Providing better confidentiality and authentication on the Internet using Namecoin and MinimaLT

TL;DR

This paper proposes improvements to Internet security by replacing DNS with Namecoin and developing MinimaLT, a lightweight, secure transport layer to enhance confidentiality and authentication.

Contribution

It introduces a blockchain-based DNS alternative and a new transport protocol to address security flaws and reduce overhead in Internet communications.

Findings

Namecoin provides a decentralized DNS alternative.

MinimaLT reduces TLS overhead and improves security.

Proposed solutions are compatible with current Internet infrastructure.

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce a duo of improvements for the Internet that would lead to better security. The authentication model on the Internet is broken and TLS connections have a considerable overhead. We try to address those issues with changes in both the application layer, discussing a replacement for the DNS system, and in the transport layer, a drop-in replacement for TCP built on top of UDP so that it can run on today's internet infrastructure.