What is Kinetic?

Kinetic is an innovative decentralized naming protocol developed in Rust, which aims to redefine the domain registration landscape. By leveraging Verifiable Delay Functions (VDFs), Kinetic makes the registration of names computationally intensive rather than financially burdensome. This project is currently in active development and should be viewed as experimental.

The Vision Behind Kinetic

The inception of Kinetic stemmed from a realization during the creation of Antimatter. Despite a fully decentralized core, the application’s reliance on traditional domains for peer-to-peer connections raised questions about the future of naming systems. Kinetic seeks to answer whether it is possible to navigate away from centralized registrars and expensive blockchain tokens for identity management.

Watch the 50-node Kinetic Network live simulation in action

Current Development Status

Kinetic is actively evolving and currently supports the following functionalities:

• Register .kin names
• Resolve .kin domains
• Operate a native daemon
• Utilize a browser extension
• Access a mobile client
• Conduct local simulations

Ongoing developments include improvements to the economic model, distributed content hosting, and a native desktop application.

Key Features

• No blockchain dependency: Kinetic eliminates transactions such as gas fees, token costs, and renewal expenses.
• VDF Proof-of-Time: Names are protected against front-running and theft using Chia's proof technique, ensuring secure domain claims.
• Kademlia Distributed Hash Table (DHT): A robust DHT that effectively manages conflicts and avoids data corruption.
• Split-DNS System: The protocol seamlessly intercepts .kin queries at the operating system level, ensuring uninterrupted standard internet access.
• Mobile Delegation Capabilities: Mobile devices securely manage user keys while delegating heavy computational tasks to desktop setups through Nostr (NIP-04).

Claiming Your Name

Kinetic employs a Two-Phase Commit/Reveal Protocol to secure domain claims:

1. The Commit Phase

Initiate the registration process using the command line:

kinetic-cli register myname.kin

This command engages the VDF calculation using secure randomness from the global drand beacon. The computational workload may vary based on the name length, potentially engaging a CPU core for extended periods.

2. Configure Your Zone

A generated template file will be available for editing within your configuration directory:

{
  "name": "myname.kin.",
  "target_kid": "did:kin:kid1abc9f7...",
  "vdf_proof": "..."
}

3. The Reveal Phase

Once configured, publish your domain with:

kinetic-cli publish myname.kin

Your domain will now be accessible globally through Kinetic-enabled devices as http://myname.kin.

Comprehensive Documentation

For detailed guidance and comprehensive understanding of the Kinetic protocol, visit the official documentation at https://kinetic.saifmukhtar.dev. Key areas include:

• Protocol Specification v2
• Network Layer Architecture
• Kinetic Adversarial Analysis

Simulation Environment

Kinetic also offers a 50-node local simulation environment, facilitating testing and exploration of protocol behaviors under real-world networking conditions. It includes:

• 10 DHT Nodes
• 6 CDN Hosts
• 34 AI-Driven User Daemons

For additional details, refer to the kinetic-sim/ folder.

Acknowledgments

Kinetic builds upon significant research from the following open-source initiatives:

• rust-libp2p: Forms the backbone of the Kinetic P2P network.
• Chia Network (VDFs): Implements Verifiable Delay Functions essential for domain security.
• drand: Provides a distributed randomness source crucial for the protocol’s integrity.
• Sled: An embedded key-value store utilized for local state management.
• Nostr (NIP-04): Supports encrypted messaging for mobile computing tasks.