Hybrid Peer-to-Peer DNS

Domain censorship has escalated quickly over time, as have Distributed Denial of Service attacks on the Internet. The Domain Name System (DNS) currently in use has small number of root servers which have full control of the domains. By controlling these servers or access to these servers, one can censor or impersonate parts of the Internet. We propose an open DNS that uses a Peer-to-Peer (P2P) network to store and distribute the records. Anyone can join the network and use and provide Distributed Zone Files (DZFs). DZFs are signed with private keys, allowing for multiple Zone Files for each domain, and giving the end user the choice of which keys, if any, to trust. However building a DNS purely based on a P2P network, incurs some overhead. The response times for queries are in the order of 10 to 20 times greater than when using the current DNS, as such the system provides users with a way to circumvent around censored domains, while still being able to use current DNS, for domains that are not censored, keeping response times low for non censored domains, and acceptable for censored domains.