Brave Crypto DNS Strategy

Brave, as part of our mission to make crypto accessible and usable to all, is integrating several blockchain-based DNS providers (hereafter, crypto-DNS providers). We prefer this over simply waiting for centralized DNS providers to add options on their end (via DoH). Our goal is to include top crypto-DNS providers without name service conflicts, to maximize user control and choice.

We currently support .eth and .crypto top-level domains (TLDs) through ENS and our Unstoppable Domains integration, respectively, and we are in active conversations with other crypto-DNS providers to integrate their solutions within Brave. 

Brave users on desktop and Android (iOS is forthcoming) are able to access crypto domain names through the URL bar, and can use such names in the native crypto wallet on desktop. In the near future Brave users will be able to use these crypto domains in the native crypto wallet on iOS and Android that we are building as a part of our BAT roadmap 2.0, to send crypto to an Ethereum address associated with the domain name. 

As we integrate these crypto-DNS providers, we commit to the following principles in resolving domain names:

1. Crypto-DNS providers shall be off by default for ICANN-reserved TLDs, and for the TLDs reserved by Brave (listed here). However, users who wish to can use crypto-DNS providers for ICANN TLDs too, by selecting the DNS provider they prefer in settings.
2. For conflict-free non-ICANN defaults, we will use the crypto-DNS provider associated with its TLD. So as mentioned above, for .eth domain names, we will use ENS, while for .crypto domain names we will use Unstoppable Domains.
3. In the future, if ICANN starts servicing a TLD that was previously serviced by a crypto-DNS provider we will default to ICANN. And in a scenario where ICANN migrates an existing domain and registrations of new subdomains to a crypto-DNS provider, we will make that provider be a default setting in Brave (which users can change) for the migrated domain.

Interstitial shown when attempting to navigate a crypto domain

User is able to configure their preferences from within brave://settings/extensions

If you have a crypto-DNS solution and are interested in working with Brave, or if you have any feedback or questions about our crypto-DNS strategy, please feel free to reach out to us through one of these channels:

• Reddit
• Telegram
• Twitter
• Email
• Github