Choose a name

Your node's ID is 39 characters long. A name is a short one, such as alice, that the network holds for your node, so people can pay you at $alice.dassiepay.net.

What a name is for

A name helps a node without a domain name of its own, such as the desktop app. Such a node is reached through Dassie's front door, at <node ID>.dassiepay.net, and the names it holds reach it there too, at <name>.dassiepay.net. Your name without a domain explains how the front door reaches your node.

A node with its own domain answers only under that domain, so a name adds nothing to it.

The front door reaches your node over a connection your node keeps to it, as its relay. A node without a domain name keeps one by default, so its names work with nothing to set. If you name another relay, or none, the front door can't reach your node, and its names there reach no one.

The network's bootstrap nodes keep the names, as its registrars. A name is yours when enough of them list it for your node, and nobody else can take it from you while you keep it.

Names run on the testnet only, where they are free, and may be reset at any time.

Registration fees are not there yet, and names come to the live network only with them. What's next

Later, testnet names move to <name>.test.dassiepay.net, so that dassiepay.net is left for the live network. What's next

Register a name

1. Open Names.
2. Under Register a Name, type the name and choose Register.
3. Wait about an hour. The name shows under Your names while the registrars handle it, and says yours once they grant it.

A name has:

• 3 to 32 characters: lowercase letters, digits and hyphens;
• no hyphen at its start or end, and no two hyphens in its third and fourth places;
• none of the reserved words, such as admin, dassie, pay or wallet.

Your node checks the name and says why it refuses one. It also refuses a name someone already holds. One node holds a few names at most, counting those on their way.

How a registration goes

So that nobody can see the name you want and take it first, your node commits to it sealed at every registrar, and tells them the name only once each has logged the commitment. Whoever committed first gets the name, once every registrar's window for it has closed. The badge on each name says where it stands:

A registrar that is down or refuses stops a registration before any registrar learns the name. Your node then gives up, and you can try again later.

Each registrar's view

Under each name, the page lists every registrar by its node ID, with what it did:

• logged the commitment, then took the unsealing: it has your registration;
• lists it for you, with the expiry it gives;
• lists another node: it gives the name to someone else;
• busy, asking again or full, asking again: your node tries again by itself;
• refused: it will not take this registration;
• its list is not current: your node has not read its list lately.

When too few of the registrars' lists are current, the page warns that they are not, and your node keeps the holders it last knew, so a registrar that goes down does not take your name away.

Your node takes the testnet's five bootstrap nodes as its registrars, as it is built to. One whose DASSIE_BOOTSTRAP_NODES names none has no registrars, and registers no names.

Keeping your name

A name is held for a year at a time. Your node renews it by itself in the last month before it expires, and keeps renewing for as long as it runs. If it was offline too long, the name stays yours alone for a month after it expired, and your node renews it when it is back.

Renew now asks at once. A registrar renews a name only once its expiry is near, so earlier it answers with the expiry the name has.

Your names belong to your node ID, which comes from your recovery phrase. A node you bring back with the same phrase holds them again: see Back up your phrase.

Why it works this way: why the earliest commitment wins, and why every registrar must log it. Names and addresses explains it in plain words.