Editing Ends and Means (section)

====Distributed Global Names====

There is a classic problem in network theory, commonly referred to as [[Zooko's Triangle]]. It states that, at best, a name can have two of the three following characteristics: secure, distributed, and meaningful to humans. Names that are globally unique and not controlled by a central authority generally end up being ugly strings of bits, such as IP addresses or [[|Tor|.onion addresses]].

 
The existing solution to this problem is the widespread use of names that are secure and meaningful, but controlled by a central authority. This system is called the [[Domain Name System]], or DNS, and is ultimately under the auspices of the United States Department of Commerce National Telecommunications and Information Administration - the [[NTIA]].


Yet, there is something new on the horizon, predicated upon a relatively new technology that is just reaching production-level maturity. The [[Distributed Hash Table]] is a mechanism for storing a set of key-value pairs across many separate machines. By itself, it does not solve the problem of Zooko's Triangle, but were it to be coupled with a mechanisms for [[Pet Names|pet-naming]] and [[access control]], it could form the basis of a human-usable, globally distributed naming system. Such a naming system would help devices such as the FreedomBox find one another, regardless of ISP policy. It would also allow for seamless integration between material and logical forms of peer-to-peer communication.