Handshake is a decentralized permissionless system that incentivizes a distributed network of computers to operate a system for domain name ownership.

Under Handshake, every peer validates and manages the root DNS naming zone, providing an alternative to current certificate authorities and naming systems.

Current systems rely on a centralized approach, making them vulnerable to cyber attacks and fraud.

Handshake aims to create a decentralized internet that relies on a peer-to-peer system.

Joseph Poon and Andrew Lee are the main co-founders of Handshake.

Lee co-founded Purse, one of the largest Bitcoin marketplaces, and Poon co-wrote the Plasma Papers in collaboration with Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum.

Other co-founders include Boyma Fahnbulleh and Christopher Jeffrey.

Handshake aims to decentralize the root zone and/or the top-level domains, rather than fully decentralizing the current DNS infrastructure.

It seeks to reduce dependence on the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and improve internet security through a decentralized application based on Proof-of-Work principles.

The maximum supply of Handshake coins is fixed at 2.04 billion, with approximately 355 million coins currently in circulation.

Handshake is secured using the unspent transaction output (UTXO) of the blockchain and follows the principles of proof-of-work (PoW) similar to Bitcoin.

The naming system includes on-chain smart contract features known as covenants, which limit the use of future transaction outputs.

Handshake is traded on more than a dozen exchanges, including Bittrex, Gate.io, BigOne, MXC.com, and ZB.com.

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