IP address filtering in DeFi crypto - possible limitations for ENS?

There are now several DeFi platforms which are limiting access via IP address blocks.

Can we can get assurance from ENS that domain registrations and management will not be limited via such methods, even under Government attempts to shut down non-centrally controlled crypto systems?

You dont need assurance. https://app.ens.domains is just a webui for the backend decentralized censorship-resistant unstoppable contracts. https://etherscan.io/address/0x283Af0B28c62C092C9727F1Ee09c02CA627EB7F5#writeContract

that said, it would be neat to have the manager using tor or ipfs. That is a great idea for a proposal. Iā€™d support that!

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The webui runs on a server in IPv4 space behind Cloudflare. Itā€™s a typical server, just like any other server. The web server running in IPv4 space could absolutely be configured to require a specific IP address block in order to perform any action.

The contract itself can be utilized by any Ethereum address. Thatā€™s trueā€¦ but ENS usage largely depends on having relative easy access to domain purchase and configuration. Furthermore, the ENS Constitution and voting system both refer to and rely on fees collected and web servers running applications in IPv4 space.

Itā€™s not difficult to imagine large portions of IPv4 space being limited on the official ENS manager due to regulations or threatened regulations.

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hence my last point :smiley: (ipfs / .tor onion routing site)

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Iā€™ve raised the Cloudflare issue before and Nick responded. I wish I could recall the exact response but, if memory serves, it was that Cloudflareā€™s role is just one method of accessing ENS. Should Cloudflare turn evil (and Cloudflare does have a history of censorship) there are alternative means of access.

I fully agree that a move to ipfs for the front end would be welcome.

We (True Names) certainly wonā€™t promise that we will break the law if compelled to apply some kind of limitation. The point of ENS is that itā€™s a distributed service, though - anyone can fork our code on github and run their own front end, and the contracts will soon be under the control of the DAO.

Iā€™m certainly not requesting anyone to ā€œbreakā€ any laws. Iā€™m simply concerned that possible limitations on purchasing or modifying ENS domains might be enacted without the force of actual law in placeā€¦ but just the threat of force of law or fear of ENS being shut down if limitations are not put in place.

Will the DAO expend funds to defend the legal use of ENS if, for example, the SEC declares that ENS domains are taxable property and government recognized identity documentation needs to be supplied before purchase or sale?

Will there be a push back by DAO on possible future government intrusion into the contract execution or PII collected data?

Will the ENS community be alerted to unavoidable conflicts or changes to the contracts or ENS manager platform due to such government intrusion?

And something about a Warrant Canary?

I think the easiest solution would be to deploy the front end on ipfs and creating a proposal to create a subdomain, something such as ā€˜ipfs-app.ens.ethā€™ to point to that ipfs address. It is limiting as by default browsers will not be able to accomodate that, but if a user requires it, they could set it up and access it that way.

This would be much simpler and easier than trying to setup legal funds and legal counsel to defend something which really cannot be stopped anyway. Why fight them when we can just go over, under, around them?

The front-end app could even be setup to run locally and distributed via torrent. The torrent information could even be stored as a text article on-chain, allowing a user to simply copy and paste the contents into a .torrent file and get access to the front end that way.

There are any number of ways to simply avoid confrontation here, and make the front-end (thats all weā€™re talkign about here, a front-end interface to the unstoppable ethereum contracts) available in any number of ways bypassing the ā€˜centralizedā€™ current front-end solution.

I really think this is a great idea. And, candidly, I think it is the best legal defense. The authorities wonā€™t even try if they think itā€™s pointless (because itā€™s decentralized).

The app is already on IPFS - https://ens.eth.link/ and https://ens.eth.limo/

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Yeah. Thatā€™s great, and sorry for the bother!