Argus � the BNS public gateway (navigate.st) and its library layer. Serves BCNR names over HTTPS, verifies signed records, mints TLDs.
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Local Dev 9aa8b6b33f covenants: the subscription and the delivery escrow, on one shared base (draft)
The roadmap asks for the covenant capability to be built once and used three
times. covenant.js is the shared part: artifact to bytecode, redeem script and
lock, signing a covenant input, an unlocking script for any function, and
assembling a transaction around covenant inputs. The registry library now
sits on it, and so do the two new contracts.

Subscription: the buyer funds a balance. Anyone may send one period's price
to the host once per period, the rest going back to the same script; the
buyer may take the balance back at any time with only their signature. A
draw spends its input alone, because with two inputs one payment and one
return could satisfy both and the host would keep a balance.

Delivery escrow: a payment that can be collected only by the transaction
that mints the agreed certificate to the buyer and publishes the agreed
registration, or refunded by the buyer after a wait. It forbids any other
token in the transaction: resolvers accept an update from any token of a
name's category, so a deliverer who minted a second one alongside the
certificate could later rewrite the buyer's name. It also sits at a fixed
input, so two payments cannot be collected against one certificate.

Neither can see the registry: an escrow cannot know the name was taken
between payment and delivery. The contract says so.

Drafts, not reviewed. The tests run every path in the VM under the 2025 and
2026 rules and count that the VM itself refused the tampered ones.
2026-10-04 16:08:10 +02:00
contracts covenants: the subscription and the delivery escrow, on one shared base (draft) 2026-10-04 16:08:10 +02:00
setup Ariadne: keep the resolver running on battery 2026-10-03 13:08:13 +02:00
src covenants: the subscription and the delivery escrow, on one shared base (draft) 2026-10-04 16:08:10 +02:00
test covenants: the subscription and the delivery escrow, on one shared base (draft) 2026-10-04 16:08:10 +02:00
.gitignore Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
ariadne.config.json BNS: per-TLD on-chain registry, multi-beacon indexer, enforcement gate 2026-08-29 17:11:02 +02:00
BROWSER-PROMPT.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
build-web.mjs Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
DESIGN-collision-modes.md Resolver 3438d558: ASCII-clean install.ps1 + multi-TLD NRPT + VPS-first electrum 2026-07-31 23:09:23 +02:00
DESIGN-hosting-pact.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
DESIGN-root-tld-cert.md Collision modes (BCNR/ICANN) + root TLD cert + VPS electrum-source indexer 2026-08-02 11:39:00 +02:00
ENGINE.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
LICENSE Licenses: MPL-2.0 for Theseus, Ariadne and Hephaestus; Apache-2.0 for Argus; CC BY 4.0 for the documents 2026-09-29 00:18:00 +02:00
namespaces.pdf Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
OPERATIONS-electrum.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
package-lock.json BNS: per-TLD on-chain registry, multi-beacon indexer, enforcement gate 2026-08-29 17:11:02 +02:00
package.json Licenses: MPL-2.0 for Theseus, Ariadne and Hephaestus; Apache-2.0 for Argus; CC BY 4.0 for the documents 2026-09-29 00:18:00 +02:00
PROTOCOL.md bns: the blocklist consumer, shipped with an empty list 2026-10-04 02:32:58 +02:00
README.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
ROADMAP.md Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00
sia-test.html Initial commit — Silent Mode baseline (2026-07-29) 2026-07-29 13:54:34 +02:00

BNS — Namecoin-style decentralized names on Bitcoin Cash (chipnet)

A working prototype of "Option 3": names are CashTokens name certificates on the BCH chain (no fork, no sidechain), records ride in OP_RETURN, discovery via a beacon address, and the resolver is embedded in a wallet app with a built-in browser pane — the Brave/MetaMask-browser architecture in miniature.

See PROTOCOL.md for the on-chain design and its honest limitations.

Layout

  • src/lib/bns.js — protocol core: payload codec, chain indexer/resolver, tx builders
  • src/wallet-app.js — wallet + embedded resolver + browser UI (npm run wallet → http://localhost:4626)
  • src/register.js / src/update.js / src/resolve.js — CLI equivalents
  • wallets.json — chipnet seed phrases (TESTNET ONLY — never reuse for real funds)
  • src/lib/gen-wallets.js — one-time wallet generation (already run)

Setup

  1. npm install
  2. Fund the wallet with free chipnet tBCH: go to https://tbch.googol.cash/, paste the wallet address (shown in the app sidebar or by node src/lib/gen-wallets.js), pick chipnet, solve the captcha. ~0.001 tBCH funds hundreds of registrations.
  3. npm run wallet and open http://localhost:4626

Standalone resolver daemon (make EVERY browser resolve .bch)

  • src/daemon/bnsd.js — DNS server (answers *.bch from the chain, forwards everything else upstream) + HTTP gateway that serves on-chain sites by Host header. Test unprivileged: node src/daemon/bnsd.js --dns-port 5354 --http-port 8081, then node src/daemon/dig.js hello.bch.
  • setup/install.ps1 — run from an elevated PowerShell. Installs the daemon as a boot-time scheduled task (SYSTEM, auto-restart) and wires the OS to it:
    • default (-Mode nrpt): adds an NRPT rule so only .bch queries reach the daemon; all other DNS is untouched.
    • -Mode full: points every adapter's DNS at 127.0.0.1 (daemon forwards non-.bch upstream, ncdns-style); original servers are saved and restored on uninstall.
  • setup/uninstall.ps1 — reverses everything (rule/adapters/task).

HTTPS for .bch: the "BNS Local Root CA" (created on demand in ca/, keep root-ca.key private) signs per-name certs. The daemon's :443 gateway mints them on the fly for locally-served names; node src/lib/issue-cert.js <name> issues one for a real server (see the coinspectrum.bch nginx vhost). The installer trusts the root machine-wide and enables Firefox's enterprise-roots policy; cert fingerprints are published in "tls" chain records for pinning.

Caveats: browsers with "secure DNS" (DoH) enabled bypass the OS resolver — disable it or add an exception; ports 53/80/443 must be free.

Try it

  • Register hello with inline HTML (a website stored entirely on-chain), then type hello.bch in the address bar — the app resolves it from the blockchain (not DNS) and renders it.
  • Or CLI: node src/register.js hello '{"h":"<h1>Served from the BCH chain</h1>"}' then node src/resolve.js hello