Hi folks, to give a little update, we are actively working on the custom domains feature.
What I mean here by “Custom Domains” is that, you will be able to configure a DNS name to point to a canister without having to host a custom service worker as described here.
The way it will work is that a developer can set their DNS name to point to the boundary nodes. Boundary nodes will generate an SSL certificate (through the letsencrypt DNS challenge) and maintain a mapping of name to canister so they know how to route traffic.
While this is not as decentralized as we would like (because the DNS record could be changed by the owner to point somewhere else) it is not worse than the solution above. On the other hand, it has the advantage of lowering the barrier to entry because:
- Infrastructure to serve the service worker is not required.
- maintaining a custom version of the service worker is not required.
This is a first step and IMO will help inform a design for more decentralized naming. Of course we’re open to suggestions from the community and I’d be happy to setup time to chat and hear out some ideas.