Namecoin abandoned, startup Onename turns to Bitcoin blockchain

At the 2015 Blockstack Summit on September 12, the startup Onename made a major decision. Its co-founder Muneeb Ali said in his speech that the Namecoin network is no longer decentralized, and the Shenyu mining group controls 60%-70% of the Namecoin computing power. For this reason, Onename decided to abandon the Namecoin blockchain and switch to the Bitcoin blockchain.

Go to the strongest blockchain to share the spoils

Ali revealed the information to a crowd at the Blockstack Summit, explaining that the company will be switching the Onename project and its “32,000 applications” from Namecoin to Bitcoin.

Onename, as a tool, has used the Namecoin blockchain to work on the decentralized identity system (DIS). It takes a unique approach to creating a 'name' or unique profile for your online blockchain-verified identity. The open source identity provider, which started the project in March 2014, is able to create a name that replaces the binary number or Bitcoin address solution.

In November 2014, the company announced that it had completed a seed round of financing from Union Square Ventures. At that time, the company admitted that it would be a difficult task to get developers to support Onename's project through the Namecoin blockchain.

However, the main reason is the Chinese mining giant Shenyu, which currently controls most of the computing power of Domain Name Coin.

Ali’s partner Ryan Shea explained:

“Just one mining pool controls 67% of Namecoin’s computing power. Namecoin is no longer decentralized and it has become unsafe.”

Many members of the Onename community were ecstatic and posted the news on Twitter and Reddit. One Reddit user commented: “Go to the strongest blockchain and share the spoils.”

Namecoin is not safe

Namecoin, a blockchain-based Domain Name System (DNS), is one of the oldest altcoins launched in 2010. The team behind the coin envisioned operating a simple decentralized interface as a human-readable naming system. Unfortunately, Muneeb Ali and his team believe that Namecoin’s blockchain is already insecure.

Ali said:

“Namecoin deserves full recognition for solving the blockchain naming problem, but in the long run, you need the most secure blockchain.”

Of course, there are different opinions in the Domain Name Coin community. Some members believe that the mining problem is not a big problem. Nevertheless, the Onename team believes that the Domain Name Coin blockchain has lacked resistance.

Ali also added that the company will release more detailed information about this news starting next week. So far, the founder of Namecoin has not made any comments.

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