.dns

Nepal Internet Foundation (NIF) is a research and development forum that is working to address access and infrastructural issues with Internet connectivity. In alignment with NIF’s vision for a society where the people are empowered by the use of the Internet and each individual regardless of the country, location, language, age or income, the .dns gTLD will be an open general-purpose domain connecting the world. In the context of gTLDs, the meaning of DNS is well understood to stand for Domain Name System/Service/Server. There are other Internet slang usages of “DNS”, such as being a shortform of “Did Not Show” or “Do Not Sell” which would add diversity to the utilization of the .dns gTLD. Nevertheless, we think that the .dns gTLD could be meaningfully utilized by the technical community, the DNS community to be more precise. For example in operating DNS servers, resolvers or other aspects of the DNS related infrastructure. With AI, robotics, and the rapidly developing Agentic networks, the importance for the DNS to remain the core unique identifier system for an open and interoperable Internet is immense, which both carries promise for the adoption of the .dns domain, as well as aligns with NIF’s main objective of contributing towards the transformation of the society to overcome the challenges of digitalization. As a gTLD, the .dns domain intends to be open for registration from any individual, organization, community group, AI system, system administrators, network or initiative. While “dns” describes a part of the Internet infrastructure, it does not present itself as a problematic string because every registered domain is obviously related to and in the DNS, and the average user is unlikely to confer undue trust upon a domain with a .dns TLD. In terms of Name Collision risk, there is no known widespread usage of systems or applications that use the “.dns” TLD for internal or private usage. In accordance with the Impact Based High-risk String Classification Model, .dns would not cause impact on public safety nor public confidence, not only because there are no known system that uses .dns as a private TLD, it is unlikely to be chosen as one because it would not have served the purpose like .home or .corp would have, because the intent for setting up those private names are that they meant something to users who are unfamiliar with the DNS (hence “.dns” is unlikely to be chosen because it is not something that non-technical users, or users that are unfamiliar with the DNS, would relate to, and technical users would simply have used .local). This further explains why we believe that incidental uses of the .dns gTLD should not cause concerns, that is, if registrants would like to utilize a .dns domain for “Did Not Start” or “Digital Nervous System” or in even more creative ways, it should not cause any inherent harm not already related to other DNS abuses.

The mission of .DNS is to provide an accessible namespace for individuals, businesses, organizations, communities, projects, and other entities that identify with or wish to be associated with the term DNS. The purpose of .DNS is to enable registrants to establish distinctive online identities through domain names that reflect the concept represented by the applied-for string. To achieve this purpose, SUFFIX INC. will make .DNS available for registration through accredited registrars and other appropriate distribution channels; maintain secure, stable, and reliable registry infrastructure; implement registration and operational policies that support the availability, security, and integrity of the namespace; and provide ongoing administration of the gTLD to enable registrants to register and use domain names within the namespace. The purpose of .DNS is sustainable over time because "DNS" is a broadly recognized acronym and expression with enduring relevance across technical, commercial, organizational, and cultural contexts. It is commonly associated with internet systems, network services, digital frameworks, and diverse medical and logistics fields, while remaining flexible enough to serve new forms of expressive activity as society, technology, and methods of communication evolve.