$1.34
Namecoin Price | $1.34 |
24h High / 24h Low | $1.23 / $1.35 |
Trading Volume | $14,009.19 |
Price Change (24h) | $0.10 |
Price Change Percentage (24h) | 8.359% |
All-Time High | $13.11 |
All-Time Low | $0.00 |
Namecoin (NMC) is the first fork of Bitcoin (2011) that pioneered decentralized domain name services—allowing censorship-resistant “.bit” registrations and also acts as a cryptocurrency. It extends Bitcoin’s UTXO model with a separate key-value namespace for storing and resolving human-readable names on-chain.
Created by Vincent Durham in 2011, Namecoin was inspired by the need to decentralize DNS and to add censorship resistance to web addressing.
Its built-in name registration system lets users register and update DNS-style records directly on the blockchain, no central registrar required.
Secured by Bitcoin-style Proof-of-Work (merged mining), where miners can concurrently mine both Bitcoin and Namecoin blocks, leveraging Bitcoin’s hashpower to protect Namecoin’s blockchain against 51% attacks.
Acts as a decentralized naming and identity layer, underpinning “.bit” domains, key-value data stores, and identity schemes that prioritize censorship resistance and self-sovereignty, while also functioning as a medium of exchange.
Protocol upgrades occur via Namecoin Improvement Proposals (NIPs) and soft forks, often activated when miner consensus is reached.
As an open-source community project, there is no corporate treasur. Major NMC holdings reside with early adopters, miners running merged-mining rigs, and long-time community stakeholders.