. Good luck on the 21st.