HIP-26: Decentralize domain name using ENS

HIP: 26
title: Decentralize domain names using ENS
author: @RoboTeddy @santisiri @JustinKalland
status: Phase 1
created: 2021-08-18
conflicts with: None
languages: EN

Simple Summary

This HIP would decentralize Proof of Humanity's user interface by migrating from the centralized https://proofofhumanity.id domain to a decentralized https://proofofhumanity.eth.link.

Abstract

Traditional domain names like those ending with .id are inherently centralized because they are controlled by whoever has the login to the domain registrar. We can increase decentralization by moving to an Ethereum Name Service .eth domain name owned by a multisig.

Motivation

Decentralizing Proof of Humanity's user interface would increase credible neutrality and legitimacy in a way that would cause talented community members to commit full-time to greatly improving the protocol and user interface so that registration becomes fast, cheap, secure, and widespread. This is incredibly important for the future of Proof of Humanity.

Specification

• Create a 4-of-7 Gnosis multisig of trusted community members: Justin, Clement, Santi, Humberto, Rocío, Ted, and Mads.
• Transfer ownership of proofofhumanity.eth (current owner: Santi) and poh.eth (current owner: Clement) to the multisig
• Reimburse the people who registered the ENS names using DAO funds
• The multisig delegates ENS management rights, and the delagatee sets up proofofhumanity.eth.link to point to the current UI servers.
• We redirect https://proofofhumanity.id to https://proofofhumanity.eth.link
  • The entity that owns proofofhumanity.id signs a contract stating that they will redirect to proofofhumanity.eth.link unless instructed otherwise by a later HIP

Alternatives considered

• Multiple user interfaces: We could just have multiple user interfaces, some of which are decentralized and others of which are not. The trouble is that this would slow down development tremendously because all protocol updates would require coordinating engineering and migration efforts across multiple user interfaces. We may want multiple UIs ultimately, but probably not yet!
• Ownership of ENS names by the PoH DAO: We could give control of the ENS names to the DAO instead of a multisig, but the DAO's decisions are implemented by the Governer, which is currently a point of centralization due to the concentration of PNK. The Kleros courts are great for ajudicating registration disputes, but the point of this HIP is to help decentralize the project itself.
• Control of ENS names by direct on-chain voting: the ecosystem isn't quite mature enough for this — we'd have to be concerned with "takeover" attacks where a temporarily-successful sybil attack takes over the ENS name and then can fraudulently increase its registrations even further.

Additional notes

• Once .eth becomes a full gTLD, we can drop the .link suffix and people can just go directly to https://proofofhumanity.eth.
• Voluntary participation from the owners of proofofhumanity.eth, poh.eth, proofofhumanity.id would be necessary to implement this HIP.
• If anyone listed as member of the ENS multisig in this draft would prefer not to participate, we can find a replacement for them prior to HIP Phase II. But being nominated as part of this draft is a vote of confidence and trust from the community, and the authors hope you accept!