Some big changes are afoot in the domain registrar industry. With registrars being able to shut sites down due to piracy concerns, some people have been looking for ways to prevent this from happening. Njalla is a new service launched by the founder of the Pirate Bay. The service accepts many different types of cryptocurrency payments in return for providing site owners with full anonymity.
Njalla is an Intriguing Project
One thing most people do not like about registering domain names is how it can expose their personal information. Even with WhoisGuard active, users must still provide their identities to the registrar. While people who run perfectly legitimate websites have nothing to worry about in this regard, other people may not be too keen on this aspect of the process. Coming up with a fully anonymous domain registration service is not an easy feat, though.
Pirate Bay founder Peter Sunde introduced such a service in April of this year. Although this news went by largely unnoticed, Njalla can be a great service for specific people. Site owners will enjoy full anonymity when reigstering a domain name. This should shield them from scrutiny by governments and even law enforcement. The service brings much-needed competition to the domain registrar privacy industry. Some companies already provide such services, but there is always room for new players.
Njalla is not just a service for people who have illegal activities in mind for their domain, however. The privacy aspect of this service is excellent news for anyone in the world looking to set up a website of any kind. While most people have no problem sharing their personal information with a registrar, it also opens the door for future harassment and whatnot. That is not something anyone should look forward to.
Njalla allows users to protect their identities from prying eyes. Domain names are kept fully private, even though clients do not buy the domain names themselves. Instead, the company does it on their behalf. Consider it an extra layer of identity protection if you will, even though it also requires a lot more trust. That trust may not be given easily, but Sunde acknowledges his service is not for everybody until it has built up a more solid reputation.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Njalla is how it accepts a wide range of payment methods. PayPal is one option, which was to be expected. A lot of users will prefer to stick to traditional payment solutions even when those payment systems fully expose their identities and financial details. It is the other payment methods which piqued our attention. Njalla accepts four different types of cryptocurrency with varying levels of privacy and anonymity under the hood.
Among these payment options are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Monero, and Dash. As the recent BlockSci paper shows, tracing transactions through Bitcoin, Litecoin, and even Dash is certainly possible with a bit of effort. Monero is the only solution not susceptible to thorough blockchain analysis right now, although that situation may change in the future. It is good to see cryptocurrency payment support from newer services such as Njalla. This goes to show Bitcoin and altcoins will not go away anytime soon, regardless of what some media outlets may want to make you believe.
