What Is the Handshake Protocol?
Every person has a name.
It is given to us at birth, used throughout our lives and often becomes part of our professional identity.
Names are how we identify one another.
The internet works with names too.
For most of its history, those names have existed within a system where extensions such as .com, .net and .org sit at the top, with other names registered beneath them.
Handshake takes a different approach.
An Open Naming Protocol
Handshake is a decentralised naming protocol designed to allow people to register and own names directly at the top level of the Handshake naming system.
Instead of every name needing to sit beneath an existing extension, Handshake allows the name itself to become the extension.
That opens the door to names such as:
.wallet
.handshake
.🐨
.🦘
.🎯
These names can then become namespaces of their own.
If you own the top level name, you can decide what is created underneath it.
Two Different Approaches
The traditional Domain Name System has served the internet for decades and continues to play an important role.
Handshake is not about pretending that system does not work.
It shows that naming can also be approached differently.
One where participation can be more open, permissionless and directly controlled by the person who owns the name.
There does not have to be only one way to name things online.
A Name Is Something We All Understand
Perhaps the easiest way to understand Handshake is to forget about the technology for a moment and think about names themselves.
We use names every day.
People have names.
Businesses have names.
Products have names.
Places have names.
Names allow us to distinguish one thing from another.
As more of our lives move online, naming becomes even more important.
That may become even more relevant as AI agents begin interacting online on behalf of people and businesses. They too will need reliable ways to be identified, discovered and verified.
Handshake asks a relatively simple question:
Why should the ability to create and own a name at the top level be limited to a small number of organisations?
The protocol provides another option.
A naming system where people can participate directly, own their names and build beneath them.
That is what makes Handshake interesting.
It is not simply about creating more domain extensions.
It is about reconsidering who gets to create, control and own a name.
Own The Name | Own The Rules | Own The Dot